70+ Years of Marina Experience

Late 1949: Capt. Shirley Brown moved onto the Bayou Chico property.

1961: Capt. Brown purchased the Audusson Ave. lots and land on the west side of the Marina (where the yard and office are today). It's unclear as to if the docks were already there or not.

October, 1963: A boat caught fire at night and burned the entire marina and all the boats, only one single boat survived.

Early 1964: New fixed covered slips were constructed and remained in use until being removed recently. Those slips survived for 54 years!

Late 1960's: Floating covered slips were added with state of the art aluminum corrugated roofing, located out beyond the fixed covered sheds in the current footprint.

Early 70's: The marina began hauling boats using a 25 ton crane and spreader bar with boat lifting straps/slings attached, setting them up in cradles on what is now the marina yard.

1975: An Acme Marine Travel lift was put into service and work was begun to improve the yard surface to accommodate more boats and their heavier weights.

1979: Hurricane Fredrick struck Pensacola in 1979 and did little damage to the fixed covered sheds, but entirely destroyed the floating covered sheds. After the cleanup, the new open floating docks were constructed to replace the covered floating docks.

1984 and 1985: The docks were again damaged, but repaired and in continuous use up until Hurricane Ivan completely destroyed them in 2004. The covered sheds survived with some damage, but were repaired.

1986: New "temporary" floating docks were constructed and put into service over the next year. Those "temporary" docks were in use until recently.

2005: The end of era with the passing of Captain Shirley Brown.

2015: The historically significant yacht Tenneco is deployed as an artificial reef in Alabama waters.

2016: A new era begins with Shirley Bryan taking over as sole owner of her father's business.

2017: The long term "temporary" floating docks and boathouses are demolished to make way for new state of the art Bellingham floating docks.

2018: Construction of the new docks begins with anticipated opening in late 2018.