Jeffrey, helper at Bluffton Oyster Factory boat ramp

Among giant trucks and sleek speedboats, a sunburned man wearing a bright red hat buzzes between vehicle windows.

Check the boat ramp. Wave someone else on. Chat with a regular. Walk up the hill.

Move the cone. Watch the truck hauling a boat trailer back in. Yell before he backs into a trash can. Walk down the hill.

It’s approaching high noon on Friday of a holiday weekend. Most people who work in offices are off for the day, and the Bluffton Oyster Factory boat ramp has a line four cars deep to launch their boats into the May River. The drivers patiently wait to pull a y-turn and back their watercraft into the river.

It wouldn’t happen without Jeffrey Gainey.

The 35-year-old South Carolina native spends his whole weekend — from 7 a.m. to sundown Thursday through Sunday — making sure the boat ramp works like clockwork.

“If I ain’t here, it’s going to go crazy,” Gainey said.

The public Bluffton Oyster Factory boat ramp is steep. It takes Gainey around 200 steps to get up the hill and another 400 to direct trucks around the gravel parking lot. He finds places for them to park and helps them navigate while their families are already out on the water.

Then it’s back down. And, shortly after that, back up again.

Gainey, who was born in Florence and grew up in Columbia, moved to Bluffton around two years ago. He said the people are nicer here than the inland cities.

He doesn’t work for the town or the Bluffton Oyster Factory. Gainey said he comes to the boat ramp every morning to get himself out of the house and “clear his thoughts.”

He chats with visitors and joshes around with the guys he sees on the water day after day.

He directs people who have never towed a boat trailer and the people who could do it in their sleep.

Some tip him with money, while others tip their hats. Some tell him to get lost: they want to handle their boats themselves.

Gainey is at home.

Running the show

In just two years, Gainey has become a local legend.

He’s a silent friend to Bluffton — there to help with no expectation of anything in return. His piercing blue eyes put even the most antsy boat owners at ease as he guides them into tight spots beneath Live Oak trees and gets them on their way.

Late last month, a group of people organized to recognize Gainey for his contributions. Paul Tollefson wrote an essay about Gainey after the two chatted at the boat landing one day.

It was shared over 1,000 times on Facebook, and Tollefson realized he wasn’t the only one who knew, and looked forward to seeing, Gainey.

“It just exploded,” he said of his post. “I think one of the coolest things is I have people that used to babysit him and basically saying ‘God bless him’ … So many people have reached out and said they’ve met him.”

A silent friend no more.

Tollefson’s essay inspired a campaign to buy Gainey a golf cart to help him get around the boat ramp faster.

“He was there helping and, as always, helped me get my boat out of the water. Anyway, he seemed out of breath and he stated that running back and forth to the parking lot was killing him,” organizer Ashley Tillman wrote of Gainey. “So of course I asked what he needed. Jeffery said he’d love to have a gas-powered golf cart to get back and forth to the factory and up and down the hill.”

In five days, Tillman raised over $4,500 to buy a golf cart. The donations and comments on Tollefson’s essay show a community brought together by love of one of their own.

Gainey said he knows about the fundraiser, but mentioned that the vehicle would need to be insured and he would need a license to drive it.

Still, the boat ramp — and Bluffton — wouldn’t be the same without him.

“He runs the show,” a driver says as he passes Gainey in the parking lot. “It’d be a mess without him.”

He pauses, grins and walks across the parking lot to help a U-Haul back its boat trailer into a parking spot.

His work continues.