A Family Trade, A Bay Tradition

How It Started

In 1986, Ross Sommer rented a small shed on the Richardson Bay waterfront in Sausalito, bought some used tools, and started taking in boats people had given up on. He'd grown up on the water in Marin County and had spent years working on boats — learned to read a hull the way other men read a newspaper.

Word got around fast. Within a few years he had more work than he could handle, and eventually brought his son Andrew into the trade — teaching him the same way he'd been taught: by doing the work, doing it right, and taking pride in it.

What We Stand For

We're not a franchise. We don't have a marketing department. What we have is a family who has spent their whole lives on this bay, who knows these waters better than most people know their own backyards, and who takes it personally when a job isn't done right.

We believe a boat deserves the same care as a home. When a customer hands us the keys, they're trusting us with something that matters to them — and we treat it that way. Every project, big or small, gets the same attention. That's not a policy. It's just how we were raised.

Community Rooted

We've been part of the Sausalito waterfront community for nearly four decades. We know the other shop owners, we know the harbor masters, and we know which boats have been sitting in that slip for twenty years. That local knowledge is something you can't manufacture — it just comes from being here, year after year, doing the work.