After getting out of the service and marrying, I had decided on the boat business as my endeavor. My father had two boat stores located in Long Beach and West Covina during 1950's. My job in high school and college was working in his stores. Besides helping in the shop, cleaning the lots, and traveling all over southern California picking up boats, trailers and outboards I was the one who demonstrate the boats. Not a bad job for a kid. So it was the boat business I was going to tackle. My first job was as a salesman at Harbor Boat House in Garden Grove in 1967. After two years I went to work for Cheetah boats in Stanton, California. Cheetah built low profile metal flake jet ski boats and needed someone to setup dealerships around the country. We would build a number of boats, load them on a truck and I'd head east showing the boats and setting up dealers. When the truck was empty it was back to the plant and finish up more boats.

After a year the travel became a burden on my family. Being away from home two or three weeks every month was tough and I decided to get back into the retail end of selling boats. This time I wanted to try my hand with some bigger boats. Looking through Newport Beach I found Bob Staats and the Robert V. Staats Co.

From 1970 to 1976 we sold new Uniflite's and brokerage powerboats, becoming the largest Uniflite dealer in the U.S. In 1977 Bob Staats sold the Uniflite franchise. The two companies's coexisted in the same location sharing the same personnel. Robert Staats Co. selling brokerage boats and Uniflite Yacht Sales handling the Uniflite sales. With the terrible downturn of the economy in 1982 the owners of Uniflite Yachts wanted out. This was when Orange Coast Marine Inc. was formed. Tad Fujita and I purchased the Uniflite franchise and went into business as Uniflite Yachts Newport Beach. We took over the sales of all brokerage boats as well. That same year we negotiated our new location and built our present building.

In 1984 Chris Craft purchased Uniflite and we became the Chris Craft dealer. With Uniflite Yachts no longer being built it was time to change our name to something a little more generic. Orange Coast Yachts was born. In 1985 we picked up the Alexander line and thought we had the best of all worlds, a solid American builder in Chris Craft and the best quality foreign builder in Alexander Marine. Alas, in 1989 Chris Craft closed its doors. We wanted to keep our mix and started looking for another American builder. We narrowed our choices until we felt we had the best builder in America. A family with over 200 years experience building yachts in the same location. Ocean Yachts of New Jersey.

Over the next few years we prospered and became one of the largest Ocean Yachts and Alexander Marine dealers in the U.S. But in late 1991 the luxury tax slowed everything down. We survived where many didn't. Keeping inventory to a minimum we gave up the Ocean line and concentrated on Alexander.

In 1996 West Bay SonShip approached us, they wanted to expand their dealer network and thought we would be a good representative for them in California. Complimenting Alexander Yachts, West Bay built boats from 58' to 106'. By 1998 business was prospering and we looked to a sport fish manufacturer to fill out our product lines. Ocean Yachts was again available and we jumped at the opportunity.

In 1999 we parted company with West Bay SonShip. To compensate for the loss of boats over 70' we asked Alexander Marine to think about building some larger vessels. They researched the idea, sending key employees to the US to look at different models and what it took to build larger boats. Ed Monk met with the Alexander managers and set up meetings and showings with Nordlund. The managers spent time going through boats from every builder available. Then Ed Monk was given the job of designing and engineering a new model. We are looking forward to our first boat in 2001.

Now we have the most complete line up of quality boats from 40' to 86' on the West Coast of America. Alexander Marine offers Ed Monk designed Pilothouse and long range cruisers. Building boats that focuses on the needs of West Coast Boaters from 42' to 86' and Ocean Yachts is the largest builder of Sport Fish Boats in America from 40' to 70'. Both manufacturers are aggressively designing and building new products to keep up with the changing demands

This is the start of my 33rd year and we are poised to be the best Yacht Sales and Brokerage company on the West Coast of America. I can only thank our customers through the years who stuck with us. I don't think any company in our industry has enjoyed the loyalty of repeat business and the friendship of its customers as much as we have. We learned a long time ago, take care of the customer and when there are gas lines like the 70's, or 20% interest like the 80's, or Luxury taxes like the 90's then the customers will still be there for you. So what this History comes down to is to remind me how much we owe our customers through the years. Thank you one and all.

Jim McLaren and the staff of Orange Coast Yachts

Orange Coast Yachts

Orange Coast Yachts 201 East Coast Highway Newport Beach, CA 92660, USA Toll-free 866-376-0727 Tel (949) 675-3844 Fax (949) 675-3980 Email Us

Orange Coast Yachts San Francisco Bay 1070 Marina Village Parkway Suite 100 Alameda, CA 94501, USA Toll-free 877-532-0821 Tel 510-523-2628 Fax 510-523-2528 Email Us

http://orangecoastyachts.com

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