Page 16: of Marine News Magazine (August 2020)

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one hundred p Shipbuilding & Repair

C&C Marine and Repair 90-foot icebreaking buoy tender for the Maryland De-

Julie Blount & Marcia Blount partment of Natural Resources.

Blount Boats

Blount Boats, led by sisters Marcia Blount and Julie

Blount, designs and builds aluminum and steel com- mercial vessels of all types. From its ? rst boat built – a 77-ft. steel catamaran – to the hundreds of passenger ve- hicle ferries, fast commuter boats, dinner excursion boats, bunkering tankers, harbor tugs and commercial trawlers launched over the years, and through the variety of ferries, offshore wind support boats and icebreaking tugs being built today, Blount has progressively grown its capabilities and sought to squeeze the most out of its six-acre facility.

One of the most famous vessels built at the shipyard was a 130-ft., 600-passenger ferry boat built in 1952 that has carried more than 60 million passengers from

Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty for the Circle Line.

More recently, the construction and delivery of Atlantic

Pioneer, the ? rst U.S. ? agged crew transfer vessel for the

Block Island Wind Farm, is signi? cant not only in be- ing a ‘? rst’, but perhaps more importantly is signi? es the boatyard’s future as Marcia Blount, President of Blount

Boats since 2007, said, when assessing opportunities. “This market has been off to a slow start but leases have

Keal Woodruff been purchased and should develop into a robust market

Bludworth Marine for a variety of vessels,” she says. The next Chartwell- designed CTV for Atlantic Wind Transfers is slated to be delivered in November 2020.

August 2020

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