GULF SHORES, Ala. – Folks over at Saunders Yachtworks on the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores were smiling big on Monday.

The dry dock/boat basin that has been under construction for more than a year got its first big customer.

“We’re all thinking ‘we finally got a boat in the boatyard,’” Marketing Director Ashley Rainer said.

Saunders CEO John Fitzgerald has watched the area outside of his office window go from a dusty field with equipment running back and forth in May 2011 to the gleaming new boat basin with 20 or so slips.

Along with the crown jewel of the project: a boat lift capable of hauling out a boat weighing 150 tons.

That new lift was put to the test on Monday as the 110-ton She’s My Lady II was pulled from the water to begin a 30-day overhaul. Monday afternoon workers were already cleaning off the bottom of the 88-foot yacht.

“First of all they’re doing the bottom cleanup, complete bottom service,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s some component coming off the top that will be repainted. We have a scale on the lift and it weighed in at 110 tons.”

The Lady’s home port is Palm Beach, Fla., but it is well-traveled. A search of the internet found stories about her in Cleveland and she was named one of the 50 largest yachts in Chicago.

“This was truly an exciting day for Saunders Yachtworks,” John Fitzgerald, Saunders’ president and CEO, said. “Thanks to our top-notch crew, the process went off without a hitch. We’re grateful to Captain Mike Esser for choosing Saunders to haul the boat and to oversee the maintenance and repair projects.

“It just kind of all hits you all at once. This is the reason we built it, this is the kind of work we want to do.

While the boat is her for 30 days of work, her crew will still be living aboard.

“It has a full-time captain and a full-time mate that will stay on the boat while it’s here,” Fitzgerald said. “We hooked a cooling tower up to it so they have air conditioning. All the water and electrical is run by systems on the boat as if it were in the water.”

Employing the new lift for the first time took about two hours to get the 88-footer to dry land.

“Because of all the appendages underneath it we have a diver that goes in the water to make sure the straps are in a good position,” Fitzgerald said. “If you lifted it around that fin it would bend it. You have to make sure it’s strapped up right.”

Saunders hired a diver to inspect the straps to make sure everything was properly hooked up before the first lift out. Still, there was a slight delay.

“They lifted it up one time and the guys weren’t comfortable with the balance because there was more weight on one strap,” Fitzgerald said. “They put it back down, reset the straps lifted it up and we were good after that.”

Work began this fall on the boat basin which is a joint venture between the city of Gulf Shores and Saunders. The city owned the land and got a matching grant from an Economic Development Authority Grant to help areas generate jobs.

“We’ve gotten good feedback from folks who have been employed in this endeavor because, of course, what it was intended for was to create jobs,” Gulf Shores Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “We’re probably about six weeks out from being complete with the basis of the grant amount.

“The only thing remaining will be a privately funded work building inside the complex that will be used for ship repairs inside an enclosed space. It’s coming along really nicely and when complete it will create about 40 jobs with that project.”

The grant required a 20 percent match from the city for the more than $10 million project. Saunders provided the matching funds.

According to a company press release, the facility includes 14 slips and out-of-water space for more than 20 boats. With it 150-ton Marine Travelift, the yard can haul vessels up to 130 feet in length.

The 14-acre site includes a 15,000-square-foot headquarters building with administrative offices, service shop and warehouse; a 3.5-acre service and transient basin; and a dock shop to support below-waterline hardware service and equipment storage.

Additionally, a fully enclosed works building for indoor projects is underway and will be complete by September. Six acres remain available for future expansion and development.

The company continues to operate a full-service yard with 60-ton lift capacity at its original location at Orange Beach Marina.

The Saunders family has been in the marine service business since 1959 and has operated Yachtworks at Orange Beach Marina since 1995.