Alvah Goldsmith was a foreman at an auto dealership in Southold, N.Y., in 1923 when he ponied up the money to buy a 4-hp Evinrude outboard for his personal use. He liked the engine so much that he wrote the manufacturer to say so. To his surprise, company founder Ole Evinrude wrote back and asked if he’d like to become a dealer. The process was simple, Evinrude wrote, requiring the purchase of one more engine to sell.
Goldsmith ran the idea by his father, who was instantly skeptical: “I don’t know who would buy the cussed things.” Goldsmith bought the engine anyway, a decision that enabled him to start a fledgling business. It would become one of the country’s oldest, continuously operating marine dealerships. Today, Goldsmith’s Boat Shop in Southold is 100 years old.
When Goldsmith died in 1980, his son Alvah Jr. — who goes by his childhood nickname “Skip” — took over and continued to grow the business for almost four decades. In recent years, Skip, now 83 and still president, has given more control of the operations to his sons Glenn and Craig. They are now the third generation of Goldsmiths to manage the family company.
“Nobody knows the official date of when the business started, but the letter from Evinrude was written in December 1923,” Glenn says. The brothers decided to celebrate the centennial last August, in peak boating season. They shared story after story.
“After Evinrude made the dealership offer to my father, he sold motors off the front porch of his house,” Skip says. “Then he started storing motors in the barn and selling them to fishermen and other residents who wanted to get out on the water for pleasure.”
Recalls Glenn: “My grandfather was the founder of the recreational marine industry on the North Fork of Long Island.”
In 1931, the shop moved from a small inland site to 2 acres on Southold Bay at Founders Landing. The business survived the Great Depression and the collapse of a new storage shed during the 1938 New England hurricane. Operations remained small and local until Goldsmith got involved in building boats for the U.S. Navy during World War II.
“He wanted to get involved because he believed in the war effort, and he figured his business would fit right into making boats for the military,” Skip says. “So he had to make trips into Whitehall Street in New York City to meet with the Navy brass. After a bunch of trips, they finally gave him the OK.”
That was the company’s entrée into the boatbuilding business. “The first contract was for 10 boats from 24 to 35 feet, built to carry torpedoes, bombs and stuff like that,” Skip continues. “They would have to load on seaplanes in the Pacific.”
The company had 48 employees at the time. The completed “plane rearming boats” were put through speed trials, weighed and loaded onto railroad flatcars. The property was fenced in with guards.
Later, in 1946, with the return of peace, Goldsmith bought the 17-acre former Sanford brickyard dating back to the late 1800s. It was a mile and a half from Founders Landing on Main Road along Mill Creek, where the company is still located. Goldsmith’s, with about 10 employees, ceased building boats and shifted to selling and servicing small craft for the booming recreational market.
“I started working here when I was 14,” Skip says, “although I was fooling around the place earlier than that.”
Skip knew early on that his future lay in continuing the family business. “I had that in mind growing up and when I got my first boat,” he says. “I tried to pick up as much knowledge as I possibly could when I was younger.” He attended college and did a stint as a U.S. Air Force mechanic before returning to the boat shop in 1964. He became the owner when his father died of pancreatic cancer at age 74.
Covid-19 persuaded Skip to take a step back from work around the yard as he got older. The pandemic also took a toll on the business. “Covid just about shut everything down,” he says. “It didn’t come back until this past year. It was a situation where you couldn’t get parts, motors or boats, and people wanted to buy. And I’m talking about boats that sell for more than $100,000. It’s come back gradually, but not quite to where it was before. There are still shortages of things.”
Closing the business, Skip says, “never entered our minds. We just kept plugging along and wondering what’s next.”
Craig, who is 48, graduated from high school in 1992, went to college and worked at several different jobs. “But everything seemed to draw me back into the family business,” he says. “In 1999, I decided this was going to be my career.”
Glenn, who is 46, says he started working at the marina when he was 10 years old. “Both my brother and I started pumping gas and working at the Founders Landing location for a couple of years,” he says. “Then we shifted down to this yard and worked summers and weekends. After I went away to college, I came back and started working here in 1999.”
In 2015, Glenn left to work for Sea Tow, the marine assistance company founded in Southold, while still working part-time at Goldsmith’s. He became a town trustee like his grandfather, and came back to the family firm full time in 2020, after his father’s health became more fragile.
“As far as I’m concerned, they are doing a super job,” Skip says. “Glenn has got the business aspect down, and Craig is a salesperson who knows how to get along as far as sales are concerned. He remembers people’s names and their whole family history. The two of them make a great combination.”
Glenn says he often wonders how his father ran the shop single-handedly for all those years as the business was growing. “My dad did it seven days a week, often going back to the shop after dinner with his family,” he says.
Evinrude is no longer making engines, but Goldsmith now sells Yamaha outboards along with boats fro Scout, DuraNautic and Achilles. The company rents 110 slips and is building up the eroded spit of land that protects an outer dock area, to construct additional slips for owners on a long waiting list. “A lot of our customers have been around for a long time because this is a family business,” Glenn says. “We treat them as part of our family.”
Their oldest customer is Joe Stepnowski, of Southold, who is 80 and has been a client of Goldsmith’s for more than four decades. “I bought my first boat at the end of the season and didn’t have a place to put it,” Stepnowski says. “I shopped a couple of marinas, but the prices were really high. Then I saw Skip, who told me to put the boat in and don’t worry about it. He said, ‘If you have the boat next year and you want to come in here, then we will discuss money.’ That’s why I’m still here. The people at Goldsmith’s treat you like a customer, not a number, and they’re very knowledgeable.”
Craig says he now has a lot of customers who dealt with his dad. The family’s laid-back management style also tends to keep employees around for a long time. Mark Hodun, 56, of Riverhead, N.Y., has worked two stints at the boat shop, initially for 13 years starting in the mid-1980s. After leaving to work at another marina, he returned 12 years ago.
“I do a little bit of everything,” Hodun says. “The Goldsmiths are easy to work for. There are other places where they are on you all the time. I’ve been here long enough that they know what I can do.”
After learning the Goldsmith Boat Shop’s story, many people ask what happened to Alvah’s original 1923 Evinrude. The family doesn’t know, but they have collected other antique Evinrude outboards, including one from 1913. They’re creating a mini museum to show off the collection.
As for future ownership of the family enterprise, some say the reins could be handed over to Glenn’s two sons, Landon and Reed, who are 15 and 13, respectively. They have worked at the marina pumping gas and doing other chores. “I think it’s there for them if they want it,” Glenn says. “But at the same time, they should keep their options open.”
This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue.
