20 - Sunday, May 5, 1991 ~ North Shore News

HIGH PROFILES Dan Sewell maintains the tradition

NEWS photo Terry Peters

IF HE could do it all over again, Dan Sewell of Sewell’s Marina says he wouldn't change a thing. Sewell has been immersed in marina life since the tender age of eight and is still going strong.

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IDARKN

DAN SEWELL. is talking a mile a minute about fishing enhancement and murine tourism, slowing down enly occasionally to take a call trom a portable phone.

By Evelyn Jacob News Reporter

These davs the cordless wonder is Seweil’s closest. companion: it allows him to keep tabs on every nook and cranny of his expansive Horseshoe Bay marina, which. with its fleet of small boars and fishing vessels, has dominated ihe shoreline for the better part of this century.

This year, Sewell's Marina is celebrating its 60th anniversary — half a decade of providing anglers und pleasure boaters aceess to Howe Sound and beyond.

A “fortysomethinge™’ looking Dan Sewell has been part of that history since the "50s. By the time he was 13, he was running his own fishing charters.

“As with a jot of family businesses, | grew up with it." Sewell explains, sitting across from his second floor office in the Keg Boathouse Restaurant, which teases the space from Sewell’s. “A four o'clock in the morning start — I was into it weil before | was a teenager.”

Although father Tom Sewell is sulf officially company president, most of the responsibilities now belong to Dan.

The transition from father to son, says Dan, happened by osmosis. Through the ’60s Dan shared in the scheduling and hir- ing of part-time summer staff and eventually took over the office functions, then sales and services.

Sewell, dressed in a rumpled cable-knit sweater, fondly recalls the Horseshoe Bay of his childhood, before the Upper

Levels Highway connected it with the rest of Vancouver, before B.C. Ferries invaded the bay with its fleet of vessels, when it was a quiet backwater village through the winter and a family get-away in the summer.

The Sewells started out renting home-made cedar boats, and gradually established a number of firsts in the local marine boating world: Dan's grandfather was the Nirst 10° introduce rod and reel fishing to the area: father Tom brought in) die first air-cooled Brigys and = Stratton inboard boating engines.

Sewell’s was also one of the first marinas in the province to rear and discharge salmon smolt on site. Any day now, 30.000 coho will be released fram the Sewell’s seapens and 150,000 chinook will be brought in after that.

Despite the challenges of runn- ing a marina, the fast 60) years have been good to Sewell. The business has grown steadily despite two recessions; each sum- mer the marina puts over 40,000 people on the water through boat rentals alone (last year the Sewelis served their 600,000th rental cus- tomer), and the fishing has never been better.

But to Sewell, it's never been a grab-the-money-and-run kind of operation.

“We probably get about six or seven calls a year at feast from people interested in purchasing our holdings, but our response is quite simply, we haven’: given it any consideration and we don't want to. It’s a lifestyle we enjoy and have fun at,"’ he says, gazing out the window to the bay and the

snow-capped mountains in the distance. ‘‘] admit we’d be better off (financially) to sell and put the money in the bank, but where do you find happiness?”’

NAME: Dan Sewell

BORN: Vancouver

AGE: 43

EDUCATION: West) Varcouver High prad

OCCUPATION: Owner and op- erator, Sewell’s Marina RESIDENCE: West Vancouver FAMILY: Married to Marytou; two children

HOBBIES: Skiing, fishing

Sewell quickly learned the im- portance of becoming and staying actively involved in marine in- dustry-related issues, contributing to solutions rather than sitting back and reacting when problems arise.

He’s currently director of the Marine Trades Association of B.C., director of the Sport Fishing Institute of B.C., a member of a host of marine advisory groups. und has been outspoken on everything from marine tourism to fish allocation.

As Vancouver continues to de- velop, more and more importance will be given to public access to the water, says Sewell, who wor- ties that politicians don’t fully understand the need to guarantee that access.

“The people want to get to the water, and the way to get there is through the marina...in B.C., ‘narinas are closing down, some are being turned into con- dominiums, and Mother Nature’s not creating any more bays.

“As British Columbia becomes the California of the North, it’s going to be imperative that marine access to the water is recognized and developed. I don't believe, however, that the policy makers, both in the civil service and the elected arena, reaily understand the significance of the jumping off from the land to the water.”’

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