The Oak Bay Marine Group has been sold to a Vancouver businessman whose holdings include Coal Harbour Marina and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre.
Graham Clarke, owner of the Graham Clarke Group, said Monday the deal represents a return home. He said he grew up in Oak Bay and “pined” for the community after moving to the Lower Mainland with his family in Grade 8. “For me, this is deeply personal.”
The Dec. 19 sale for an undisclosed sum comes as the District of Oak Bay aims to revitalize the marina with expanded uses and more amenities.
The sale means the 81-year-old now owns four Vancouver Island marinas. Along with Oak Bay Marina, the deal includes North Saanich Marina, Ladysmith Marina and Pedder Bay RV Resort and Marina.
It also includes Oak Bay Marine Group’s boathouse-building business, the Marina Dockside Eatery.
Existing Oak Bay Marine Group staff, including chief executive Brook Castelsky, are expected to remain.
Clarke said he expects his role will be as “coach” given his experience. “Crossword puzzles are fine but this is a lot more fun and this is what I do.”
Founded in 1962 by entrepreneur Bob Wright, who died in 2013, the Oak Bay Marine Group started with pleasure-boat moorage and grew to become a premier sport-fishing and tourism business, including floating fishing lodges and three hotels, which have since been sold.
After Wright’s death, his estate owned and ran the company until selling to Clarke, who said negotiations began three years ago.
Castelsky said the sale ensures Oak Bay Marine Group’s “legacy will carry on while we continue to service the communities and customers who have supported us over the years.”
Clarke chaired the Vancouver Airport Authority for 13 years until 2010. A news release on the sale says his company owns the 250-slip Coal Harbour Marina, the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, Harbour Cruises in Vancouver and Western Pacific Marine, which operates ferries in 小蓝视频’s interior and the Lasqueti Island ferry.
Harbour Cruises has three vessels, including a paddlewheeler, available for charter in Vancouver.
Clarke said he bought the Oak Bay Marine Group knowing that change is on the horizon. “Our intention is to be there for the long term,” he said.
Clarke said he has plenty of ideas for the marina — including installing high-tech floats — but out of respect for the district and First Nations, he plans to speak with them first.
The company has a five-year lease on the marina site that runs until 2027. The District of Oak Bay owns the property called Turkey Head or Spewhung that is home to the marina, which includes foreshore leased from the province, while the Oak Bay Marine Group owns the docks.
The marina had been based at the site through leases first negotiated with Wright.
Oak Bay issued a request for proposals in 2020 for a new 30-year-lease on the site, seeking ideas for redevelopment. The following year, the district decided to negotiate with the Oak Bay Marine Group, but in 2022, it announced it was not going ahead with the group’s proposal for the site. It did not provide any reasons, although it agreed to extend the lease until 2027.
The Oak Bay Marine Group’s plan for the site featured a paddle-sports centre, community space, a boat brokerage and a cycling centre with charging stations for electric bikes.
Oak Bay council has said it wants an environmentally friendly, sustainable plan that’s backed by First Nations and the Oak Bay community.
Clarke, who lives in Vancouver, is personable and chatty with a huge repertoire of tales. While in his 20s, he said, he travelled around the world for seven years with a rucksack.
He said he has worked as a deckhand and a cook on a fish packer along 小蓝视频’s coast, assisted Wright when he was starting out in business, ran ferries between Prince Rupert and Gingolx (Kincolith) for 18 years, and was part of a company that built airports internationally.
Clarke said he was on 小蓝视频 Ferries’ Queen of the North when it sank off Hartley Bay in March 2006. At that time, he was interested in running four northern ferry routes in 小蓝视频 and was visiting all the stops.
Most passengers were asleep but Clarke said he was awake studying marine charts when he heard an impact, followed by another blow to the ship, a “kind of a tearing sound,” and the engines stopped.
“I knocked on every door as I was going to the upper deck and ran into the chief steward, who was also knocking to wake people up.”
He said he helped launch lifeboats.
As Queen of the North went down — with two passengers still likely on board, it was later learned — Clarke said the bow rose and windows blew out. “Then you could hear the engines breaking loose and crashing through the bulkheads because it was vertical at that point.”
