February 23, 2011
It was an invite we could not refuse: a Cuban-style pig roast -- complete with homemade guava barbecue sauce -- to celebrate survival.
Spencer Boat Company has been in business a year now, leasing space at the Merrill-Stevens shipyard on the Miami River. When Merrill-Stevens laid off nearly all its employees a couple of weeks before Christmas in 2009, former yard superintendent John Spencer decided to put everything he had on the table to hire back his crew and keep working on boats. It’s what he does.
And he does it well. Within days, he had enough work to last six months. In January, he had a party -- complete with a birthday cake -- to say thank you to his guys.
“I want you to know I appreciate the help,” the soft-spoken Spencer said. “Thank all of you here today because without you, none of us would be here today.”
Connie James was there, a man who worked at Merrill-Stevens his whole life.
“He must have hauled the Blackhawk a hundred times,” said Capt. Sandy Broome of the 123-foot Feadship that made its home at Merrill Stevens for more than 20 years.
Other long-time Merrill-Stevens employees were there, including Whit Kirtland, the longtime Merrill-Stevens broker who is now with Bradford Marine; his dad, Fred Kirtland, former CEO of the shipyard, and former President Ron Baker.
Spencer wrote the name of each of his roughly three dozen employees on a slip of paper and drew names for prizes that he either bought himself or had donated from vendors who use the yard such as Interlux and Merritt Yachts. There were T-shirts, a camera, restaurant gift certificates, grocery gift cards, and a fishing pole.
To kick off the barbecue, he held a quiet ceremony at the yard, hoisting a Spencer Boat Company flag.
“On the last day of Merrill-Stevens, we took the flag down, gave it a military fold and gave it to Whit Kirtland,” Spencer said. “Today, we raised a new flag to usher in a new era.”
We all wish you luck. To see more photos, click here.
Capt. David Gunn recently commissioned M/Y Perspicaz, a Marlow 78. He and Mate Michelle Doveton received the yacht off its transport ship in January and prepared her for the Marlow display at the Yacht & Brokerage Show last month. They expect to go to the Caribbean towing a 32-foot Intrepid and eventually head to South America.
“We’ll train the crew so he’ll be able to run the boat himself,” Gunn said. “Then, in about six to eight months, we’ll be back on the market for work.”
The new yacht is 86 feet overall, Gunn said; Marlow measures its vessels by the waterline.
After not being satisfied with his job options last year, Capt. Chris Day has joined the Ft. Lauderdale office of Yacht Concierge, a company that takes care of vessels with regular inspections, system checks and detailing. It focuses on yachts of about 110 feet and smaller that don’t have permanent crew.
Capt. Ronald Billiot of M/Y Picasso was the first to receive reward money after his part in last summer’s capture of Colton Harris-Moore, known in media reports as The Barefoot Bandit.
Billiot navigated Picasso’s tender for Bahamian police near Harbour Island in Eleuthera, Bahamas in pursuit of 19-year-old Harris-Moore after he had eluded international law enforcement in connection with 70 robberies in several U.S. states.
A $10,000 reward was offered by the FBI and split between Billiot and four others involved in the capture.
Have you made an adjustment in your latitude recently? Let us know. Send news of your promotion, change of yachts or career, or personal accomplishments to Editor Lucy Chabot Reed at lucy@the-triton.com.
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