Our History
While The Marine Advisory Group is a new organization, its founding partners Phil Everingham and Tony Chapman have combined over 60 years experience in the marine industry.
In the early 1990’s a casual conversation at a local yacht club resulted in the concept of combining Tony’s technical expertise with Phil’s management skills, and thus the “Merrill Stevens Sailing Center” was born. This collaboration led to the establishment of a sailboat repair facility at Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock South Yard on the Miami River, which provided a much-needed complete scope of services to the South Florida sailing community. The Merrill Stevens Sailing Center quickly became the “go to” place to get quality rigging, repairs, and almost any other boat work done by the expert crew there. Thanks to Phil Everingham’s commitment to community service, the Merrill-Stevens Sailing Center also became a sponsor for numerous local regattas and marine events. One example of the group’s combined technical and management ability was when they were contracted by the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race’s Miami Stopover Committee to be the Technical Advisors to the Miami stopover. In this capacity Tony and Phil literally created a temporary boatyard, complete with a mobile 165-ton hydraulic crane and full-service repair facility at the race stopover venue on Miami’s downtown waterfront. There they were able to haul, repair, and launch all eight of the Volvo race boats (sometimes several times) working around-the-clock for over two weeks, in order to prepare the boats for the next leg of the race. The operation of this stopover facility was heralded as a total success by the race management, and several race team managers cited the Chapman/Everingham-managed facility, operated under the banner of the Merrill-Stevens Sailing Center, as the “best managed repair facility in the entire ‘round-the-world race”.
In 2004 Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Company was sold, and the focus of the yard shifted to the mega-yacht business. As a result the Sailing Center’s operations were phased out within six months of the sale. For several years thereafter, Phil and Tony ventured into business consulting and new product development for various industries. While this new career path was both exciting and filled with potential, Phil and Tony both acknowledged a mutual desire to “return to their roots” - to once again offer expert service to the marine community at large. The decision was finally made in the summer of 2009 to open a marine consulting firm based on their combined depth of experience and professional contacts; thus the Marine Advisory Group was formed.
About Phil and Tony
Phil Everingham, a native of Miami, literally grew up in the boatyard business, since his father was an employee and later Treasurer and a shareholder in the venerable Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Company. Phil worked summers in Merrill-Stevens’ old Dinner Key yard while he attended Florida State University, where he eventually earned his BA and his MBA. After college he returned to work full-time with Merrill-Stevens, where he ascended through the ranks from stockroom manager to become Sr. Vice-President of Administration with a day-to-day focus on the South Yard (Small Yacht) Division, as well as an owner and Board Director. During his career Phil has become one of the most active advocates for the marine industry in the South Florida area, and has been a tireless promoter of balancing waterfront development with the need to retain a viable working waterfront of boatyards, marinas, freight terminals, and other marine businesses.
Tony Chapman spent his childhood on the waters of North Florida. As a teenager he and a friend rebuilt an old wooden sailboat and then sailed it among the barrier islands of the northern Gulf coast. After studying chemistry and biology at Florida State University, he moved to South Florida to learn professional boatbuilding. His sailing skills quickly earned him crew positions on numerous offshore racing yachts, and when he wasn’t sailing he was building boats at Creekmore Boats, in Medley, FL, and modifying hulls and keels to improve their performance. He studied small-craft naval architecture at the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, and graduated from the Sea School of Fort Lauderdale, earning a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master’s License, with Sailing Endorsement. While operating his first business, Chapman Yacht Design, Inc., he co-designed and built a custom 40-foot offshore racing sailboat which won numerous offshore races. In 1989 he founded Applied Marine Design, Inc., where he designed and fabricated custom spars, rigging, and custom marine hardware, as well as managed various hull modification projects. As an expert technical consultant, he has advised admiralty law firms, marine surveyors, and marine insurance adjustors in marine-related issues throughout North America and the Caribbean. He has authored or co-authored over 25 technical papers and articles.