From left are employees Steve Brown, James Judson, new boat owner Eric Paul and boatyard owner Doug Jaynes working on Paul's 38-foot Sea Runner catamaran sailboat in the hoop shed at Jaynes Marine facility on Cockrell's Creek near Reedville.

“People are paying attention to multi-hulls since we won the America’s Cup,” said Doug Jayne, owner of Jayne’s Marine near Reedville, a new boatyard that specializes in building and servicing multi-hull yachts.

Jayne opened for business in 2008 in a small complex of industrial buildings on Cockrell’s Creek near the Omega airfield in Reedville. With about 12,000 square feet of office and shop space on 3.2 acres, a 20,000-pound all-terrain military forklift, a 30-ton boat lift wide enough for the multi-hulls and 40 years of boat building and servicing experience, Jayne and his wife, Allison, found a spot to fill a niche market.

“We are getting people from New York to the Carolinas,” said Jayne. “It is really hard to find a place to haul out multi-hulls.”

He realized that need when he tried to find a place to haul his own trimaran, Traveler, a few years ago and realized there was no place between New York and Florida. Having lived in Mathews when he was younger, Jayne started looking around the Chesapeake Bay and found the perfect site in Reedville.

Deep water, no mast restrictions because of bridge heights, a wide boat ramp for haul-outs and three buildings already zoned for industrial use made the perfect combination for his new business. Jayne said his company has been welcomed with open arms by the community.

“We are not taking business away from anybody,” said Jayne. “We wanted to add to the pile, not take away from it.”

Jayne moved up from St. John’s in the Virgin Islands of the Caribbean, where he had been running a charter sailing business. But boat building has been part of his life since he apprenticed with Vern Randall in a St. Croix boatyard when he was 17.

“We wanted to move someplace out of the hurricanes,” said Jayne, who is a California native.

Meeting famed multi-hull sailboat designer Jim Brown, also a California native who now lives in Mathews, directed Jayne’s efforts towards the design’s advantages, which are speed, stability and space. His yard presently has eight catamaran or trimaran sailboats in for service.

“I am a one trick pony,” joked Jayne about his boat oriented life of sailing, building and service. “All I know is boats.”

Eric Paul of Chapel Hill, N.C., is a current customer. Jayne is building a 38-foot Jim Brown designed Sea Runner catamaran for Paul, who has nothing but praise for Jayne’s expertise.

“Doug is very creative,” said Paul. “He thinks out of the box. With a project like this it is really what you need.”