Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (October 2024)

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Q&A

How has Everett Ship Repair evolved and ex- panded its operations since opening in 2019?

Will you please give an overview of its current facilities, equipment and capabilities?

ESR started out with a dry dock, its dockmaster and a handful of folks and borrowed equipment from sister company, Nichols Brothers. As we close in on ? ve years of operations, we’re 120+ heads strong with two dry docks, a fully out? tted yard and an expanding footprint within the Port of Everett. The previous tenant that op- erated a yard only had about 500 feet of waterfront and three or four acres of uplands. When we leased the site, the existing footprint was not suf? cient as our dry dock was too large to operate where the previous dock sat, so the port included the north side of Pier 3 as part of our footprint. Today we have access to the south side of Pier 3 (800 feet long with deep water) as well as the 900 feet of waterfront at the port’s newly minted Norton Termi- nal for in-water service work.

Thanks to the award of a few small shipyard grants and investment from our ownership, we have brand new air compressors, UHP Waterjets, rolling stock and crane capacity, along with every shop and associated equipment you’d expect to ? nd in a repair yard. Our large drydock

All photos courtesy Everett Ship Repair is 436 feet (loa) by 110 feet in between the walls and is

What motivated you to pursue a career in the rated at about 8,000 tons lifting capacity. The smaller maritime industry? dock is 220 feet (loa) by 62 feet between the walls and

My dad built boats for just shy of 50 years, and I grew about 2,000 tons of lift.

up down the road from the yard where he spent the ? rst 38 of those years. The comradery and work ethic at that How is the company investing—in technology, place were strong. facilities, people, etc—to ensure future success?

I remember any time our dog went missing I’d go down We are currently looking at robots that work with our to the yard and ? nd her wandering around looking for blasting equipment to improve production rates and in- him. For the most part, the yard crew knew me (and my crease safety in surface prep, automated welding equip- dog) and if anyone saw me hanging out at the gate they’d ment and exploring laser ablation. Additionally, we just send the dog up. I was in grade school with a lot of the commissioned a few new machines in our machine shop other guys’ kids, and whether I was on summer break tak- and are looking at green energy initiatives like broad pow- ing my dad lunch, or running around one of the new boats er monitoring for identify opportunities to reduce carbon that had just been launched with a bunch of other shipyard footprint in our operations.

kids during a christening party, it just felt like a big family. However, the biggest investments that we have been

Shortly after high school I went to work for a supplier in making for the past couple of years are in our people and the industry, and after about 12 years with that company processes. For a young yard that has grown fast, there is

I got an opportunity to work for a shipyard. I’ve loved this plenty of low hanging fruit in this area. Simply put, it is industry from an early age, and in my opinion, the future smart, hard-working people that are all rowing in the same is bright for anyone willing to put the work in. direction, to the same drumbeat that are going to take us www.marinelink.com MN 11|