A Family Business That Grew One Lake at a Time

It started with one marina

Rubright Marinas began in 2017 with a single marina on Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, Tennessee. The idea was simple and it has not changed: run a marina the way you would want one run if the boat were yours. Covered slips that are actually looked after, fuel that does not wreck an engine, a store that has what you forgot, and staff who know the lake rather than reading from a sheet.

That first marina, Gallatin Marina, is still the corporate home of the company and still runs to the standard everything else was measured against.

Growing across two lakes

Over the following years the family added three more marinas, and the choice of where to grow was deliberate. Rather than build a second marina next to the first and compete for the same boaters, they looked for lakes and locations that served people the first marina could not reach.

The Boathouse at Benders Ferry, added in 2020, sits on the eastern side of Old Hickory Lake, reaching boaters from east Nashville and Lebanon who found the north shore a long drive. On Barren River Lake in Kentucky, Peninsula Marina near Glasgow joined in 2019 and Barren River State Dock in 2020, opening up a quieter lake and, at the state dock, a rental operation for people who do not own a boat at all.

Four marinas, two lakes, two states. Each one reaches boaters the others cannot, which is why the group works as a group rather than four separate businesses.

Still run the same way

What has not changed as the company grew is who runs it. All four marinas are owned and operated by the same family. The person you deal with at the fuel dock or the office has a stake in the marina doing right by you, because the reputation of all four rests on each one.

That shows up in small ways. Staff who can tell you where the fish have been biting rather than pointing at a map. A fuel specification chosen because it protects your engine, not because it is cheapest to stock. Storage that is maintained rather than merely rented. None of that is expensive to do. It just requires caring whether it is done.

Where we are now

Today Rubright Marinas keeps hundreds of boats in the water and out of it across Old Hickory and Barren River lakes, sells fuel and supplies to anyone on either lake, and rents boats to families visiting Barren River Lake State Resort Park. The four marinas share a standard, a fuel specification and an owner, and they each keep the character of their own lake and their own stretch of water.

If you are looking for somewhere to keep a boat, or somewhere to rent one for a weekend, that is the company you would be dealing with.

Rubright Marinas, 727 Marina Private Rd, Gallatin TN 37066. Call 615-452-9876 or email [email protected].