When your car breaks down along the highway, you call a towing service. But who do you turn to when your boat runs into trouble?
For the past decade, the answer has been Capt. Chris Hampton, who owns and operates Sea Tow St. Augustine.
“Boating has always been a huge part of my life,” Hampton said. “Every day I am able to get out on the water and help boaters. I love what I do.”
Sea Tow St. Augustine offers not just tows, but also jump starts, fuel deliveries and pretty much “any type of assistance you need on the water,” he said. That includes freeing boats that have gotten grounded and, on occasion, rescues.
“We work very closely with Fire Rescue and law enforcement,” Hampton said.
The service covers the coastal areas from the Palm Valley bridge south to the Flagler Beach bridge. Its coverage extends into the ocean, and Sea Tow St. Augustine has occasionally been called upon to help boaters on the St. Johns River.
Hampton, who is originally from the New Smyrna-Edgewater area, first got involved with Sea Tow 17 years ago when a friend bought the local franchise and asked that he come to work with him.
“I decided to quit repairing garage doors and go to work with my buddy,” Hampton said. “I didn’t have a captain’s license when he asked me to come and work with him, but because I had spent so much time on the water, obtaining one wasn’t hard.”
In 2011, he was presented with the opportunity to take over the business.
He owned the franchise just five years before facing one of the biggest jobs of his career: cleanup after Hurricane Matthew.
“There were a lot of marinas that were just complete wreckage,” he said. “I actually had a crew from Sea Tow Destin come to assist because the volume of work was so high.”
The biggest challenge was getting boats back into the water after the storm surge had swept them off their lifts and into people’s yards or way up into the marshes.
And then, it happened again the following year.
“Matthew and Irma – it was like a one-two punch,” Hampton said. “Just when I thought I was recovering, we got hit again.”
Though anyone can contact Sea Tow St. Augustine for assistance via the Sea Tow app, the services are much more affordable for those who first obtain memberships. In addition, members get priority when Hampton has multiple jobs pending. In all, he has about 1,000 members in the St. Augustine area.
Hampton’s work has earned him accolades.
In 2018, his franchise was recognized by the Sheriff’s Office with its Community Partnership Award.
In 2019, the Sea Tow Foundation presented him its Foundation Hero Award for promoting boating safety, including his support of the foundation’s Life Jacket Loaner Program, which provides life jackets for anyone to borrow daily at no charge. Hampton has helped establish 13 loaner stations at boat ramps throughout the area.
In addition, Hampton and his team have been actively involved with the derelict vessel program to rid the waters of dilapidated vessels left in the local waterways. To date, they have removed about 30 boats that had been abandoned and were safety hazards for boaters.
“We’ve cleaned up a lot of boats that have sat on the bottom and in the mud for long periods of time,” Hampton said. “Some of those jobs are difficult in the fact that they take a while to get them cleaned out so that they will float again, and we can get them hauled out and disposed of.”
The derelict boats are unsightly in a tourist-friendly town like St. Augustine, and they pose environmental problems as well, making their removal a critical service to the community.
“We are thrilled to congratulate Capt. Chris on the 10th anniversary of business,” said Sea Tow CEO Capt. Joseph Frohnhoefer III. “We take pride in the services that we offer the boating community, and Sea Tow St. Augustine maintains those standards in all they do.”
For further information on Sea Tow St. Augustine, the app and membership, go to seatow.com.
