In 1969 Jake Wood, a man with an 8^th grade education from Inkom, Idaho, along with two partners bought a business in the newly constructed city, Marina del Rey. The trio purchased the business from an Asian company and opted to keep the name Windward Yacht and Repair Inc. Throughout the next 9 years the partners worked to build the company. In 1978 after one of the partners was bought out of the company, Jake’s brother Arlen Wood came on board. Ultimately the other partner from the original trio left the company and Arlen and Jake Wood were left with Windward Yacht Center.

From 1978 on Arlen ran the day to day activities in the company. With his strong background in construction he oversaw the rebuilding of the docks, building the yard as we have it now, and acquiring the largest marine Travelift from San Diego to Ventura. This industrious man from Idaho managed to cultivate a successful business in economic upturns and downturns making it the largest and oldest boat yard in Marina del Rey. After the death of Jake Wood in 2007, Windward fell wholly under the ownership of Arlen.

In 2010 in the tradition of Windward and its focus on family run business Arlen introduced his daughter, Dayna Baglow, as the new Chief Operating Officer of Windward. Happy to carry on the family tradition she hopes to keep up with the legacy of hard work and quality that her father has left at Windward.

When mentioning the focus on family and loyal relations that Windward carries it is important to mention that we have 3 families of workers in our yard, some here since 1977. At Windward we value family, loyalty and hard work above all else for that is what we have learned from those who created the business and have kept it successful through the years.