AquaBiz designs and builds income-producing boats tailored for the tourist industry, and business plans designed to produce respectable return on investment (ROI). We don’t stop there; we follow through by becoming your business partner and sharing with you our thirty-five years of hands-on boat business experience.

We seek partners who have a passion for boating, who like to be in business for him or herself, and who enjoy using their talents in the tourist industry. We seek partnerships at our central location on Anna Maria Island, or with those who wish to establish a business on the West Coast of Florida.

Together we create a business plan; then share in capital investments, expenses, and operating profits. Partners may purchase their vessel or lease it from us. If you choose our facility on Anna Maria Island, we provide docking facilities (see photo above), training, licensed captains, fuel, insurance, and other resources.

The growth of tourism on Anna Maria Island has provided extraordinary business opportunities for those who have a penchant for boating and wish to take charge of their own future.

Conde Nast Traveler, an upscale travel magazine whose average reader earns $111,000/year, selected Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island as having the best island beach sand in the United States and fifth best in the world:

“It’s laid-back, bordered by towering pines, and boasts perfect, unspoiled sand as fine as powder.”

Because AquaBiz boats are designed for income purposes, they are different from conventional watercraft. Not only are they Coast Guard approved when necessary, they utilize the wider catamaran design, and are engineered to reduce losses in the slower months of the tourist season.

Tourism by nature has high and low months within the calendar year. Vessel design takes into consideration this high/low cycle. Although a larger vessel will earn more money in the peak season, it forfeits a disproportionate amount in the off-season.

Wider, more nimble vessels control risk better; in a nutshell, wider vessels carry more passengers for their length. Thus, the “investment capital per passenger” is reduced, and it is this lower investment cost per passenger that reduces off-season losses. (Lower loan payment, insurance, fuel consumption, dockage fees, maintenance etc.)

To insure a boat meets its business model, modular molding is used. Modularity allows for customization according to business needs. A vessel can be as narrow as 8 feet or as wide as 20 ft; as short as 12 feet or as long as 60 feet. These photos illustrate our modular method of construction:

If a business application warrants, we make a mold according to its vision. Sometimes we hire artists to conceptualize what we wish to build. It pays to build in “pretty.” The artist’s rendering is given to our naval architects for engineering. We then make a “plug” — a handcrafted version of the part, and then a mold. Our laminators take it from there.

This process is done under the inspection of the Coast Guard, and the supervision of our naval architects. Below you see this process unfold with our stair mold that we incorporate on different models:

As an AquaBiz partner you have the resources of our parent company, Bradenton Beach Marina, working on your behalf. Its primary location is the gateway to Anna Maria Island via the Cortez Bride. In our 35th year of operation, we are the only deep-water facility on the island that is completely vertical in scope. We own our land (Mile Marker 49 on the ICW), a 70 ton Marine Travel Lift, two 30,000 lbs. Taylor marine forklifts, indoor hi/dry storage facilities, deep-water wet slips, gas and diesel fueling, and a Mercury outboard dealer.

Throughout our thirty-five year history we have reinvested our profits in the marine/tourist industry. We operate a complete watersports center (boat rentals, jet skis, kayaks, etc.), own our own tooling to mold and manufacture boats (we build a better boat than we can buy), and are one of the few marinas that is still family owned and operated.

It is the double-digit growth of both recreational boating, and tourism, that has led to the creation of AquaBiz as a specialized, partner-oriented operation. Its vision is to expand its watersports operations along the west coast of Florida through a series of joint ventures. If you would like more information on how to make boating your primary business, we invite you to visit our facility and explore a possible future together in this exciting growth industry.