Sunrise Marine

Sunrise Marine sits on US-98 West in Mary Esther, a few miles west of Destin and roughly 30 miles east of Pensacola, in the corridor of boat dealers and marine shops that lines this stretch of highway near Santa Rosa Sound. The dealership has sold and serviced boats in the Florida Panhandle for more than 25 years, dating back to the late 1990s, and it grew into one of the largest used boat dealers on the Emerald Coast under founder and general manager Philip Foss. In December 2016, OneWater Marine Holdings acquired the business, and Foss stayed on through the transition while Sunrise Marine kept its name and its existing staff. The dealership now operates alongside sister OneWater locations in Daphne and Orange Beach, Alabama, but the Mary Esther showroom and service yard remain the main stop for boaters across Okaloosa County.

Walk the lot and the inventory reflects Gulf Coast boating in every direction: bay boats, center consoles, deck boats, pontoons, cruisers, bowriders, and catamarans. Sunrise Marine carries Robalo bay boats and center consoles built for inshore and nearshore fishing, Bennington pontoons aimed at families who want a stable, sociable platform for a slow cruise on the Sound, Chaparral runabouts and cruisers, and World Cat’s catamaran-hulled boats, known for a smoother ride through chop than a single-hull boat offers. New models sit alongside a rotating stock of used and consigned boats, and the sales team walks buyers through financing and trade-ins as part of a purchase, which matters for out-of-town visitors weighing a boat as a long-term investment tied to a second home or a rental slip nearby.

The service department is where the dealership earns repeat business. Factory-certified technicians handle routine maintenance and full engine repower jobs, and the shop sells and services both Yamaha and Mercury outboards, covering the two engine brands most common on boats up and down this coast.

Beyond engine work, the service bay handles canvas and upholstery repair, fiberglass work, electronics installation, and boat detailing, so an owner can drop off a boat before a weekend on Crab Island or in the Destin harbor and pick it up ready to run. A parts and accessories counter, operated in partnership with PartsVu, stocks more than 200,000 products, a resource worth knowing about for boaters who would rather replace a part themselves than wait on a service appointment.

Visitors shopping for a boat, rather than just looking at one, should treat Sunrise Marine as a legitimate stop on an Emerald Coast trip. Staff regularly work with buyers from outside the area who plan to keep a boat at a nearby marina, a rental dock, or a second home on the water, and the dealership’s decades of local history give it more institutional knowledge of regional boating conditions, from Santa Rosa Sound’s depths to Gulf access points, than a newer or out-of-state dealer would have. The showroom is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Sunday, so a weekday or Saturday visit works best for anyone who wants to inspect a specific model in person. Calling ahead is worthwhile if a particular brand, hull size, or price point is the target, since dealership inventory turns over quickly and popular pontoon and bay boat models can sell before they ever reach the water.

For anyone already renting a boat elsewhere on Santa Rosa Sound or the surrounding waterways, Sunrise Marine’s parts counter and service bay are useful contacts to have on hand in case something needs attention mid-trip, whether that is a failing bilge pump, a damaged prop, or a torn canvas top. The dealership’s long tenure in Mary Esther, spanning three ownership decades and a shift from an independent business to part of a larger national group, has not changed its core role: a full-service marine center anchoring the boating side of the northern Emerald Coast, distinct from the charter operators and cruise companies that share the same waterway.