Growing up I was taught when changing the oil to the car the proper way to dispose of the old oil was to pour it down the street drain. If someone were to do this today, particularly a business they’d be in serious trouble. In short, today in business, if you are out of compliance, you’re one step away from being out of business. More importantly, we all know better, this is NOT the right thing to do.

img_5943It’s been our philosophy at KKMI to operate our business in the most compliant manner and to simply do the right thing. This belief is something that’s imbedded into who we are as business owners, sailors on the Bay (and beyond) as well as being a good stewards of our island planet (and its waters). When Ken, Cindy and I first talked about how we envisioned KKMI and what we do today, all of this, in one way or another is connected to this founding vision.

Over the past 20 years it’s been quite an adventure for us. We’ve serviced all sorts of yachts and boats, from big and small. Within just a few months of opening our Pt. Richmond facility we played host to world’s most famous maxi-racers, including Larry Ellison’s “Sayonara”. Shortly after this Paul Cayard’s AmericaOne program was “incubated” at KKMI. The list of really cool boats that we’ve had the pleasure to provide services to is quite impressive.

As impressive as those boats are – for me – what personally echoes are the countless conversations I’ve had with our clients on Saturday afternoons while they are working on their own boats. This is where I too first learned about what makes a boat “work” and most importantly, what needs to be done to remain afloat, safe and reliable. This is what it’s all about…almost.

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It’s also about leading by example. KKMI has received numerous awards, from the California Water Environment Association twice naming KKMI as their “Small Industry of the Year”, the first time in 2001 for the innovations we developed in Pt. Richmond and in 2011 for our Sausalito facility becoming the first boatyard to achieve EPA benchmark standards for our storm water discharges. In addition, KKMI is the only Northern California maritime service facility to be named “Boatyard of the Year” by the American Boat Builder’s and Repairers Association.

While the above accolades are matters which we take pride in, without a doubt it’s our team which we’re all so blessed to work with that stands as our greatest accomplishment. With an average of 23 years for every person on our team, KKMI delivers its clients an unsurpassed level of knowledge and expertise. It is our team that I’m so very proud of.

PKThank you all so much for helping us make KKMI what it is today!

We hope to see you on the waterfront!

Paul Kaplan and the KKMI Family