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ways looking at growing markets.” Never fully dependent on the oil and gas market, it has been able to keep business steady during the downturn in that sector. Now aluminum offshore service vessels, especially for the offshore wind market present an opportunity the company is exploring.

Today, there are nine major boat-manufacturing projects in the carefully organized yard. One, all glossy in the river re? ection, is a 95-foot, 350 passenger catamaran ferry de- signed by Incat-Crowther on its way to service a metropoli- tan area. She is the ? rst of three that are currently under construction. Close by is the second of four new 152’x 52’x 12’, 150-passenger, 30-vehicle ferries. Designed by Seattle- based Elliott Bay Design Group, the new boats, featuring 8’ drafts, will also be able to handle concrete trucks. Both classes of ferries are very different in material choice, design and construction but each holds its own complexity and challenges that SJSB personnel have managed through.

VANE BROTHERS PRIDE

Although constrained by many con? dentiality and nondis- closure agreements, the yard can talk about the eight, ocean- going tugs for The Vane Brothers Company, which has served the maritime industry in the Port of Baltimore and along the

U.S. Eastern Seaboard since 1898. Today, the company has a ? eet of nearly 150 tugboats and barges working out of seven

East Coast locations. Eight of them are from SJSB.

Back in 2014, Vane’s Senior Port Captain Jim Demske and Property Manager D. Michael Barr were searching the

Florida coast for a “hurricane hole” to ? nd protection for a major storm when they visited St. Johns Ship Building. “The yard has a tremendous reputation and has constructed many

Credit: SJSB www.marinelink.com

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