Meet
Robby Borden.

From the generating station to the Charleston waterfront.

Robby Borden grew up on Charleston’s waterways. He spent nearly 35 years at Santee Cooper, first getting to know equipment from the operator’s side at Cross Generating Station. In 2008 he became an engineering associate. By the time he moved into maintenance management in 2015, he had seen the same machinery from two perspectives: what the drawings showed and how it behaved on a working shift.

From 2018 to 2023, Robby worked in continuous improvement, where teamwork and optimization were part of the job. His later sustainability role drew on data analysis and AutoCAD. That mix of hands-on work and analysis still shapes the questions he asks: What are we comparing? Where did the number come from? What could the person who knows this equipment tell us that the paperwork can’t?

For a yacht buyer, take two boats of the same model, one with fewer engine hours. The hours are a useful starting point. A dated service invoice can tell you when a cooling system was last serviced; a listing that simply says “well maintained” leaves that question open. Robby enjoys sitting down with a buyer, laying those details side by side and working out what to ask the owner before a showing. Which boat makes sense also depends on the people aboard and how they want to spend their time on the water.

Photography and drone videography brought Robby into yacht marketing through his friendship with Captain Mike Phillips. Today he works alongside Mike and Ed Barteet at Sea Island Yachts.