The Marine Industry Dealer Certification

The McGowan family purchased Spray Dock in 1958. It was a small rowboat rental operation called Ray’s Dock. Jack McGowan, Phebe’s late husband and Ron’s dad had the original vision for Spray Dock. It was to be a rowboat rental operation that sold bait, tackle and other sundry items. The vision started to change during the summer of 1958 when word got out that Jack McGowan was a first class mechanic. The McGowan family had owned numerous service stations in the 1940’s and 1950’s. People started bringing their outboard motors into Spray Dock for repairs. Ron helped fix some motors and decided that he liked the marine business. In the fall of 1958 the Scott-Atwater Outboard Company, now out of business, offered Spray Dock the franchise to sell and service their products. This started the Sales and Service operation of the company.

Naturally, because of excellent service and fair pricing, the operation started growing. Some of the original boat lines handled were: Keller Kraft, Whitehouse, Glastron and many other names long since forgotten. In 1964 Spray Dock was signed as an associate Evinrude dealer and a few years later the Johnson outboard franchise was added. Motor volume grew with boat lines such as: Arrow Glass, Thompson and more recently Grady-White.

In 1968 Jack McGowan passed away and Ron and Phebe became officers in the newly incorporated Spray Dock Inc. The rowboat rental business was discontinued in favor of placing more emphasis on boat and motor sales. In 1975 Bunny McGowan, Ron’s wife joined the operation on a mostly full time basis. In 1978 the Grady-White boat line was acquired which added greatly to the quality reputation of Spray Dock. In 1985 the adjoining marina called Obie’s Place was purchased to provide much needed room for expansion. Also during the early years, a large warehouse, with adjoining fenced in storage properties were purchased in Wildwood. An additional storage lot was just purchased adjoining our display lot in February 2005. Over the years various improvements have been made in the facilities including: enlarged parts & accessories area, larger office and closing areas, improved and enlarged boat unloading facility in Wildwood, new docks and improvements in the parking area for our customers.

Our goal is to provide superior customer service on a personal basis. We are small enough to know all our customers on a first name basis, but large enough to handle their boating needs in a professional way. In business over 50 years we have learned to treat our customers with honesty. We have strived to “under-promise and over-deliver”. We have third generation customers whose grandparents and parents have done business with us.

We know “if we honor the LORD He will honor us” which is one of the reasons we are closed on Sundays. We will never do anything to compromise that belief and our customers understand and appreciate this commitment