Dreamers exist everywhere. Life seems full of babblers who bombard us with what they are going to do, and they never seem to get around to doing it.

Over several years and three visits, I have had the pleasure of watching a visionary’s dream turn from drawings on a napkin (while having lunch in the back of a pick-up) to a high-class yacht facility.

After 17 years, Jim Bento’s doodling on a napkin has resulted in a megayacht marine facility that is both rather desperately needed and user friendly for captains and crews.

While heading to Ft. Lauderdale for the 2005 boat show, we decided to avoid the hurricanes that were zeroing in on South Florida and hauled M/V Thunder, a Delta Expedition-style yacht, at Ocean Marine in Portsmouth, Va., for a stabilizer upgrade, bottom painting and topside painting where needed. Ocean Marine is a deep-water facility with 1,500 feet of alongside dockage across the ICW from Norfolk and within sight of numerous U.S. Navy complexes.

This ultra modern haul-out yard uses a Syncrolift via a ground-level rail transfer system to haul vessels up to 230 feet and 1,250 tons. The feeling of total security using this slow moving vertical lift instead of a travel lift with slings is similar to being cuddled in a mother’s arms.

With only one day warning of our arrival, Jim rearranged the yard’s schedule and made a space available inside his awesome twin-bay indoor paint booth. This amazing building has a water system that washes down the inside walls before painting to remove any possible dust. The building is heated through the floor for uniform heat throughout the structure. Even on the coldest of winter days, it is always a balmy 70 degrees in this enormous paint booth.

A few years ago when I first visited Ocean Marine for a tour of M/Y Enterprise V, I vividly recall how small – at 190-foot – she seemed inside this paint booth.

With attention to detail, Jim has installed water tanks for cooling towers so a yacht’s air conditioning units can run while inside the building. More than 1,000 amps of power are available for continual ship’s operations with both 60 and 50 hertz available. Large freezers are available for crew to store frozen foods if necessary while completing engineering projects that may take a freezer off-line.

The yard never uses scaffolding as hydraulic lift platforms get the job done far more efficiently.

Jim’s attention to detail verges on the neurotic as the forklifts in the dry storage building have white tires so as to not leave any black marks on the floor of the facility.

Greg Cox was assigned to Thunder as project manager. His years in the industry show with his even-keeled temperament. With dozens of problems to be resolved at any one moment in his hectic day, Greg always seemed to be able to handle one more query with aplomb and patience.

Ocean Marine prides itself on five-star customer service. When this world-class shipyard was recently confronted with a unique bottom-paint removal project, Greg called in SodaBlast Systems to assist with solving the problem. Rob May, owner of Tidewater Sodablasting, used a high-pressure, air-driven, non-destructive method of cleaning and stripping years of built-up paint. This method works on steel, fiberglass, aluminum, wood and composites.

Ocean Marine pumps all environmental unfriendly debris into tanks for recycling. Its system meets all of the latest environmental rules. Always conscious of using environmental friendly products as well as the time constraints on captain’s needs with rapid turn-around in haul-out situations makes Ocean Marine a pleasure to work with.

In addition to the paint department, Ocean Marine has a staff of outstanding marine engineers, the welding guys are top notch, the carpentry shop can compete with European standards, and the electrical guy is totally conversant with the latest digital needs of a superyacht’s bridge. All in all, a well-honed team of experts.

The yard recently finished work on M/Y Fortunate Sun, a 177-foot Oceanfast. When it was finished, the owner was so impressed he signed up his other yacht – the 150-foot Tacoma ZaZa – for regular maintenance, repair and a paint job.

As for location, downtown Portsmouth is a 10-minute walk from Ocean Marine. We found inexpensive, completely renovated hotel rooms for the crew at reasonable rates. A gym and many restaurants abound in the area.

If you are tired of having your yacht painted in less than eco-friendly surroundings and being wrapped in plastic that is forever tearing and letting in dust, take a solid look at having your next haul-out done at Ocean Marine. These guys shine.

For more information about Ocean Marine, visit www.oceanmarinellc.com . Capt. David Hare is a regular contributor to The Triton. His last story was about flying. Contact him through david@hare.com.