‘Hundreds of years of collective experience’

This coming October, there will be a new boat shop at Westin Marine Center, by longtime mechanic Scott Wissemann in conjunction with the existing business at Westin Marine Center.

“I’m looking forward to riding my bicycle to work,” said Wissemann of the 2-and-1/2-mile commute he will now have to the marina from his home in Sayville.

For over 30 years, Wissemann has owned a boat repair company based in Nassau County, but due to changes in regulations in western Long Island, will be moving his long-standing, trusted business to Sayville.

“I started the business in 1986 when my former boss told me he wanted to sell his company,” said Wissemann who has been working on boats since he was 15. Although he holds a degree in engineering, Wissemann had always known he wanted to work with boats and after a year in his major’s field realized, “I could not sit in an office all day,” and decided to follow a more tactile career.

In 1993, Wissemann opened a branch of his company in Seaford and subsequently, in 1995, moved the entire operation to Seaford.

On Aug. 31 of this year, he ceased boat repairs and began packing up for the move.

While looking forward to new clientele brought on by the change in location, Wissemann’s great service has had many of his clients pledging to follow him to Sayville.

“I’ve had some customers for over 40 years,” said Wissemann. At the time of the interview, Wissemann was actually saying goodbye to a customer who was the child of one of his original clients, and who had asked him to tour the Sayville Marina in anticipation of following Wissemann to his new ship.

One thousand five hundred letters were sent out to current customers to advise them of the move, and during the busiest times of the year—spring for the start of the boating season, and fall for the winterization process—Wissemann schedules four boats per day, with plenty of troubleshooting projects coming in through the door.

“We just finished a two-year project on a 1990 boat,” said Wissemann, who is certified with Yamaha, Mercury, and the now defunct Bombardier (aka Evinrude/Johnson) boatmakers.

With an opening date planned for October, Wissemann will be carrying out winterizations, which involve pulling boats out of water, wrapping, fog, and flushing of fluids and filters, stabilizing fuel, and getting water out of the engine and putting in antifreeze.

Spring involves bottom painting, waxing, tune-ups, checking accessories, and many engine rebuilds, which include a whole host of issues that can crop up including factors like ignition problems.

Wissemann said he has full trust in his crew that has “hundreds of years of collective experience with boats.”

For new boaters, Wissemann offers services as a mechanic to inspect engines prior to sale.

“My advice to new boaters is have the boat checked out by a mechanic, not just a surveyor from the bank and insurance company; they will want to make sure the boat won’t sink, but they do not check out the engine and propulsion system. The boat can pass inspection, but could have something like a drivetrain problem, which is very costly,” said Wissemann.

Often the issue is with sellers being reticent about delivering a boat to Wissemann’s actual shop, but he said that if the marina has the capability to take the boat out of the water, he and his mechanics can inspect the engine.