Steve Thurston (2021)
Jesse Rafferty is the assistant general manager of the Harris Bay Yacht Club on Lake George in Queensbury.
Responding to what it sees as a growing need, WSWHE BOCES will again offer a three-month Marine Technology program next year through its Employment Training for Adults division.
Data compiled by George Normandin of Normandin Marketing in Glens Falls and the Eastern New York Marine Trades Association indicates that upstate New York supports nearly 5,000 jobs in boating.
“We all have more work than we can handle,” said Matt O’Hara, owner of Freedom Boat Club Lake George and a board member of the trade association. “This program definitely fills a need. There is a real lack of skilled workers out there to keep boats serviced.”
O’Hara said boat sales in the last two years have been “huge,” further driving demand for skilled workers.
“Every boat that is sold needs 20 hours of service, needs to be winterized, needs spring commissioning,” he said. “There’s definitely more and more work out there, and we need people to do that work to keep boating season going.”
The prediction nationally says 30,000 jobs will open up in the marine industry in 2022 based on pre-pandemic statistics from 2016, 2017 and 2018. Those studies showed that the Hudson Valley, Capital Region and North Country had more than 100,000 registered boats. Statewide, New York registered more than 440,000 boats in 2019, according to the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Michelle Stockwell, Program Supervisor for the regional BOCES, said the jobs estimate comes from “so many more boats being purchased, the increased growth in the boating industry and the shortage of workers to work on all of these new boats.”
The second-year program is a collaboration among BOCES ETA division, Saratoga County Economic Corporation, Boat Upstate NY-Eastern New York Marine Trades Association and the Saratoga, Warren & Washington Workforce Development Board.
The program is limited to 10 students. Five students graduated last year.
Jesse Rafferty, 21, completed the first Marine Technology program earlier this year, and was hired almost immediately by Harris Bay Yacht Club, where he is assistant general manager, he said.
“It was a wonderful program,” he told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. “I grew up on the lake in Bolton, boating with my grandparents and my parents, and as soon as I could I bought my first boat. I’m on my third boat right now…and I had worked in the yard at Harris Bay for two seasons, hauling boats in and out.”
The 120-hour program prepares adult students for work as entry-level marine service technicians, and includes instruction in electrical and engine theory, seasonal boat preparation, safety, shrink wrapping and trailer repair and trailering.
Rafferty said he especially appreciated the focus on mechanical work in the Marine Technology program because “that’s an avenue of the industry that I didn’t have much experience in. But now, when folks drive seven hours from New Jersey with their boat and arrive at the marina and the boat isn’t working, I can help save their vacation. This class gave me the confidence to diagnose mechanical problems.”
Classes will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Southern Adirondack Education Center on Dix Avenue in Hudson Falls, and will run from Jan. 11 to March 31, 2022. Tuition is $2,495, and financial assistance is available for eligible students.
Stockwell said the Employment Training for Adults division offers more than 30 programs and hundreds of online courses. The most popular are Commercial Driver’s License, Welding and Machine Tool.
The mission of the regional BOCES is to provide educational programs and services that complement school districts and learning in their communities, their website says.