This is a long review so if you don't feel like reading the whole thing: Don't trust Shell Point Marina with your boat. Tom is a conniving man and knows nothing about boats or customer service. Also, they typically delete their negative reviews so check marinas.com and dockwa and other sources to see actual reviews. I'm just going to repost this review here if they delete it.
During Hurricane Nicole of this year, I incurred some damages that made it necessary for me to haul out as soon as possible. I had only ever heard awful things about Shell Point Marina since the new owner Tom took over, but unfortunately there were no other marinas within a reasonable distance to me that had availability to take my boat out of the water, given this was right after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole came through. Shell Point Marina, or as some of the residents like to refer to it as "Tom's concentration camp" surely lived up to their awful reputation. Tom is referred to by other marinas as "the snake" because he does whatever he can, morally or not, to make every penny he can and charge every client as much as possible. He is a bitter, rude, condescending little man, who moved down here from New York. He was a hedge-fund investor who decided to buy a marina all while clearly having absolutely no knowledge of boats or any maritime experience.
Upon my arrival at the marina, the marina was closed. Mileea at the front office had instructed me over the phone to plug my power cord into the only power pedestal available on the transient dock. So I did. The next morning Tom comes running down the docks clearly troubled by something, this was my first time being graced with the "snake's" presence. He ran down to the pedestal where my chord was plugged in, unplugged it and started coiling it up. All while quibbling "there are to be no power cords ran across the dock, this is an absolute insurance nightmare." I tried to explain to him that I was just following the instructions of his employees. It is funny he was so concerned about the safety issue, because the marina is riddled with dangerous obstacles.
While my boat was up in the slings, the marina employee that was power washing my boat said to me "Be careful, this marina is going to try and steal your boat. I've seen him do it over and over again. He charges an ungodly amount for some made up reason, and then when the people can't pay it. He takes their boat and sells it." At first I was extremely offended and thought this person was insinuating that I wouldn't be able to pay my marina bill, but then I realized that this employee was genuinely concerned for me and trying to warn me of Tom's unethical behavior. I then was shown all of the boat's that Tom had taken from different customers.
After hauling out, I had my dinghy next to my tarp. It was still speckled with barnacles from months of being in the ocean. I asked one of the marina employees where I should scrape my dinghy. I was told to bring it to the seawall. So I brought my dinghy to the seawall and began scraping it. And sure enough, here comes Tom waddling over with his panties in a bunch shouting. "What are you doing?? Have you ever even BEEN to a marina before??" Which is extremely rude and condescending, and frankly comical because he clearly has no maritime knowledge whatsoever. I calmly explain to him, again, that I was just following the instructions of his employees and maybe he should work on his business's inner-communications. He then scoffed at me and said "You know what. Don't listen to any of my employees at all. If you have a question, you come to me and don't listen to what anyone else tells you." This was a completely absurd notion to me, especially because marina owners are typically never on property and have other things to fill their time, but clearly not Tom.
While my boat was being blocked, I was distracted with friends who came to see the boat being hauled, and didn't pay attention to where the jackstands were being put. I admit, I should have been paying better attention. The jackstands were placed in between the bulwarks on a portion of the boat where there is no structural support. This resulted in the fiberglass having a really nasty looking concave where the jackstands stood. I went to the owner of the marina, because I was told I wasn't allowed to go to anyone else, and told him I needed my boat reblocked. He said okay, we will charge you for that. I was surprised and asked "Even though it was done incorrectly the first time, you are going to charge me to rectify the situation?" and Tom replied "Every time we touch your boat. We charge you what we want. End of story" And he was right, upon further reading of my contract with them there are portions that say "the marina can charge you at our discretion." which gives him the ability to forego such shady business actions and policies. read more