In 2002, the Ruse family came to Deltaville and started Deltaville Boatyard with a single employee and a single lift. Twenty-five years later, under founder Keith Ruse and his daughter Heidi Ruse, the yard has grown into a full-service marine facility known well beyond Middlesex County, built in large part on eight feet of water at mean low tide that makes Jackson Creek a protected anchorage for boats of real size.

A PROTECTED HARBOR WITH AN INTERNATIONAL REACH

Deltaville Boatyard’s growth started with infrastructure. The yard opened with one lift and added a larger second lift soon after, expanding how much work it could take on at once. What set it apart from there was the harbor itself. “We gained an international following partly because we have eight feet at mean low water, so it’s a protected anchorage and a protected harbor,” the Ruses said. The yard holds itself to American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) standards, the industry benchmark for marine repair and safety.

That reputation reaches well past the Middle Peninsula. John Dinsmore, who cruises a power catamaran named Camille between Florida and Canada with his wife Jody, hauled out in Deltaville last winter for repairs and returned again this year for maintenance. “This place, it’s all about the people,” Dinsmore said. “Heidi has surrounded herself with a really good team of people that support her, and everyone here is very friendly, very supportive. We love Deltaville. What a great place.”

A FAMILY BUSINESS, A NEW GENERATION

Deltaville Boatyard has been a family operation since it opened, and that extends to who runs it. Heidi Ruse grew up at the yard, jumping off the dock, playing in the shops, and making friends with the employees. Five years ago, after years of hands-on experience at the yard and time running her own business in Key West, she began taking on more responsibility, with Keith guiding the transition.

“It is super gratifying to work with my daughter and have participated in her growth in the boatyard. She’s a quick learner, and given her experience growing up here in the boatyard, she has an outstanding working knowledge of boats and systems.”Keith Ruse, Deltaville Boatyard

Heidi now oversees the yard’s haul and launch schedule, coordinating with customers and the technicians who keep boats moving through the yard. “While it has its challenges working with family, I’m learning from one of the most experienced marine technicians, I think, out there,” she said. “So that’s why I have a leg up, I think.” The yard has also held onto much of its staff for years at a stretch, a retention record Keith credits with much of the team’s skill.

PROTECTING THE CHANNEL

Not all of the yard’s growth happened on land. In 2011, the channel into Jackson Creek began to shoal, threatening the access the whole operation depends on. Keith Ruse organized a public-private partnership with Middlesex County and Fishing Bay Yacht Club to dredge the channel, ultimately dredging it three times to reach a depth of nine feet at mean low water, a foot past the federally mandated minimum. Thirteen years later, the channel has held that depth, and the yard continues to work with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Marine Resources Department to keep the waters entering Jackson Creek navigable, including maintaining a federally approved site for future dredging and tracking trends in the channel to plan ahead.

BUILDING DELTAVILLE’S BOATING LEGACY

In 2012, Deltaville Boatyard took part in an effort to establish Deltaville as the boating capital of the Chesapeake Bay, work the Ruses see as continuing a longer legacy of boat building and repair in the town. They point to the area’s low cost of living and the recreational opportunities of life on the Bay as part of what makes the yard work, for customers and staff alike. “Many of our employees have boats,” Keith said, “so it’s not only an outstanding place to live, it carries through to the day-to-day and weekly workload. You have fun while you work.”

Looking ahead, the Ruses say they may expand the yard’s lift capacity and its customer base, but the priority stays close to home. “We may expand our lift, we may expand our yard a little bit,” Heidi said. “But I’d say our main focus is just taking care of our family.”

“We started a family business, and it has grown into a legacy, and Deltaville has given us opportunity, and we encourage you to come start your story here.”Keith and Heidi Ruse, Deltaville Boatyard

Deltaville Boatyard
264 Buck’s View Lane, Deltaville, Virginia 23043
Phone: (804) 776-8900
Facebook: Deltaville Boatyard
Instagram: @deltaville_boatyard

If you’re starting or growing a business in Middlesex County, the EDA can help. Contact the Middlesex County EDA →

Rising Tide: The Stories That Build Our County is a video series from the Middlesex County EDA featuring the entrepreneurs and business owners shaping Middlesex’s economic future.

See more Rising Tide stories → Catch up on every episode of Rising Tide from across Middlesex County.