Sea Ray Boats begins operations again on Merritt Island

MERRITT ISLAND – Sea Ray Boats, once a major employer on Merritt Island, is sailing back into production.

The company plans to reactivate its Sykes Creek manufacturing facility on Merritt Island for work on the company's L-Class yachts. Sea Ray expects the expanded construction to begin this summer and the company plans to create up to 100 jobs over the next year.

"We're very pleased with the great success of the new L-Class and look forward to adding jobs back to the Sykes Creek community," Sea Ray President Tim Schiek said in a statement. "We are more committed than ever to delivering industry leading products and ensuring that our customers have the most enjoyable boat ownership experience possible."

The L-Class yachts are 65-feet-long and cost about $3.5 million.

Sea Ray's re-emergence on Merritt Island comes after last week's announcement that a new company, Merritt Island Boat Works, plans to also begin making yachts in a facility once used by Sea Ray. The company is taking over a facility last operated by Bertram Yachts and is promising 380 new jobs and a capital investment of more than $16 million in Brevard County.

Florida is the leading state for sales of new powerboats, motors and accessories, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Sales reached $1.96 billion in 2013.

The marine sector in Brevard, known more for aerospace and other tech fields, is slowly starting to bubble up as more people decide to spend money on watercraft.

And with that, Sea Ray is re-establishing a foothold in the area.

Sea Ray opened its first plant on Merritt Island in 1972 and employed about 1,000 workers. The company grew to three plants on Merritt Island and was produced about 20 sport yachts a week valued from $200,000 to more than $500,000.

At its peak, Sea Ray employed more than 1,500 workers.

Hit hard by the economy in recent years, Sea Ray, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, began paring and consolidating all of its operations. About two years ago, the company consolidating its boat manufacturing operations to Palm Coast, putting more than 200 people out of work.

Sea Ray is a division of the Brunswick Corp.

Brunswick's product development and engineering center, located adjacent to the Sykes Creek plant, will remain. BBG will also continue to use the existing customer reception facilities, sales and customer service offices, and wet slips located on the Merritt Island campus.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com