# Marina & Boatyard Model See how boat storage, services, fuel, and occupancy shape a marina's cash flow and value. - Canonical: https://finamodel.com/templates/marina - Excel download: https://finamodel.com/templates/marina.xlsx - Category: Hospitality - Model type: Operating model - Difficulty: Intermediate - Audiences: Investors & analysts, Founders & operators, Marina owners and operators, Waterfront and leisure investors, Infrastructure and PE buyers, Lenders and analysts - Tags: marina, boatyard, dry-stack, percentage-rent, dcf ## Overview This model helps you assess a marina or boatyard with wet slips, dry storage, fuel, repair services, and retail income. It brings boat demand and occupancy together with the labour, maintenance, and waterfront costs that define the business. Use it to test pricing, capacity, storm risk, financing, and lease terms before investing. The summary shows how those assumptions affect profitability, cash flow, and value. ## What's included - Berth inputs: Year-1 wet slips and dry stack racks, new slips and racks per year, average boat length, slip rate per linear foot, dry rack rate - Occupancy: Year-1 slip and rack occupancy with an annual ramp and per-estate ceilings - Fuel, service & retail: gallons per boat, retail pump price, technicians, billable hours per tech, shop labour rate, ship store spend per boat, price escalation - Gross margins: slip dockage, dry stack, fuel dock, service yard (parts-only) and ship store - Cost structure: harbourmaster, dockhand and technician wages with benefits and wage growth, slips per dockhand; marine insurance, dredging & dock maintenance, utilities, marketing and G&A as % of gross profit; depreciation (% of revenue) - Land lease & storm: minimum annual rent, percentage rent, storm probability and per-event severity - Tax: blended corporate rate on EBIT - Capital and working capital: maintenance capex %, slip and rack build cost, NWC % of revenue growth, base-year revenue - Valuation: WACC, terminal growth, net debt, shares outstanding - Operations sheet: wet slip and dry rack roll-forward, occupancy ramp, occupied berths, resident boats, fuel gallons, billable service hours, staff headcount, boats per FTE - Revenue sheet: slip dockage, dry stack storage, a dockage & storage subtotal, fuel dock, service yard, ship store & transient, a fuel/service/retail subtotal, total revenue - P&L sheet: revenue to net income with per-line COGS, the submerged land lease block, the opex stack, margins, the land-lease load, identity check - FCF sheet: NOPAT, depreciation add-back, maintenance and slip/rack build capex, change in NWC, unlevered FCF, discount factor, PV - Valuation sheet: sum of PV, terminal value, enterprise value, equity value, value per share, implied EV/EBITDA - Dashboard with slips, resident boats, occupancy, revenue per boat, EBITDA margin, the land-lease load, EV, per share, revenue mix and an earnings waterfall - P&L sheet: revenue to net income with per-line COGS, the submerged land lease block (minimum, percentage, payable), the opex stack, margins, the land-lease load, identity check ## Inside the Marina Financial Model: Capacity, Revenue, and Valuation This marina financial model template gives you a structured way to evaluate a full-service marina and boatyard. It connects two capacity estates—wet slips and dry stack racks—to a resident boat count, then to dockage, storage, fuel, service, and retail revenue. The model builds a P&L, unlevered free cash flow, and a DCF valuation. ### Operating Drivers: Capacity, Occupancy, and Demand The model begins with two independent capacity estates: wet slips and dry stack racks. Each rolls forward from a year-one count, adding new units annually to reach a closing capacity. - Occupancy for each estate starts at a year-one rate and ramps annually toward its own ceiling. Occupied slips and racks are calculated by multiplying closing capacity by occupancy. - Their sum gives the resident boat count, which is the key demand driver for fuel, service, and ship store revenue. ### Revenue and Cost Mechanics Revenue is built from five lines. Wet slip dockage multiplies occupied slips by average boat length and a rate per foot. - Dry stack storage multiplies occupied racks by a flat rack rate. Fuel revenue multiplies resident boats by gallons per boat and pump price. - Service revenue multiplies technician count by billable hours per tech and a labour rate. Ship store revenue multiplies resident boats by spend per boat. Each line has its own gross margin, producing a per-line cost of goods and gross profit. Operating expenses include headcount-driven labour, a storm loss provision, and overhead geared to gross profit. ### The Submerged Land Lease and Storm Provision Two distinctive costs are explicit. The land lease payable is the greater of a minimum annual rent and a percentage of gross revenue. - The model shows both helper rows and charges only the higher amount in opex. Early years often see the minimum bind, so incremental revenue drops to EBITDA; later, the percentage may take over. - Storm exposure is handled as a probability-weighted expected annual loss, charged as recurring opex. This reflects coastal asset risk without simulating events. ### Outputs and Valuation Flow The P&L flows from revenue through cost of goods, land lease, and operating expenses to EBITDA, then depreciation to EBIT, tax to net income. Free cash flow is NOPAT plus depreciation, less capital expenditures and changes in net working capital. - Capital expenditure includes maintenance plus new slip and rack builds. The DCF discounts explicit free cash flows at WACC and adds a Gordon-growth terminal value to derive enterprise value, then subtracts net debt for equity value and divides by shares for value per share. - A dashboard summarises key metrics. ## The submerged land lease is a greater-of percentage rent A marina does not own the water it sits on. The docks and basin are let from a state or municipal authority under a bottomland lease whose rent is the greater of a minimum annual rent and a percentage of gross revenue. The model computes both bases as visible helper rows and takes the maximum, so the crossover is explicit: the minimum binds while the marina is still filling and incremental revenue drops almost straight to EBITDA, then the percentage takes over as revenue scales and the landlord starts taking a slice of every marginal dollar. In the base case the minimum binds through Year 4 and the percentage takes over from Year 5, which the land-lease load on revenue makes visible as a headline KPI and a dashboard trend line. ## Two berth estates, five lines, and a margin spread that matters Wet slips and dry stack racks roll forward on independent build pipelines because they are different assets: a slip is priced per linear foot of the boat in it and costs far more to build than a flat-rate rack, yet both feed the same resident boat count that drives fuel and ship store volume. The margin spread across the five revenue lines is the story. Dockage is nearly all contribution at about eighty-eight percent, while the fuel dock clears only about twenty percent because wholesale rack cost is most of the pump price, making it a service to residents rather than a profit centre. Service yard margin is parts-only, since technician labour is charged as a headcount line in operating expenses rather than double-counted in cost of goods. ## Designed for one-edit responsiveness Every input, the slip and rack pipeline, average boat length and the per-foot rate card, the occupancy ramp, fuel and service volume, the per-line margins, the full cost stack, the land-lease minimum and percentage, the storm probability and severity, capex, working capital, and the WACC, is a named-range cell. Edit one and the operations build, revenue, P&L, free-cash-flow bridge, valuation, and dashboard all recompute. No formula rewrites are needed to test a dock expansion, a rate increase, a lease renegotiation, or a higher-storm-exposure basin. ## Workbook structure ### Cover Workbook overview, sheet legend, units, and tab-colour key. - Title and scope framing - Sheet-by-sheet purpose summary - Units and tab-colour legend ### Dashboard Headline KPIs, a seven-year summary, trend charts, and an earnings waterfall. - KPI cards for slips, resident boats, occupancy, revenue per boat, revenue and EBITDA - Land-lease load, EBITDA margin, enterprise value and value per share - Seven-year operating summary that feeds every chart - Trend grid plus a Revenue-to-Net-Income waterfall ### Assumptions Every driver in one sheet: berths, rates, occupancy, costs, land lease, storm, tax, valuation. - Year-1 wet slips and dry racks, new berths per year, average boat length, slip rate per foot, rack rate - Slip and rack occupancy with an annual ramp and per-estate ceilings - Gallons per boat, pump price, technicians, billable hours, labour rate, ship store spend, price escalation - Per-line gross margins; wages with benefits and growth; the percent-of-gross-profit overhead lines; depreciation - Minimum land rent, percentage rent, storm probability and severity, corporate tax rate - Maintenance capex, slip and rack build cost, NWC, base-year revenue - WACC, terminal growth, net debt, shares ### Operations Berth roll-forward, occupancy, the resident fleet, volume, and staff. - Opening plus new equals closing wet slips, and the same for dry stack racks - Occupancy ramps from a Year-1 input on each estate, capped at its own ceiling - Closing berths times occupancy gives occupied slips and occupied racks - Occupied slips plus occupied racks equal resident boats - Fuel gallons equal resident boats times gallons per boat - Billable hours equal technicians times hours per tech - Manager, dockhand and technician headcount, with boats per FTE as a productivity metric ### Revenue Five revenue lines across dockage, storage, fuel, service, and retail. - Slip dockage equals occupied slips times average boat length times the rate per foot - Dry stack storage equals occupied racks times the rack rate - Fuel dock equals gallons times the retail pump price - Service yard equals billable hours times the shop labour rate - Ship store equals resident boats times spend per boat - Dockage & storage and fuel/service/retail subtotals into total revenue ### P&L Revenue to net income with per-line COGS and the greater-of land lease. - Per-line cost of goods at one minus each line margin, into gross profit - Minimum rent and percentage rent as visible bases, land lease payable as the maximum - Manager, dockhand and technician labour, the land lease, the storm loss provision - Marine insurance, dredging, utilities, marketing and G&A geared to gross profit - EBITDA, depreciation, EBIT, corporate tax, net income - Margins, the land-lease load on revenue, and an identity check that resolves to zero ### FCF Unlevered free cash flow from EBIT to a discounted present value. - EBIT less unlevered tax equals NOPAT - Add back depreciation - Less maintenance capex and slip and rack build capex - Less the change in working capital off revenue growth - Unlevered FCF, discount factor and PV ### Valuation An unlevered DCF to enterprise value, equity value, and value per share. - Sum of explicit PV plus the PV of a Gordon-growth terminal value - Enterprise value less net debt equals equity value - Value per share and an implied EV/EBITDA multiple ## Features - **The submerged land lease is a greater-of percentage rent:** A marina does not own the water it sits on - the docks and basin are let from a state or municipal authority under a bottomland lease whose rent is the greater of a minimum annual rent and a percentage of gross revenue. The model computes both bases as visible helper rows and takes the maximum, so the crossover is explicit: the minimum binds while the marina is still filling and incremental revenue drops almost straight to EBITDA, then the percentage takes over as revenue scales and the landlord starts taking a slice of every marginal dollar. In the base case the $340k minimum binds through Year 4 and the 5.5% percentage takes over from Year 5, which the land-lease load on revenue makes visible as a headline KPI and a dashboard trend line. - **Two berth estates, five lines, and a margin spread that matters:** Wet slips and dry stack racks roll forward on independent build pipelines because they are different assets: a slip is priced per linear foot of the boat in it and costs far more to build than a flat-rate rack, yet both feed the same resident boat count that drives fuel and ship store volume. The margin spread across the five revenue lines is the story - dockage is nearly all contribution at ~88%, while the fuel dock clears only ~20% because wholesale rack cost is most of the pump price, making it a service to residents rather than a profit centre. Service yard margin is parts-only, since technician labour is charged as a headcount line in opex rather than double-counted in cost of goods. - **Storm exposure is priced, not assumed away:** A coastal marina is a fixed asset in the path of named storms, so the model carries a probability-weighted expected annual loss - event probability times per-event severity, covering deductible and downtime - as a recurring charge in every period rather than pretending the exposure is free. It is an expected-loss accrual rather than a catastrophe simulation, which keeps the model a valuation tool, but it stops the base case from quietly assuming a waterfront asset never gets hit. Flex the probability or the severity to see what a higher-exposure basin does to EBITDA and value. ## Use cases - **Intrinsic valuation:** Set the berth pipeline, the occupancy ramp, the rate card, the cost stack, the land lease and a WACC, and read enterprise value, equity value, value per share and implied EV/EBITDA. The base case resolves near 7.5x - sense-check it against where small marinas actually change hands. - **Ground-rent and lease renegotiation:** Flex the minimum annual rent and the percentage-rent rate to move the crossover year and watch the land-lease load, EBITDA and value respond - the single most under-modelled term in a marina deal, and the one that bites hardest exactly when the asset is performing. - **Dock expansion and rate-card planning:** Flex new slips and racks per year, the build cost per berth, average boat length and the per-foot rate to see how the expansion pipeline consumes cash and lifts dockage revenue, and whether attracting bigger boats beats building more berths. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is a marina financial model? A marina financial model captures the seven-year operating economics and intrinsic value of a full-service marina and boatyard. It rolls wet slips and dry stack racks forward on their own build pipelines, ramps occupancy on each to a ceiling, converts occupied berths into a resident boat count, and builds five revenue lines: slip dockage priced per linear foot of average boat length, dry stack storage, fuel dock volume at a retail pump price, boatyard service billed off technician hours, and ship store spend per boat. It then charges per-line cost of goods, labour, the submerged land lease and a storm loss provision to EBITDA, and discounts an unlevered free-cash-flow stream to enterprise value, equity value and value per share. ### Why is the submerged land lease modelled as a greater-of clause? Because that is how bottomland leases actually work. A marina sits on state or municipal submerged land let under a lease whose rent is the greater of a minimum annual rent and a percentage of gross revenue. Modelling it as a flat rent or a flat percentage misses the economics entirely: while the marina is filling, the minimum binds and incremental revenue carries no incremental ground rent, so it drops nearly straight to EBITDA; once revenue passes the crossover, the percentage takes over and the landlord participates in every marginal dollar. The model computes both bases as visible rows, takes the maximum, and surfaces the resulting land-lease load on revenue. ### Why is the fuel dock margin so low? Because wholesale rack cost is roughly eighty percent of the retail pump price. A marina fuel dock clears about a twenty percent gross margin, which makes it a volume business and a service that keeps resident boats at the dock rather than a profit centre. The model gives every revenue line its own margin precisely so this spread is visible: dockage runs near eighty-eight percent contribution while fuel runs at twenty, so the revenue mix, not just the revenue total, determines the blended margin. ### How is the boatyard service business modelled? Service revenue is capacity-driven, technicians times billable hours per technician times a shop labour rate, because a yard can only sell the hours it has, not the hours boats want. Technician labour is charged as a headcount line in operating expenses, so the service gross margin in the model is parts-only at around eighty percent. Pulling technician wages into cost of goods as well would double-count them, which is a common error in yard models. ## Related templates - [Golf Course Model](https://finamodel.com/templates/golf-course) - [Self-Storage Operations Dashboard](https://finamodel.com/templates/self-storage-ops-model) - [Vacation Rental Model](https://finamodel.com/templates/vacation-rental)