Today, the example of Arnaud RICARD, Director of the concarneau marina .
Ideally located in the navigation basin between the Ile de Groix and the Ile de Sein and leaning against the ramparts of the Ville Close, the Concarneau marina is a choice stopover. Easily accessible day and night, this marina in town offers a complete range of services: numerous and varied shops, quality restaurants, markets, visits to the "Ville Close" and its Maison du Patrimoine, fishing museum, Marine Biology Station and Marinarium..
What training, what diploma to occupy this position?
Strictly speaking, there is no specific training in marina management. Recruitment is generally based on a higher education diploma with the ability to :
- Managing and leading a team with authority and caring
- Mobilizing and leading staff in change in a changing environment
- Communicate by integrating a strong capacity for listening, dialogue and responsiveness both internally and externally in a partnership approach
- Innovation
To all this it is good to add a good knowledge of the nautical world as well as a technical background on the infrastructures. A kind of 5-legged sheep... preferably flippers.
Arnaud first trained as a Port Engineer to work in a design office on port construction and development. Passionate about the sea, boating and yachting, and by dint of meeting and advising port managers, the desire to do the same thing slowly took hold.
What skills are required? "Reception, listening, anticipation, a sense of contact "
The harbour manager is a man who, according to Arnaud, must have management qualities, good interpersonal skills and diplomacy. The function requires a lot of exchanges both with residential and visiting yachtsmen and with the local economic and cultural fabric. Technical skills are also required to appreciate the quality of the infrastructure at the moment, but also in the more distant future.
It must also adapt to the evolution of usages?: identifying customer needs and anticipating tomorrow's requirements.
What daily newspaper? The watchword: "expecting everything and managing the unexpected! »
In the same day we'll go from a financial problem to solve, to a technical problem in the port without excluding HR time or meeting a yachtsman with a problem!
The season has a different rhythm to the days and requires you to spend more time on one subject than on another. A certain agility is required.
In the middle of summer, the port is almost a 2nd Tourist Office and we have to consider our equipment as another gateway to the territory. This implies a warm welcome and availability for yachtsmen on call, but also for onlookers. In the summer the port is like "a campsite on the sea".
What responsibilities?
The first is to ensure the safety of boaters and their vessels. There must therefore be a permanent technical watch combined with a regulatory watch.
The second is certainly to ensure a quality welcome to all boaters. It is therefore necessary to manage and train the team accordingly.
This is followed, of course, by the port's budgetary responsibility and the implementation of the decisions of the management committee.
All this contributes to the permanent objective of a port manager, namely to develop the port into a driving force for local economic development.
What are the possible evolutions of this profession?
On the basis of the principle that the port must remain a central player in the life of the territory, it will be necessary to adapt. The profession will evolve according to yachting practices and the needs of yachtsmen.
Based on various studies and discussions with colleagues, the transition from "boathouse" to equipment and service manager is accelerating. Boaters are increasingly delegating the management of their boats. It will therefore be necessary to develop the current contracts into contracts for the location and associated services such as careening, concierge services, etc...
The port could become an aggregator of services for the benefit of yachtsmen, in close partnership with the local socio-economic fabric. These services will have to be different if one is a residential boater or just passing through and include gastronomic, cultural and other stopovers..
A real exciting challenge to develop!
