Family Is All Aboard For 75 Years At Strong’s Marine

Jeff Strong’s entry into the boating world began well before his 10th birthday, when he painted boat bottoms and pumped gas for customers at his father’s marina in Mattituck. He was still in his teens when he sold his first boat and started operating his own shop out of the marina. But he was absorbing lessons about how to run a successful business — one that would continue to grow and thrive for four generations and counting — nearly every day of his childhood, even when he wasn’t on a dock or in the bay.

“My Dad was a great technician and always loved getting people back out on the water,” Strong said in an interview earlier this month. “I can remember plenty of Saturday nights when my Mom wasn’t all that happy because someone’s boat had broken down, and my Dad would go out and be there at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night so they could be back out on their boat Sunday morning. I remember my Dad sharing with us the reason he did that was to see their smiling faces on Sunday, having a great time on the water.”

It was an approach that has been passed down to subsequent generations, and has led to success. “Super service,” as Mr. Strong calls it, is a family tradition that began in 1945, when his grandfather, Stewart Strong, opened the Strong-Holland Marina and Dealership in Lindenhurst.

Strong’s Marine is now celebrating its 75th anniversary this summer, with Mr. Strong’s sons, Ryan and Jay Strong, representing the fourth generation of the family in the business.

Mr. Strong, 63, runs the company as president, and his younger son, Ryan, 35, serves as vice president, while Jay, 38, is still heavily involved in sales and as a board member. Jeff’s wife, Re Strong, has also worked full-time for the company since 2000.

The business was small when Stewart started it in the 1940s, with just one location and a modest number of boats that would be considered small by today’s standards. Jeff’s parents, Dave and Dolores Strong, took over the business in 1965, moving Strong’s Marine to Mattituck, running the company for nearly 30 years before Jeff and Re took the reins in 1992.

Eight years later, they opened the showroom on County Road 39 in Southampton while also opening the Southampton marina, on Peconic Bay. In 2008, Strong’s expanded its presence to the western portion of Long Island, with a showroom and sales office in Port Washington at Brewer Capri Marina, ushering in a decade that would see some of the most rapid growth in the company’s history.

In 2010, Strong’s expanded into the yacht business, selling vessels up to 72 feet, and in 2013, the company debuted Strong’s Water Club on Mattituck Inlet, a nearly 9-acre marina with 135 in-water slips, a 25,000-square-foot indoor storage facility, salt water pool and restaurant. Three years later, they opened Strong’s Yacht Center on Mattituck Inlet, servicing and storing yachts of up to 130 feet. In 2017, they expanded again, entering an agreement to sell new boats at Al Grover’s Marina in Freeport.

Strong’s currently has eight locations across Long Island, selling boats and yachts from 18 to 161 feet. They are the authorized dealer of Cobalt, Regal, and Pursuit boats for Long Island and the five boroughs, and the authorized dealer of Grady-White boats in Nassau County and the five boroughs. Strong’s is also the authorized dealer for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for Sunseeker and Cruiser Yachts.

Mr. Strong, his sons, loyal customers and employees point to several reasons why the company has not only survived for such a long period of time in the business, but has also continued to grow over the years.

Like their father, both Ryan and Jay Strong were put to work at an early age, pumping gas and washing boats. The love of boating was passed down to them, along with the lesson that they had to earn their success.

“My grandfather taught us how to back up a trailer on a lawn mower when we were 7 or 8, and he also got us our first boat,” Ryan said, adding they were expected to put in the elbow grease to care for it themselves.

Ryan said that despite the success of the business, it wasn’t always an easy road for his parents. He recalled growing up and watching them work hard to keep the business profitable and viable after they bought it from his grandparents, a memory he said has stayed with him and kept him grounded.

Mr. Strong uses the word “fun” a lot when talking about his business. He says the main reason he didn’t hesitate taking over was because boating is a lifelong passion for him, as well.

“My parents worked hard, but we were out on the water as well,” he said. “My Dad started as a technician and a bayman, so we clammed and scalloped with him. We very much liked the lifestyle of being out on the water. You can be having the toughest day, but you go out on the water and instantly feel better.”

Mr. Strong still went away to college — his parents valued the idea of an education, something he passed on to Jay and Ryan as well, even requiring them both to work an unrelated job for at least a year after college before making the full commitment to Strong’s. Ryan ultimately made the business his full-time pursuit, while Jay, in addition to his duties for the firm, also runs a successful horse show stable, Laurel Crown Farms in East Quogue, alongside his wife, Laura Beth Strong.

The love of boating has made generations of the Strong family committed to work-life balance, and getting the most out of their time on the water is a passion they share with their customers, many of whom they’ve come to consider friends. Strong’s Marine puts a considerable amount of effort into events every year, and while the coronavirus pandemic has hindered what they can do this season, many customers with varying degrees of boating experience happily take part in their offerings every year, from a cruise to Sag Harbor for dinner, to longer overnight trips off shore. The Rendez-Vous trips, as they are called, have been a popular feature of the company for years, with groups of customers following the Strong family as they boat to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Newport and other destinations in the area.

Jim and Susan Horan bought their first boat from Strong’s in 1993, and have continued to buy boats from them in the years since, currently owning a 45-foot cruising yacht. The part-time Southampton residents were new to boating in the early 1990s, and steadily became seasoned boaters over the years, for which they credit the team at Strong’s.

They’ve done several Rendez-Vous trips, including an infamous journey to Martha’s Vineyard in 2011 when Hurricane Irene swept up the coast. The unexpected track the storm took forced the group to stay one night in a hotel and extend the trip by a night, but it’s still a fond memory for Mr. Horan.

“We were out moving boats around at 2 a.m., and everybody was helping everybody out,” he said. “But we still had a great time.”

Helping boaters get the most out of their investment is a priority for Strong’s, and they put a lot of effort into making that possible for customers, Mr. Strong said. In addition to the Rendez-Vous trips, Strong’s offers instruction and continuing education on everything from water skiing to learning how to navigate through the tricky waters of the Shinnecock Canal.

Mr. Strong takes pride in planning events and finding other ways to stay connected to their customers over a long period of time.

“We don’t do the events because we have to, or just to check a box,” he said. “We do it because part of our core values is to seek out fun. We think we’re a better business when we’re having fun.”

Of course, not every day is a breeze. During the early weeks of the pandemic, the future looked scary, Mr. Strong said, and he admitted to thinking back to the recession of 2008 and wondering if he was in for a repeat of that.

Instead, the opposite happened. As time went by and things started to open up, business skyrocketed. By the end of June, Strong’s had already done more in sales than it had in all of what was a record-breaking 2019. Mr. Strong said that being in business for so long and having built up a solid reputation enabled his company to take advantage of the surge in demand for boats related to the pandemic. Being nimble, and both anticipating and adapting to change has been a feature of the company for years, according to Jay.

“One thing about our family is that we’re always trying to be one step ahead of the curve,” he said. “We’ve been doing boat rentals and leasing since 1994, and it’s only become mainstream in the last five to 10 years. My father was also the first one to import fiberglass water skis into the country. People buy boats with the idea of things they see in movies, and it sounds like a good idea until you realize you have to be the driver, the mechanic, maybe even the plumber, and also try to have a good time with the family, too, so that’s where our instruction and the captain service we provide comes in. Trying to teach people how to have fun with the boat is so important.”

Debra Beni is a warranty administrator with Strong’s Marine and has been working there for more than two decades, and she expressed similar sentiments about the company’s staying power. She started in April 2000, working part-time for several years before Mr. Strong convinced her to go full time. She didn’t initially expect to be with the company for that long — she first met Mr. Strong when she became his physical trainer — and he eventually offered her a job. She slowly phased out of working as a trainer as she became a full time employee at Strong’s, a move she does not regret.

“Jeff and Re are beautiful people,” she said. “They’re very caring and loving and want to be the best they can be, and want the same for their staff.”

Beni said the growth of the company has been “mind-blowing,” and pointed to several reasons for that.

“They’re constantly seeking improvement and education,” she said. “And they love boating and love seeing people happy. They are open-minded and always want to learn more and advance, and they’re not afraid of change.”

Mr. Strong and his sons spoke extensively about the rapid advances in technology in recent years, and how it has made boating more accessible for a more diverse group of people.

Whereas the boating segment used to be primarily men or father-son pairings, it has increasingly become a family affair, and more women have become comfortable being at the helm out on the water, they said. The use of joystick controls has helped reduce the intimidation factor of docking, and larger boats handle much better than they used to.

And while Strong’s Marine has proven it can change with the times, and be on the leading edge of new trends in the industry, they have remained committed to the core values they started with — values that are taken to heart not only by the family members, they point out, but by the more than 100 full-time employees as well.

“In boating and in so many other industries, private equity has bought out a lot of business, and then relationships are lost,” Jay said. “You’re still buying from a salesperson and have a service advisor, but when things hit the fan, you know there’s that level of comfort that you can still call a Strong. It’s a comfort knowing there is someone who will pick up the other side of the phone.”