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INSIGHTS performance military vessels, barges, ferries, and virtually

Your recent and robust expansion and acquisition program arguably has Vigor not only well diversi- everything we build. ? ed in terms of portfolio and capabilities, but also in terms of geographic reach. How is all that – the Your new dry dock has arrived and now gives ship integration – and leveraging of different strengths owners – foreign and domestic alike – more choices coming together?

on the U.S. West Coast. How much traf? c have you

It’s hard, and it’s coming together in a wonderful way. seen and is the dry dock being utilized to its maxi- mum extent possible?

In the work we do, in virtually all locations, every proj- ect is unique. Sure, we’ve had a few production runs of Since going into service in our Portland shipyard in No- components or vessels, but production fabrication it is not. vember of 2014, Vigorous has been consistently booked,

With nearly half our business being in ship repair, we ? g- supporting hundreds of jobs and attracting work which ure things out as “ship happens.” So, we place a premium could not have been done in the region without a drydock on thinkers and doers who can approach every job, every of its size. Repair work has included both military and com- day, with a “child mind plus.” Child mind in the sense of mercial vessels, including two cruise ships. Following the looking at every situation fresh and on its on merits. “Plus” acquisition of the dock we call Vigorous, we also invested for drawing on the database of prior experience and seeing signi? cant funds to upgrade and transfer one of the Portland where that knowledge can be used to make things better. drydocks to our Seattle facility. The work performed will ex-

On our good days, we take the best of what our experience tend the life of the upgraded drydock for another 20 years.

brings without bringing in the rigidity that comes from

What is the capacity of that dry dock? thinking that you already know. The cross-pollination of

Vigorous is 960 feet long by 186 feet wide with a lift ideas, project planning and advanced manufacturing skills is exciting. We are much better builders/repairers today capacity of 80,000 long tons. The added width of the dock has provided a lot of ef? ciencies for hull and ? n stabilizer and expect to be even better in the future. maintenance and our cold ironing capabilities have been very attractive to customers.

Give us an example of how synergy from yard trans- fers into better production and quality in another, within your portfolio of ship and boatbuilding facilities.

The domestic ? shing vessel market is ? nally – after decades of malaise – perking up a bit. Are you target-

Probably one of the most signi? cant synergies has been ing that market and do you have any of that business?

the collaboration of former Kvichak and the former Or-

Yes, we are in active development of products and proj- egon Iron Works staff into the leadership ranks of

Vigor’s existing fabrication operations. Vigor, ects for the North Paci? c ? eet. These run the gamut from

Kvichak, and Vigor Works staff have smaller aluminum ? sh boats to large factory processors. come together as a team to share Our teams know how to build for the North Paci? c and specialized resources and understand the needs ? sheries in our region. In fact, Kvi- knowledge for the chak got its start back in 1981 building ? sh boats and has fabrication of continued to do so for 35 years. high

U.S. yards increasingly are ? nding ways to build com- petitively (against foreign yards) in certain niche sec- tors and in some cases, are exporting hulls to direct sales to governments and the private sector. This typi- cally occurs in the OSV size and smaller. Does Vigor build for foreign clients and/or export new build hulls?

Yes. Vigor is exporting new builds in the military and some niche commercial markets. We recently delivered two pilot boats to the Port of Duqm in Oman, and over the years we have successfully delivered boats to Chile, The

Netherlands, Russia, Canada, Nigeria, and Brazil. We cur- rently have other military and commercial orders under active negotiation.

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