Jim Spiro, left, and Rob Lawnsby
A serial entrepreneur and founder of The Cruising Yacht Brokerage, Rob Lawnsby has spent his professinal life in the marine industry.
Starting in his 20’s in the boat manufacturing sector, he was a grunt on the assembly line putting wiring harnesses in center console boats for Bayliner in Georgia. Within two years he was foreman of the sailboat assembly line, and within five years was the production manager for an emerging sailboat company that became Sovereign Yachts.
After several years of breathing noxious fumes on the production line, he started a satellite sailboat dealership in Bristol, Rhode Island for Sailing Specialties in Mystic, Connecticut. From scratch, he built a successful enterprise selling new Hunters, Mainships, Southerlys and Beneteaus, along with a plethora of used power and sailboats. At age 55, Rob took off cruising for 5 years.
Coming back at age 60, he founded The Cruising Yacht Brokerage in 2009, which led to formation of the Narragansett Sailing School and Narragansett Sailing Charters a year later. Rob’s goal was to bring families into the cruising life by offering sailing education and then matching them the right boat. The businesses grew exponentially, and as Rob soon needed help managing them.
Jim Spiro came aboard to help run the Sailing School and acted as business manager for all three companies. Jim had many years of experience sailing, he was an ASA sailing instructor and a 100-ton master with many years of experience running businesses. A partnership was born as Rob and Jim had the same strong ethics in taking care of the customers no matter what.
As the businesses grew more managers were added. In 2014, Jim moved over to become principle broker and business manager at the Cruising Yacht Brokerage. As Rob approached 70, he sold off the sailing school and to and charter business.
As The Cruising Yacht Brokerage grew Jim’s time management challenges became greater, and the solution came in a mergr with New England Yacht Partners and their brokerage staff, plus the hiring of some new brokers. Today, we are a team of four brokers carrying on the solid tradition of matching clients with the right boats.
Throughout the years, the company name location remain the same.: The Cruising Yacht Brokerage, Narragansett Sailing School and Narragansset Yacht Charters still reside at Safe Harbor Cove Haven marina in Barrington, Rhode Island, and the three companies support each other with resources and referrals.
Today, we bring a strong educatonal component to our buyer broker services, to help clients find the most appropriate boat for their lifestyle.
