I had a great experience at St. John’s Boat Co. in Jacksonville Fla. They’re not on your list, but I live here in JAX and had to pull my 37′ hunter to replace the rudder, prop shaft, and other parts.

I’ve worked on boats, cars, houses, etc. since I was about 10 yrs old and I’m 50 now. I’m of course a DIY’er and had a great experience at St. Johns Boat Co. They’re located just inside the entrance to JAX on the St.John’s river, next to the A1A Ferry boat dock.

They have a large lift, very knowledgeable and courteous staff. If you don’t know how to do something or need a hand doing something, there are people there that for an hourly rate, can help. If you need to have major parts brought in, there’s a large shop there that can handle almost anything.

This yard is where the pilot boats and other large commercial boats are worked on and there’s room for about 15 to 20 sailboats, but it looks like there’s usually about 5 in there. The yard is secure as the owners live across the street, and it’s about a 20 min drive to downtown JAX, so there’s no real riff-raff hanging around, just boat people.

Their website is www.stjohnsboatco.com [BROKENLINK]

This yard was very convenient so that I didn’t have to motor 13 hrs down the St. John’s to Green Cove Springs, the only other place for DIY’ers.

When I was there in November of 2011, Clark was running the lift and office, and he was GREAT to work with.

Keith Blankenship

s/v Renasci