Page 32: of Marine News Magazine (June 2020)

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MULTIMISSION WORKBOATS 30’ Fire Boat built for Baytown,

Texas Fire Department

North River Boats

By Eric Haun ne of the United States’ largest and most produc- shop and received new paint preparation bays, a new 65-foot tive heavy-gauge aluminum boat builders has down draft paint booth, expanded out?tting bays, and solar been humming along at its recently expanded panels installed on both the new building and existing factory.

Omanufacturing facility in Roseburg, Ore. The upgrades have helped North River Boats set pace to

Last spring, North River Boats added a new 33,750 square build just over 300 vessels this year for a combination of com- foot manufacturing building to house all commercial and large mercial, government and recreational customers. Its current boat recreational fabrication. Additional remodeling of the orderbook includes a mix of vessels ranging from ?re, pilot existing factory was completed shortly after to expand small and patrol boats to charter ?shing vessels. “North River Boats boat fabrication. The yard relocation of its canvas/upholstery has a very diverse strategy that includes offering several dif- ferent boat models to many different market segments,” says

Mike Blocker, the builder’s sales director.

“We are also a very customer-oriented company with the ability and the willingness to build very custom vessels to ex- actly meet our customer’s needs. Over 15% of the commercial boats we build annually are highly customized to the point of being totally new builds each and every time,” Blocher says.

Much of the company’s current vessels in production and on order ?t into a speci?c part of the marine market. “De- mand for patrol/mulitmission workboats seems to be hold-

A 27’ Alaska Fish & Game patrol boat

June 2020 32 MN