by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
You would be hard-pressed to find anyone with a more diverse professional career the past several years than Bronson Lamb. After spending 30 years in the yacht repair and maintenance business — his family owned Lamb’s Yacht Center — Lamb sold the yacht center four years ago to the Nightingale family and went in a radically different direction.
“I wanted to do some different things,” said Lamb, who is also an ordained minister. “When we sold the yacht center, I worked in a nursing home for a year and I really loved it. Then, I opened a preschool. For two years, I started and headed St. Catherine’s Episcopal preschool.”
In October, Lamb returned to his roots. He and partner Clark Coit — a longtime friend, employee and co-worker — bought four acres on the St. Johns River on Heckscher Drive, just north of the St. Johns River Ferry. A few unused buildings have been knocked down and today Lamb and Coit own and operate St. Johns Boat Company — a marina dedicated to focusing on large commercial and pleasure vessels. While Lamb and Coit will do some basic repairs and maintenance work, the marina’s primary purpose is as a docking facility.
“We have a 300-ton railway lift that gets boats out of the water and in 60 days we are getting a 100-ton travel lift,” said Lamb. “We will focus on a fair amount of do-it-yourself. We will haul boats out of the water and we charge by both space and time to fix the boat. We have a limited menu of services — haul out, underwater gear repair work, bottom painting and dry storage for boats up to 120-feet. Most commercial boats have their own maintenance crews.”
Coit and Lamb have worked together for 15 years. Coit owned Inlet Marine in Orange Park in the 1970s before eventually going to work for Lamb. Over the years, Lamb focused on the pleasure boat side of the business while Coit worked the commercial side. Today, those roles have been pretty much reversed.
“Bronson loves a challenge. He’s learning the commercial side of the industry,” said Coit. “I know the yacht market. I know the travel lift. It’s a lot easier.”
Lamb isn’t totally unfamiliar with the commercial side of the industry. In the past he’s worked on commercial vessels for the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard. Lamb, who is 54 years old, doesn’t think making the move to full-time commercial vessel work will be difficult.
“It’s what I grew up doing,” he said. “I got back in it because I really love the commercial side. Commercial is a lot less emotional.”
A marina is nothing new for the location. For half a century the property was Dayles Shipyard which built primarily barges and tug boats and did maintenance work.
“It was sold 10 years ago to Joe Hartley, a friend whom I’ve known for a long time,” said Lamb. “Joe never ran this marina. He ran a shipyard in Tampa.”
Both Coit and Lamb said they have been eying the marina for several years. When it became available, the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“This was an opportunity to blend the repair of commercial vessels with pleasure vessels,” said Lamb. “We are moving forward with that. We will continue the commercial side and add the pleasure side in the next 60 days. Within 90 days, we will be fully-functional.”
Coit agreed.
“I had been looking out here for the past five or six years,” he said. “Bronson had been, too. We collaborated and talked ourselves into it. I think it’s working pretty good and there’s plenty of development around here. By July, we will be cranking pretty good.”
There are two other tenants on the property, one of which is the marine division of Ring Power Corp.
“We have a wonderful relationship with them,” said Lamb. “Boats with Caterpillar engines will not have to drive all over for repairs or parts. They can get them right here. It’s good for both of us and we are happy to have them.”