Meet Tony Yurjevic: The legend who runs the Rayglass Service Department

The Rayglass Service Department take care of hundreds of vessels every year, performing thousands of hours of work to keep our customer’s boats on the water running their best. The man in charge of the entire operation is Tony Yurjevic.

If you’re a Rayglass customer, chances are you’ve spoken to Tony and realised that he knows what he’s doing.

Forty years working on engines

Tony’s knowledge and competence has been hard earned over a long career, but he hasn’t always worked in the marine industry. Tony spent almost thirty years working for Ford. He started as a young apprentice and worked his way up to workshop controller, where he gained experience coordinating servicing for a large group of customers. 

Despite working on engines all week Tony can’t get enough - you’ll still find him in the garage at home when he’s not on the clock:

“Spending far too much time and money restoring tired, rusty 350 engines. I’m currently working on number seven,” Tony said.

When he’s not lying underneath an engine Tony also loves travelling, spending time with his grandson and fishing at his favourite spot by the rocks near the Rangi lighthouse.

Nearly a decade at Rayglass

After nearly three decades working in the automotive industry Tony decided it was time for a change and walked through the doors of Rayglass HQ. He started as a technician, then moved to service advisor and finally ended up in charge of the entire department as service manager. His current role is all about coordinating several jobs at a time to solve customer’s problems and get the job done:

“There are so many moving parts and we all need to be onto each other, otherwise things fall over.”

Despite how much Tony has going on he says that Rayglass’ amazing customers make it all worthwhile:

“Customers are the focus for me and Mike - anything we can do to help. We have the best customers in the world. Great bunch of people. They all have the same passion for boating.”

Tony (second from the right, bottom row) with his service team including service advisor Mike Thompson (bottom left)

Tony’s world class service in action

Tony’s job can be demanding, but he still goes above and beyond to deliver Rayglass customers a world-class customer service experience. One evening a Rayglass customer, Rob, who lives on Great Barrier, was towed into Tryphena when his engine failed. 

He tried to fix the issue himself and when he had no luck he got on the phone to Tony to troubleshoot. When that didn’t work Rob said he thought his summer of boating was over, but Tony wouldn’t have it. 

“Tony rang back and said I will be there in a few hours with some tools and things. Remember I live on the Barrier! I couldn’t believe it. About 4:00pm a Rayglass turned into the bay and rafted up to me on my mooring.”

Tony got straight into it, took the starter motor off by feel and within a couple hours the problem was solved and Rob was absolutely stoked:

“I fired her up and away she went. If this isn’t the best bit of customer service out there I will eat my hat.”

Tony headed home from Great Barrier feeling good but his vessel broke down and he ended up getting back to Auckland at 1am!

After his good experience Rob posted on the Rayglass Owner’s Group to show his appreciation. We’ve seen Tony go above and beyond almost every week to provide Rayglass customers with the best possible customer service so we love to see him get recognition from our customers. What a legend!

If your boat needs a service or you’ve got a question around boat maintenance, you can either book online or contact Tony directly. 

+64 21 751 495 | [email protected]