Local East Hampton Boatyard Staying in the Family

With a new name but under the same family ownership, “The Vanderveer Three Mile Marina,” of 10 Boatyard Drive in East Hampton, has launched into its 65th year. Karin Vanderveer, the mother of 3 adult children if you can call her youngest, a 17-year-old boy about to enter the Military, an adult is now running the boatyard after her father, Don Vanderveer, passed away. Don Vanderveer passed away January 30th, 2022. He would have turned 87 on June 15, 2022.

Before Mr. Vanderveer passed away, he had entertained offers in the millions of dollars for the 1.2-acre corner of Three Mile Harbor that he had purchased at age 16 in 1958. He used $200 in quarters for a down payment to the then-owners of Damark Market. Don’s parents had purchased some land in 1958 across from Maidstone Park and, using recycled wood from the demolition of the houses that covered what is now JFK airport in Queens, they built a cottage that is still in the family.

Karin Vanderveer, who has a B.A. from the University of Delaware and a Masters from L.I.U., understands the challenge she has undertaken. She said, “I am from the age of the women’s movement where women can do things men had always traditionally done. I am familiar with a lug wrench and other such tools.” Now she is at the helm of a renovation of sorts at the boatyard that has over thirty-five pleasure boats docked there.

“My dad bought the land, and used our family tractor to haul fill from the Shagwong Marina to be able to make the bulkhead. The Shagwong parking lot had five huge piles of fill that they invited my dad as a teenager to haul down the road to his land with my grandparent’s old tractor. It took five years before he rented out his first slip.”

Like everything in the Hamptons there is a historical story of the first person to dock his boat at Three Mile Marina. Karin Vanderveer proudly said, “The first person to dock his boat at my dad’s Marina in 1962 was Lee A. Hayes, who was an original Tuskegee Airman in World War II.” The Amagansett Youth Park was renamed Lt. Lee A. Hayes Youth Park in his honor. He had spent almost his whole life in East Hampton Town. Many years docking his boat at the yard.

Another notable who kept his boat at the yard was Mark Levinson, who was then the husband of actor Kim Cattrall of “Sex in the City” fame. Over the years various offers were made for the boat yard including one supposedly from Billy Joel.

In the beginning boats at The Vanderveer Three Mile Marina were hauled into and out of the water by huge cranes operated solely by Don Vanderveer. The cranes were also used to put the masts on the sailboats. Vanderveer had his methods using specific ropes, knots, even a cinderblock to systematize this complex procedure. Sailboat owners from all over the east end came to his boatyard to mount huge masts because his crane was the tallest.

As he aged and was well into his seventies Karin’s dad, Don, had various illnesses that limited his ability to be at yard full-time. Therefore, he purchased a Travel lift that arrived in sections. Slowly but surely over a period of years Don Vanderveer, with the assistance of local Forbes Riva, built the present travel lift. They also built the steel dock to drive the travel lift to safely lower the boats into the water. It was Mr. Vanderveer’s way of ensuring the boatyard could continue after his passing.

Therefore, by the time he passed on, launching the boats was no longer a one-man-on-a-crane operation.

As for the future, Karin Vanderveer proudly said, “My seventeen-year-old son was at the boatyard taking a look before he enters the service. He turned to me and said he sees his future as a third generation to run the yard after his military service.”