About Us

 

       

       Brinson Marine was started in 1956 by Curtis Brinson. He felt that having a location close to Syracuse, on the way to Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes, would be a good idea despite being on top of Onondaga Hill. Through the late sixties and early seventies Brinson Marine expanded with Starcraft Boats, West Bend Outboards, Chrysler Outboards, Johnson Outboards, John Deere Lawn and Garden equipment and SkiDoo snowmobiles. A major expansion of the shop and sales area was completed around 1970. Curtis died in 1972 and his son Jim took over the business.

 

        Through the late seventies and eighties the business was re-focused on boats and discountinued the lawn and garden part of the business. Onondaga Community College became a new neighbor. Jim's nephew Pete Carolin joined the crew in 1979 washing boats, building trailers and doing yard work. Brand names Century, Imperial, Wahoo, Weeres, Starcraft, Ebbtide, Supra and ShoreMaster were all sold during the eighties. The facilities were expanded again in 1986 with a larger showroom for accessories and on site storage facilities with the purchase of adjacent property.

 

        Jim Brinson sold the business in 1996 to lawyer John Cherundolo who also had interests in Skaneateles Marina and Sand Beach Marine in Auburn. The joining of the three locations was meant to take advantage of increased buying power and employee cross utilization but it never worked as planned. Sand Beach Marine was closed and Skaneateles Marina and Brinson Marine continued to operate separately. Pete Carolin was appointed manger of Brinson Marine in 1998 and refocused the operation on ShoreMaster docks and boat lift sales as well as Weeres pontoon boats, Mercury outboards and accessory sales. A major expansion of the water ski and wakeboard pro shop as well as the service shop happened in 2000.

 

        Pete purchased the Brinson operation in 2007 and continues to grow the dock and lift business. Since 2010, Brinson Marine has been named the top performing ShoreMaster single location dealer in the Northeast. Brinson recently started focusing once again on pontoon boats with Trifecta brand pontoons. After 63 years in the marine industry, many customers are known to remark “My grandfather bought a boat here!” The landlocked location next to Onondaga Community College on top of the hill has done well over the years.