Peter and Heather Sutton are a husband-and-wife duo that have given the local community a new boat rental option by opening St. Johns Premier Boat Rental roughly three months ago. They have called St. Johns home for the past decade and the water was such a major aspect of why they moved and enjoy living here that they wanted to make sure to offer that same opportunity to anyone. Their business is in the Fruit Cove area of St. Johns and seeks to offer options for boating along the St. Johns River.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background.
We are the Suttons! We created a rambunctious bunch of adventure seeking kids and St. Johns has been our home for almost a decade now.
Before building our family, we both worked in the cruise industry, where we fell in love with each other, as well as life on the water.
Like many others, we were drawn to the amazing schools, incredible weather, quality of life, and the family-orientated community in St. Johns.
A city surrounded by water that was not dominated by tourism was something we felt was very special.
Where did the idea for St. Johns Premier Boat Rentals come from?
In our own desire to have more options to experience on the water for ourselves, our friends and our neighbors, St. Johns Premier Boat Rentals was born.
We started the business roughly three months ago now and we have been amazed at how many comments and appreciation we’ve recieved from so many people that have come use our boats.
We wanted to cruise the waters in our own backyard, and we felt others were looking for the same thing. It’s really taken off so far and it shows the interest in boating that’s out there.
It is such a special place for our whole family, and we are so excited to help as many families as we can to make their own memories on the St. Johns River.
We knew we wanted to find an option outside of St. Augustine or Orange Park, because even with all this water that we have around us, it can be difficult at times to find the options you’re looking for.
What are some of the features that you offer for boaters?
It’s all about an additional lifestyle offering, and that’s what we make sure our boats are equipped with.
Some of the features we offer on our boats are things like TVs, tubes, paddle boards, and we make sure there is fuel on board so that they don’t have to ever buy gas, and instead they can just focus on having a great time on the water with their family.
We hope to even add things in the future, such as, jet skis.
The approach we take is because we think of what we would appreciate as a family out on the water.
If it’s not something we would use ourselves we don’t consider it. Our boaters get excited knowing that we share the same sentiment they do.
What are some of your objectives for the business?
We are proud of our prices and we really do offer a price point that hits home for so many families out there.
This was a gap we really wanted to address when it came to boat rentals.
Our boats are a little larger than a lot of others out there, but the price is per boat and not per person,” Heather Sutton said. “We feel you can never have too much space when on a boat.
We are so lucky to have the St. Johns River here for us to enjoy and no one should be left out.
What do your children think of you owning the business?
It is a pretty unique and cool business to own and I think they understand that.
There are also times when I get the feeling that they think we started it and got the boats just for them since we happen to have four kids and four boats.
At the end of the day, it’s just awesome to have a business and family life that centers so much around the water. It is a dream come true for us.
