John Shannahan founded the Oxford Yacht Agency in the late 60’s and at that time operated out of one of the local Oxford boatyards. Being one of the earlier Grand Banks dealers and with the market accepting and embracing that boat, he soon found that he needed his own facility and purchased the old Applegarth boat repair yard at the entrance of Morris Street. He operated the dealership at that location for years, but found that only having the ability to haul one boat at a time limited both the commissioning of new boats as well as servicing the boats he had already sold.
At about the time he began looking for a larger facility, the old Dickerson boat building facility came onto the market. He realized the potential of the property with it’s vast acreage, plenty of slips and a couple of large buildings. He purchased the property and moved the service side of the business to this new location. Realizing that there was a huge market for indoor boat storage and having all this property at his disposal, he began erecting new storage buildings. This was a good plan, as every building was filled to capacity every year.
Today, the company still operates out of two facilities. The phone is answered as “Oxford Yacht Agency” in Oxford and this is our Grand Banks and Eastbay and other quality boat sales facility. We do have some slips in Oxford that we rent out, but mostly the boats you see at our docks there are in our brokerage department.
The phone is answered as “Dickerson Harbor” when you call the Trappe boatyard, and this is the boat service and boat storage facility. Since the property was originally not set up as a marina, but rather a boat building facility, there were lots of improvements to be made, which continue even now. The latest was running 50 amp electric out to the larger slips to accommodate the large trawlers and downeast boats we get in for service work.
Customers often get confused when they call and do not get the greeting they expect, but rest assured that we can help with all matters at both locations.
We are the Mid-Atlantic Quality Boat, Grand Banks and Eastbay specialists!
