Charlie Tompkin carries on a family tradition

The Aske family has a rich history on the waters of Shelburne Bay and Charlie Tompkin is making sure he keeps that history alive.

Tompkin grew up in Warren and lived there for five years after attending college and working in food services and photography in Boston, but when his grandfather Jerry Aske died and his grandmother Margaret had a serious health scare, he came up to meet with the family matriarch.

“It seemed like the business needed some help,” he said.

Initially, the plan had been to spend a few months living with his grandmother and getting things on track, but three years ago, at a meeting attended by family members and friends, Tompkin officially became the manager of the Aske Family Marina.

Tompkin’s great-grandfather Lambert Aske owned and operated the Shelburne Shipyard and built ships for the Navy for World War II and the Korean War. Jerry grew up working at the shipyard and opened the family marina in the early 1980s. Tompkin is grateful for the family friends who started showing him the ropes when he moved to Shelburne and helped him with some repair work needed to get the marina back in working order.

“The docks were rotting,” he recalls. “We had to come up with a design for the dock and rebuild the marina.”

The central point of the marina is a pier that used to be the winter berth for the Ticonderoga and even predates that craft. When Jerry Aske started the marina, he built three legs off that pier, which became the footprint for the business, and Tompkin has kept that design.

The business has roughly 50 customers. Most are from Vermont but there are some from Massachusetts, and previous years have featured customers from Montreal. The marina does not provide any other services. “We’re pretty bare bones,” Tompkin said.

Although the business is seasonal, Tompkin has been working year-round since he moved to Shelburne. He takes up the floating docks in the winter and stacks them with a forklift. While he was rebuilding them, he worked in a garage with a just a propane heater to warm him.

Tompkin continues to receive assistance from other family members, including an aunt who lives in England and helps with bookkeeping. His grandmother’s health has been declining so she now lives in San Diego while he lives at the home at the marina.

“It’s very rewarding to be here,” Tompkin said. “It’s given me a good sense of purpose to keep this thing in our family. My grandfather wrote a book about the shipyard and I was reading about the history. It’s really cool. I guess rebuilding the docks made me feel like a big part of it.”

Tompkin purchased a powerboat a few years ago and would like to get more involved in sailing.

“Even though the marina is done,” he said, “I’m still really busy sorting out the property. This is the first time I’ve been my own boss and that’s been an adjustment.” The move from Warren to Shelburne was another big adjustment, but Tompkin enjoys his new location. “I feel incredibly lucky to live here,” he said.