Bluewater Celebrates 2024 Successes in Virginia Beach

Feb 5, 2025 | Magazine | 0 comments

Each year, the entire Bluewater Yacht Sales team gathers for three days of learning, team building, and celebration at our Annual Sales Meeting and Awards Ceremony. In January 2025, Bluewater hosted our latest installment at the historic Cavalier Resort at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Team members in attendance heard from several guest speakers and took time to reflect on the past year and plan for the immediate future.

Bluewater’s management team spoke to the successes of 2024, presented projections for the current year, and outlined exciting new offerings from our partners and our own in-house support network. The group also had the chance to learn about the latest advancements from Seakeeper, Seakeeper Ride, and Garmin, helping our sales team stay up to date on the latest trending technology in the industry.

See this article in our Summer 2025 issue of OnBoard Magazine

This year’s event also offered the opportunity to welcome new team members as a part of our rapidly expanding sales team. We introduced Derek Rawnsley, James Ross, and Thomas Bennett as new brokers, along with Lee Turlington as Bluewater’s New Boat Warranty Specialist.

Bluewater team members listen to Randy Ramsey give a speech

Keeping with tradition, the event concluded with a special awards ceremony, presenting awards that acknowledged individual and team successes in the previous fiscal year. Bluewater had an astounding twenty-three awards presented for sales achievements and administrative excellence in 2024, with multiple new recipients entering the mix.

Sales Professional Preston Frieze earned the award for Top Sales Overall, as well as Top New Boat Sales, while perennial winner Scott James received the award for Top Brokerage Sales. Heidi Speciale, our tenured Controller, was presented with the Jan Boone Memorial Award for loyalty, work ethic and determination. Speaking to the amazing commitment of our team, Bluewater General Manager Wyatt Lane recounted, “It was a close horse race to watch [for the top sales award] between Scott and Preston this past year. Plus, we had Chase Sutton who joined us just a few short years ago, and really turned it on.”

Heidi Speciale has been a crucial member of our team headquartered in Beaufort for over 20 years now, “working here before, and with Jan,” Wyatt explains. “No one understands better than Heidi what that loyalty and determination award means.

“She works relentlessly supporting all her Bluewater team members and our customers”

Please join us in congratulating the full list of award winners!

2024 Award Recipients

Preston Frieze at the 2024 Bluewater Team Meeting

Preston Frieze
Wrightsville Beach, NC

Top Sales Overall
Top New Boat Sales

Scott James
Hampton, VA

Top Brokerage Sales

Heidi Speciale
Beaufort, NC

Jan Boone Memorial Award

Maureen O Sullivan receiving the Excellence and Dedication Award

Maureen O'Sullivan
Beaufort, NC

Excellence & Dedication Award

Joe Green
Beaufort, NC

Top Finance Producer Award

Chase Sutton
Annapolis, MD

High Flyer Award

Paramount Award
Preston Frieze
Clark Sneed

Pinnacle Award & Most Units
Hawk Ennis

Ovation Award
Jud Black
Carl Beale
Daryl Brower
Joe Green
John Prather

Commitment to Excellence Award

Jeremy Blunt
Mark Connors
Connor Hall
Roger Mooney

Matt Serafin
Hank Sibley
Clark Sneed
Chase Sutton

A STAY TO REMEMBER
Staying at the Cavalier Hotel was also a special treat according to Bluewater team members in attendance for the annual meeting. Built during the roaring twenties, the Cavalier is perched atop a grand lawn along Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, overlooking the ocean.

In its original heyday of ballroom flapper parties and famous guests, it was known as the “Grand Dame of the Shore,” before earning an alternative moniker, “the Haunted Hotel on the Hill,” after Adolph Coors was found dead after falling from a 6th floor window in 1929. The property was later commandeered by the U.S. Navy during WWII and has undergone multiple significant renovations and ownership changes in the ensuing decades.

The Cavalier now seamlessly blends its rich history with modern luxury and refined accommodations, including the “Hunt Room” and the nation’s first in-hotel distillery, paying homage to the area’s history and role in prohibition and southern bootleg culture.