Terry Fray is celebrating a quarter-century as a business owner, thanks in part to some sage advice from his father.

Mr Fray enjoyed a career in the Royal Bermuda Regiment – and while serving, was geared up for a May 24 launch of his boat followed by an outing on the water with his father and some close friends.

He remembers that fateful year’s holiday.

“The boat trailer didn’t show up to put the boat over,” Mr Fray recalled. “I was distraught. Very calmly, my dad said to me ‘maybe when you retire from the regiment, you could do something similar’. That planted the seed.”

Mr Fray retired as a Regimental Sergeant Major in February 1998 – and, having also been encouraged to pursue his dreams by friend and regiment colleague Larry Mussenden, launched Island Boat Trailering and Services Ltd the next month.

He has since added two divisions to the operation.

Mr Fray opened Boater’s Choice Propellers after travelling to Queensland, Australia, in 2006 to take a level-three advanced propeller repair course, and formed FrayTech Marine Services – now the busiest division, year-round – to offer all forms of mechanical, electrical and on-board repairs for both gas and diesel boats.

Today, he and his four staff – marine service technicians Arvin Gimenez and Alex Celso, junior tech Qwasi James and administrator Debra James – take care of clients from a 26,000 sqft storage yard and a 31,000 sqft service yard at Ship’s Wharf in St David’s.

The storage yard has 75 boats on site, while the service yard – which opened a year ago –has 35 boats.

Mr Fray grew up on the water.

His mother Madeline’s people were St David’s Islanders.

“That comes with water, fishing and boats,” Mr Fray said.

His dad, Albert Senior, was a boating enthusiast and often spent time on the water with Terry and younger brother, Lloyd, who were the youngest of ten children.

The discipline instilled in Mr Fray by his family – Albert Senior served in the Bermuda Militia Artillery on the island during the Second World War – and continued during his own military career, has been vital to his success.

“That is the main principle that has allowed us to be in business for 25 years. That discipline happened long before I went into the regiment – I got it from my parents.

“Some of the things I targeted when I started off were reliability, good timekeeping and honesty.

“I always said to my soldiers ‘turn up in the right place, at the right time, with the right kit’. That can apply to everything that we do.”

Turning up at the right time today means a 6am start, giving Mr Fray a couple of hours to plan the day before the staff arrive at 8am.

He said: “We meet for 15 or 20 minutes, discuss whatever responsibilities they have, the issues they each see, do some forward planning, and talk about any assistance they might require from others to get the job done. That concept comes from the regiment.

“We also laugh every morning – that starts the day off right.

“I am very appreciative to my staff and I acknowledge and thank them every day.”

The journey has not been all plain sailing.

Mr Fray said: “Covid was the most difficult time as nobody could use boats and people found money hard to come by so boats became less of a priority.”

But he added: “As soon as we came out of lockdown, we started getting calls about boats being prepared and boats being hauled.

“Today, there is a steady stream of work coming in across all aspects of the boat repair industry.

“Normally, it starts in March and we’ll be doing hauling and service work all the way up to Cup Match. And then, into hurricane season, our business increases due to customers wanting their boats safely on land or in our boatyard.”

Even an economic downturn has not negatively affected business, Mr Fray said.

“As a matter of fact, it has gotten better because everybody wants to be on the water in one capacity or another.

“With the other two divisions, we have other revenue streams that other marine service companies don’t provide – for example, propeller repair.”

Mr Fray, 61, said: “I’m going to go as far as I can. I have people in place now who are quite capable of doing the various components of the business. That frees me up to look at other projects.”

On hitting a quarter-century, he said: “It’s been a wonderful journey, very satisfying. I have more passion today than I did 25 years ago.”

Mr Fray added: “Like most businesses, we have challenges, but when you’re on your purpose – meaning my vision and what I love to do – those challenges become fun.”