Page 51: of Marine News Magazine (November 2011)

www.marinelink.com MN51Brother and sister team, Dominique and Rachel Smith, grew up in the 1970?s on a 65-ft tugboat operated by both their parents in the U.S. East Coast and Caribbean markets. Their mother, Elsbeth, was one of the first women in the industry to obtain a mariner?s license and she home- schooled all five of her children while working on the boat. Inside the family business, then known as Smith Maritime, Dominique worked his way up to Chief Engineer, finally moving into the wheelhouse, earning his Captain?s license as soon as he was old enoughto sit for the exam. Rachel eventually became Smith Maritime?s Operations Manager. Both siblings went on to work for other companies, including Dominique?s time as General Manager and Vice President of McAllister Towing?s Baltimore divi- sion. Ultimately, Dominique and Rachel reunited to launch TradeWinds Towing LLC in 2005 , along with Dominique?s wife, Lis Smith, who serves as CFO. Within a few months they purchased their first tugboat, the Miss Lis. Today, Dominique and Lis are based in St. Augustine, Fla. and Rachel co-manages the business from her office in New Orleans. Despite the challenges inherent to a small tug company, Dominique said, ?we had a really good idea about the operation of a business like this.?Beyond the wealth of contacts accu- mulated over the years, Rachel explains, ?I think what sets our oper-ation apart from other coastal towing companies is the wide range of work we do and we really like the challenge of going to other countries and takingon new projects.? Six months ago, Tradewinds expanded with the addition of the tugRachel. The company now employs 19 to 24 crew members. ?With the first tug we just focused on making a go of it. Dominique was on the boat half the time as the Captain,? Rachelsaid. ?But, the second tug has a larger crew and then Dominique stepped off the boats. That meant we needed a lot more personnel overall. Suddenly one day it hit us ? we have people that count on us for theirmortgage payments.? NOTYOURGRANDFATHER ?SLENDINGMARKETS Rachel and Dominique agree on one thing: the first and biggest hurdle MN#11 (50-65):MN 2011 Layouts 10/28/2011 10:20 AM Page 51