Keith Broderick spends a lot of time on boats, and in a coastal community, that isn’t very surprising.
But Broderick isn’t sailing or cruising the waters off Marblehead; he’s actually fixing the electrical systems on the boats.
Broderick launched his new business called Marblehead Marine Electronics on Jan. 1.
“Marblehead Marine Electronics is serving the North Shore in sales, service and installation of marine electronics so radar, GPS, autopilots,” Broderick said. “We also deal with the general electrical work too so rewiring panels, right down to bilge pumps.”
Before starting his own business, he was working for Marblehead Trading Company. After going to electronics training school in Boston he joined the company in 2001.
“I was always interested in electronics and as soon as I got a car it was Keith is the guy that can install car stereos. So it started there. I was always into video games and when I got to high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and my father was like, why don’t you get into electronics,” Broderick said.
At the time of getting the job at Marblehead Trading, he didn’t know much about boats.
“But all of the electrical came to me and then the boating became a passion. I fell in love with the sea, I fell in love with boats and working on them and it was just like, oh my God, I can’t believe I have this job,” Broderick said.
Marblehead Trading was a career constant for Broderick where he learned his trade.
“After 21 years here, we’ve seen a couple of other companies pop up and there’s more boats then Marblehead Trading Company can handle so I wanted to broaden my scope, and try and reach some new clientele and after 21 years in the business, I was ready for the next challenge,” Broderick said.
Since launching his business, he has been very busy.
“Marblehead Trading Company already had some giant jobs lined up for me. So right out of the gate, I was at work. I had a job and carried over from the previous year in the new year, so it was almost as if there was no break,” Broderick said.
On Tuesday, he was working on a Sabre 42 in Marblehead Trading’s giant boat garage. To get to the Sabre 42, he meandered his way through and under the other 50 plus boats in the garage.
Once in the boat, Broderick popped open the main control panel and showed the wiring he’d been working on.
“I installed a Fusion Marine Stereo System,” Broderick said. “This is actually a pretty big stereo install, this is eight speakers.”
The owner of the boat also wanted internet access on the boat which he was able to deliver.
Currently, the trade of electronics is “starving for people,” he said.
“There’s a big hole in the market for people doing what I do and that’s where I thought, you know, if I did it on my own, I thought that I would have plenty of work just handling, Marblehead, Salem, the whole Salem Sound area and hopefully, it works out,” Broderick said.