Pacific Northwest Boating News: For Shilshole Bay Marina's new ...

Tracy McKendry took over as the Port of Seattle's general manager of recreational boating in late July.

Boaters often get their love of water from their parents, but for Tracy McKendry, entering the maritime world was an act of teenage defiance.

McKendry is the Port of Seattle?s new head of recreational boating, overseeing Shilshole Bay Marina, Bell Harbor Marina on Seattle?s waterfront and Harbor Island Marina on the Duwamish River. Her career path is not one you might expect from the daughter of two pilots?? and that was precisely the point.

?My parents were private pilots. We had a Cessna 172 in our backyard for part of my childhood,? says McKendry, 43. ?We would go ?fly camping? to state parks. As a teenager I was mortified. My rebellion was working on boats instead.?

That rebellion morphed into a successful career for McKendry, who managed Foss Harbor Marina in Tacoma for nine years before starting her new position in late July. A native of Olympia, Wash., McKendry graduated from the University of Washington with a major in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting.

She was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy, which pleased her parents and therefore seemed like a bad idea. Instead, McKendry took off for Alaska the day after graduating from university, spending several years working on cruise ships, then for land-based marine companies.

McKendry was a project manager for CruiseWest, overseeing shipyard work on its vessels, and worked for Foss Environmental and the now-defunct Seattle Ship Supply before becoming manager of Foss Harbor Marina.

Along the way she racked up industry creds, obtaining several merchant mariner licenses and becoming certified as a marina manager. She was trained in marine firefighting and, wanting to give herself a better shot at getting a marine industry job that didn?t require a move, got a certificate in computerized accounting.

?The maritime field is definitely declining in numbers, so there?s a lot more work for accounts and business people than there is for maritime workers,? McKendry says. ?It?s hard to find a maritime job where you get to stay at home.?

Her new position is a big change from her previous one. Shilshole Bay Marina, where McKendry?s office is, is more than three times larger than Foss Harbor Marina. She?s supervising 13 people instead of six. And she?s gone from working for a private company, where changes can be implemented quickly, to the bureaucracy of a public agency.

That means more layers to navigate through, McKendry says, but also advantages.

?I don?t have to be a jack of all trades and do every little thing,? she says. ?Before, I oversaw a marina store and the fuel dock, wrote press releases, oversaw the budget. Here, I can focus a little more and we?ve got departments to help us.?

McKendry?s interests?include books, movies, photography, traveling?and watching Seattle?s pro sports teams. She doesn?t own a boat?(?It would be like a busman?s holiday, in a way?) but would like to charter one and cruise the Inside Passage. She has an eight-month-old Siberian Husky puppy named Reilly and lives in Normandy Park, south of Seattle.

McKendry comes across as low-key and approachable?? so it?s not surprising that she describes her management style as collaborative and inclusive. She spent the first few weeks of her job having other workers train her on what they do to better understand their challenges and obstacles. She believes listening to employees is the best way to determine what changes need to be made and which issues need addressing.

?They?re going to have the best ideas with regard to the systems they?re working with,? she says. ?I?m not going to come in here and have a big power trip???you have to do things my way or the highway. I think that?s totally the wrong approach.?

McKendry says she was aware coming into the job that the relationship between the port and Shilshole?s liveaboard community, the largest in the state, has at times been adversarial. She values the importance of liveaboards to the marina, she says, and is looking forward to working with them and other marina tenants to put on events and increase a sense of community at Shilshole.

Community-building is something McKendry is big on. At Foss Harbor Marina, she introduced Saturday night outdoor movies and joined forces with the nearby Foss Waterway Seaport to launch this year?s inaugural ?Salty Dock Day,? a free public event coinciding with National Marina Day in June.

McKendry was also part of the team that launched the successful Passport to Puget Sound initiative, which gives boaters a chance to win prizes by visiting marinas around the region and collecting stamps on a bingo-like card.

Ultimately, she says, she hopes to establish a culture that is open to new ideas, welcoming to the broader community and just as important, fun.

?Bottom line is, we need to enjoy ourselves,? McKendry says. ?Life is short, so let?s make it as easy as possible for everyone.?

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Source: http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/archives/19409

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