PLANET LOVER
8/29/2007 11:55:02 AM by Lisa Knapp
As CEO and president of Knight & Carver Yacht Center in San Diego and the founder of a wind-blade facility, Sam Brown is concerned with the success of not only his businesses, but of the environment as well.
Photo by John Freeman
Sam Brown is sitting at the helm of Knight & Carver Yacht Center in San Diego now, but his first job in yachting was waxing boats in Miami. “I was attending college at the University of Miami when a friend and I went to the convention center and got jobs waxing boats and cleaning up the Miami Boat Show,” says Brown. “All those boats were overwhelming. I spent some time on my friend’s 41 Morgan and eventually got a 16-foot Hobie Cat of my own. I sailed Key Biscayne all the time. The water is such a wonderful part of Miami.”
Brown also rode his motorcycle from Miami to Key West a few times. A road trip on his Kawasaki 650 was a great way to blow off steam back then, when he had more free time. “I love the Keys,” he says. “It’s almost embarrassing that I have little else I’m doing now besides work.”
Brown, who is also an attorney, led Knight & Carver to its status as a popular destination for megayachts cruising the West Coast. He now has a second company, a wind-blade facility for the production of renewable energy through wind power. “There’s going to be a large business that occurs in the retro fit of yachts to make them more environmentally friendly,” Brown says. “Future yachts will be built with recycling and uses of technologies that will make things more efficient.”
At age 49, Brown is re-evaluating his life and how he spends his time. That happens a lot with birthdays that end in nines and zeroes. “I have a nice house and I came home early one day, right after my son was born. The nanny and the maid were sitting in my pool with my kid in the middle of the afternoon. I thought to myself, ‘They’re enjoying this and I’m always working.’” Now that his son is 15, it’s less cool to spend a lot of time with Sam and his wife, Maureen. Their daughter, 11, loves horses and competes in equestrian events.
Brown doesn’t get out on the water as much as he used to, although he had a 36-Catalina sailboat that he once enjoyed. He sees the ocean from his home in Del Mar each morning and then heads to National City and the motley convoy of vessels at K&C’s San Diego yard. “I think we’re at the beginning of something big in San Diego,” says Brown. “We have the infrastructure with a cluster of marine businesses unique to the West Coast. These yachts are growing into small ships and we are prepared to service them. The city is behind us.”