A safe harbor becomes home.
Merchant sailor Sir Rosendo Torras, from Catalonia, Spain, found refuge from a hurricane in Brunswick and saw possibility in its protected harbor. He put down roots and built a wharf for the region’s growing timber trade.
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About us · History
Rooted in Brunswick.
Built around boaters.
Long before this waterfront became an award-winning marina, it was a working harbor shaped by ships, storms, persistence and a family’s belief in Brunswick.
Where it began
It began with refuge.
In the 1880s, a hurricane brought merchant sailor Sir Rosendo Torras and his vessels from Catalonia, Spain, into the shelter of Brunswick’s harbor. What began as a safe haven became a home. Rosendo established a timber-exporting wharf, beginning a family connection to Brunswick that now spans five generations; the last three generations have imagined, built and stewarded the marina.
Nearly a century later, the Torras family began a new chapter along the shoreline with a different kind of vision: transform an underused industrial property into a marina where visiting boaters could feel protected, supported and genuinely welcome.
That vision took patience. Permits took years. Skeptics wondered whether boaters would come. The family kept going because they believed in Brunswick, in this harbor and in the community a marina could create.
First generation
Sir Rosendo Torras.
A harbor becomes home.
Born in Catalonia, Spain, Rosendo Torras trained for a life at sea before coming to Brunswick as a merchant captain. He established a maritime company centered on lumber exports and built a wharf that connected the working harbor to international trade.
Rosendo’s life in Brunswick reached far beyond commerce. Over the years, he served as a consul or vice consul for 13 countries, including Spain, Cuba, Argentina, Paraguay and Great Britain. He also received a Swedish knighthood for service to the crown and pursued inventions related to maritime and military technology. His decision to make Brunswick home began the family’s enduring relationship with this waterfront.
Brunswick harbor · March 1899
Rosendo Torras.
A gesture of peace.
When President William McKinley visited Brunswick after the Spanish-American War, the harbor welcomed his party with ships dressed and saluting. A contemporary newspaper account records that a Spanish flag from the barque Tafalla was presented to the President with greetings from Rosendo Torras, then vice consul of Spain.
The newspaper described it as the first Spanish flag saluted by President McKinley after peace between the United States and Spain. It noted that the President was delighted by the gesture, which connected Rosendo’s life in Brunswick to a wider story of maritime trade, diplomacy and the city’s working harbor.
Second generation
Fernando J. Torras.
Engineering a connection.
Fernando J. Torras, Rosendo’s son, carried the family’s relationship with coastal Georgia into a new era. After graduating from Georgia Tech, his engineering career took him far beyond Brunswick, building rail lines, roads and bridges through the difficult terrain of South America. He returned with experience earned on ambitious projects and went on to serve as Brunswick’s city manager for more than 30 years.
That experience proved essential when local leaders asked him to find a way across miles of marsh and tidal rivers to St. Simons Island. Where earlier proposals had failed and many believed a road could not be built, Fernando surveyed a workable route and served as chief engineer. The 4.2-mile Brunswick–St. Simons Highway—with trestles, bridges and roadway built across unstable marsh—was completed in little more than a year and opened in 1924.
The project transformed access to St. Simons and helped establish Brunswick as the gateway to the Golden Isles. Renamed the F.J. Torras Causeway after his death, it remains the most visible local testament to an engineering career whose reach extended well beyond coastal Georgia.
Third generation
Robert M. “Bob” Torras Sr.
Seeing possibility on the waterfront.
Bob Torras Sr. was an engineer, aviator, inventor and entrepreneur whose life was defined by ambitious ideas and the determination to make them real. He earned degrees in industrial engineering and industrial management from Georgia Tech, served as a U.S. Air Force pilot and captain, and went on to build a diverse group of manufacturing and real-estate businesses rooted in Georgia.
He was not simply an owner; he was a hands-on designer and problem-solver. Bob designed specialized manufacturing equipment, earned nine U.S. patents and five foreign patents, and was named Georgia’s Small Businessman of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Across decades of work, he created companies, buildings and opportunities while remaining deeply invested in Brunswick and the surrounding coast.
In 1978, Bob purchased an aging manufacturing property and roughly 100 acres of neglected land along Brunswick’s downtown waterfront. Where others saw abandoned barges, difficult permits and uncertain demand, he saw the foundation for a marina. He held to that vision through nearly a decade of planning and regulatory work, ultimately transforming an overlooked industrial shoreline into Brunswick Landing Marina and beginning the marina chapter his family continues today.
Fourth generation
Robert M. “Bob” Torras Jr.
Designing the marina from the ground up.
Bob Torras Jr. translated the marina vision into detailed plans. Working largely by hand, he completed nearly all of the marina’s design and layout work, turning a difficult stretch of industrial waterfront into a plan that could be built.
He guided those plans through years of permitting and remained closely involved on site throughout construction and later expansions. As the fourth generation of the Torras family in Brunswick, Bob Jr. is the second generation directly involved in creating the marina.
Fifth generation
Michael Torras.
Carrying the waterfront forward.
Michael Torras, Bob Jr.’s son, is the fifth generation of the family in Brunswick and the third generation to help shape Brunswick Landing Marina. As marina manager and a project manager with Torras Properties, he works across the daily life of the harbor and the long-range projects that will guide its next chapter.
His focus has been to keep growing without losing what makes the marina special: a protected working waterfront and a community where boaters are treated more like extended family than customers. Working alongside the dedicated Marina and Boat Yard team introduced below—and building on the work of the many people who came before them—Michael helps the marina continue to expand, welcome new generations of boaters and strengthen its connection with downtown Brunswick.
A waterfront in motion
One harbor.
Many chapters.
The names, vessels and shoreline have changed, but the relationship between Brunswick, the Torras family and the water has endured.
A flag of peace is presented.
During President William McKinley’s visit to Brunswick harbor, a Spanish flag from the barque Tafalla was presented to him with greetings from Rosendo Torras, vice consul of Spain. A contemporary newspaper account described the President as delighted by the gesture following the return of peace between the United States and Spain.
A family helps connect the coast.
Sir Rosendo’s son, engineer Fernando J. Torras, designed the causeway that first connected Brunswick to St. Simons Island. It created another lasting link between the city and the water around it.
The waterfront gets another chance.
Bob Torras Sr. acquired a dormant industrial waterfront in the heart of downtown Brunswick. He conceived the idea for a marina here, and he and his son, Bob Torras Jr., went on to permit, build and steadily expand a welcoming home port along the shoreline.
The first slips open.
After nearly a decade of planning, permitting and persistence, the first dock welcomed boaters. A modest beginning grew one dock at a time into the marina that lines the harbor today.
A clubhouse becomes a community.
The Yacht Club gave dock neighbors a place to gather. Simple socials grew into a much-loved rhythm of happy hours, cookouts, holiday celebrations and lasting friendships.
Still family-owned. Still personal.
Today, another generation of the Torras family helps lead Brunswick Landing alongside a dedicated marina and Boat Yard team and the boating community that gives this harbor its heart. Its success has never belonged to one person or one family; it is shared by everyone who cares for the waterfront, looks after the boats and makes people feel at home.
Then, now and next
A working waterfront, reimagined.
The marina was not built all at once. It grew deliberately from the first handful of slips into a protected harbor with 17 docks, concrete floating docks, a full-service Boat Yard and a community of boaters from around the world.
Growth has never been the whole story. The measure that matters is whether arriving boaters still feel noticed, whether neighbors still gather at the end of the day and whether the marina keeps earning its place on Brunswick’s waterfront.
The Velcro Marina
The marina grew.
The welcome stayed warm.
Boaters started calling Brunswick Landing the “Velcro Marina” because it can be wonderfully hard to leave. Some arrive for one night and stay for a season. Others return year after year for the friendships, weekly socials, holiday traditions, protected harbor and the feeling that people here are looking out for one another.
Liveaboards are welcome without an additional liveaboard fee, and transient guests are invited into the same community from the day they arrive. Explore marina events and traditions.
Your home port awaits
Come be part of the next chapter.
Bring your boat, your plans and your sea stories. We’ll be ready to catch your lines.