BELHAVEN — Belhaven Waterway Marina has become one of the key destinations among boaters on the Inner Coastal Waterway — a gateway to the town, if you will — facilitating economic growth in Belhaven as well as winning the Chamber of Commerce’s 2014 Small Business of the Year award.

The Marina was originally known and operated as Cox Marine Railways. After being closed from 1996 to 2001, the Marina was purchased by Les Porter who had noticed the location during visits to the area, according to Porter. Porter and his wife, Brenda, at the time, were in business in Richmond, Va., for almost 13 years, operating Richmond Yacht Basin. They continued to operate that business for about five years while also operating in Belhaven, eventually going “all-in” with the marina in Belhaven.

“Me being a licensed boat captain, I would move boats up and down the Inner Coastal Waterway,” Porter said. “I would look at the property every time I’d come by every year and I’d always think it would be a great place to open back up and a great repair facility on the Inner Coastal Waterway.”

Porter has been operating the facility ever since.

“It became very successful and very busy,” Porter said. “We mainly cater to Inner Coastal Waterway traffic, transient boaters who travel north and south during their migration. Then we have some local business that we do for boat repairs. We mainly work on inboard boats that we haul out of the water to work on the bottoms, repairing the running gear and such.”

According to Porter, the marina, located in the center of downtown Belhaven, is a mom and pop operation, capable of housing only up to 23 boats. However, he said that it is considered one of the most reputable marinas on the eastern seaboard, mainly because of its charm and customer service.

“We are very proud of the five-star rating that we carry with the cruiser reviews on the Internet,” Porter said. “In fact, one of the companies had emailed me a couple of years ago and they told me out of the 283 marinas along the east coast, we were in the top 10. That, I think, has been the key to our success, is doing the one thing that seems to be lacking today, and that’s customer service.”

Porter spoke about the marina receiving the award through the Belhaven Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s kind of neat being the Small Business of the Year,” Porter said. “When we moved here back in 2001, the town had very little going for it, with the exception of the crab picking houses and the fish houses. Of course, they have all since disappeared. It’s very exciting to see in the last two and a half years that I’ve been serving on the Chamber that the downtown area of Belhaven has revitalized. It’s turned around and I’m very glad to be a part of that. What we do (at the marina) is kind of a gateway for those people to access what they need. Once they hit our facility, they go in different directions.”

Porter said that despite popular belief about the lack of an economic engine in Belhaven, the Inner Coastal Waterway, in his opinion, serves as that engine.

“Its greatest asset is the ICW traffic and the recreational boat traffic that it has in this area,” Porter said. “The new docks being built by the town and the way things have been going downtown with the new restaurants, I think it has proven that.”

Porter said that Vidant Pungo Hospital has also played a big role in Belhaven’s tourism in the sense that it is a facility that can offer healthcare to tourists.

“There have been three people’s lives that have been saved, coming into this marina facility,” Porter said. “I don’t know that many people understand the importance of this hospital.”

Porter thinks his business will continue to play an instrumental role in Belhaven’s economy in the coming years.

“We were talking about the percentage of vessels that travel through here, every year, for the past three years,” Porter said. “We are starting to see an increase and we are hopeful that the economy is turning around, especially for the recreational boaters. This year has been different, a number of cruising groups that have planned way ahead on their trips. I hope that is an indication that this high cost of fuel has adjusted somewhat with the boat owners and they’re starting to use their boats again. It’s like a domino effect down through here, going through us and then going through the town and going to the restaurants and all the other shops and businesses. I’d like to say that in the next two to three years, Belhaven will have seen an increase in what it does today by 20 or 30 percent. That’s what we would project and that’s what we want to be a part of.”