Irwin Marine At Red Bank

The story is somewhat apocryphal — no one is sure of the dates and the details are sparse — but it’s a good one, and there’s no doubting the location: the Navesink River. Picture this: a summer day, possibly in the 1920s, maybe earlier. Two men are messing about on a dock with a brass bell. Someone rings it under water as they travel downriver, listening. When they get around a bend they realize they can’t hear it anymore; ergo, sound travels in straight lines. What we do know is that the two men were Captain Charles P. Irwin and his friend Thomas A. Edison. Edison was involved with a naval research lab whose work led to building the nation’s first practical radar equipment. Irwin owned the dock.

“I know that they were friends and worked together,” explains Chan Irwin, Charles P. Irwin’s grandson and the third-generation owner of Irwin Marine, at 1 Marine Park in Red Bank. “That’s about as much as came down to me as far as their association.”

Chester Arthur was president of the United States when Charles P. Irwin opened for business in 1884. Today, much — but not all — has changed. As Chan notes, there have been 23 presidents since then, but “only three Irwins at the helm of our marine dealership.” Chan’s father, Edwin, took over the business from Charles P. — who died in 1951, the year Chan was born — with brothers Joseph and Charles; by around 1956 the brothers had moved to Florida. Edwin was an “active” owner until the mid-1980s, when Joseph also retired. As for Chan, “I knew I was going to come into the business ever since I could remember. I didn’t want to be a lawyer or a chef or sky jumper. I’ve always loved boats and the water,” he says, recalling that his “great-grandpop” Captain Edward Irwin went to sea in 1843 at the age of 10.

The marina does today what it has done for the past 124 years, just more of it — from new and used boat sales, dockage, in-water, on-land and hi/dry winter storage to fun events and boating safety courses and seminars. “We try and be pro-active with education and training, and making our customers aware of what’s going in the boating community and on the water,” Chan says.

At present, the soft part of the market is the smaller 17- and 20-footers. “We knew once gas reached about $3 a gallon there was going to be an adjustment period of a certain length of time before people got used to it, and/or were able to afford it,” he explains. “But it’s all cyclical: We see this curve happening every five to seven years.”

Boat shows aside, the Irwin Marine 10-person service department stays busy all fall and winter. Repairs must be made, and new boats “rigged” with everything from radar arches to batteries for delivery to customers. Also on the payroll are two full-time sales people (the sales ranks swell during boat-show season with part-timers, some of whom are the delivery captains who run new craft to customers in the spring.) Co-piloting the marina is Chan’s wife Christine. A former banker, Christine “segued” into the company’s accounting department in 1982, and has enjoyed the job ever since. “It’s hard not to love being by the water, for one thing,” she says. “And I love not wearing a suit and heels.”

The “summerization” process gets under way in March, with the first priority being the removal of the de-icing, or bubble, system — upward of a mile-and-one-half of hose through which air is pumped to prevent water around boats from freezing. There are 100 boat slips at Yard 1, which is located at 1 Marine Park, and another 50 slips at Yard 2, which is next to nearby Monmouth Boat Club and serves as the primary land-storage facility.

When the docks and all the equipment are ship-shape, it’s time to get the boats back into their respective summer slips, and hook up all the amenities (cable TV, telephone and Wi-Fi are available dockside). And by the end of August, it’s time to think about getting the boats out of the water again.

The seasonal work cycle is second nature to Chan, who has seen and done it all. As a youngster he scampered around the docks, did his share of bottom-painting and “grunt work,” and gradually learned the business under the guidance of his father and uncle. “Joe did the paperwork and my father ran the yard,” Chan says. A 1969 Red Bank High School graduate, Chan worked at the marina during college vacations, and upon graduation in 1973, began full time. “I started with running the yard, and then as Joe taught me to do the billing and so forth, I took that over.”

In the footsteps of his forebears, Chan and Christine’s 20-year-old son Brian works for Irwin Marine during summer and college vacations, learning the business from the sales end. “He has expressed an interest,” Chan says knowingly. Which means, at some future date, Irwin Marine will be run by a fourth-generation member of the Irwin family. “There’s not a whole lot of fourth-generation companies running around,” says Chan, who couldn’t be happier.

IRWIN MARINE AT RED BANK
1 Marine Park | 866.624.4582