This is boating country and hidden away in all manner of nooks and crannies along the coastline is a legitimate network of servicing expertise.
One shipyard that can’t escape the limelight is Westport, the flagbearer of US yacht-building for so long and among the most prolific builders globally in the history of our industry. While the company is an international operation, its construction hubs are on the most north-western tip of the country and this is where our journey takes us next – to Port Angeles, an unassuming border city that one wouldn’t necessarily associate with the yachting lifestyle but one which houses one of the most substantial superyacht order books on the planet.
Of course, if you’re producing as many units as Westport does, you can’t afford to be modest. Yet when meeting general manager Dave Hagiwara, it’s hard to recall a more affable or charming executive in what is, far too often, a braggadocio-fuelled arena.
With an endearing air of diffidence, Hagiwara reels off statistics that are quite staggering. Alongside confirming that, at the time of writing, the yard is working on the 14th hull of its 50m, he adds, “For the 34-meter we’re on hull 63; [for] our newest 38-meter, which we introduced two years ago, we’re on hull number seven; the 40-meter is at 41 [units]. So our business model is such that we always start a boat on-spec, regardless of whether we have a customer and then depending on where we are in the production flow, a customer can come in and change the galley around, add appliances …”
It’s a business model that many have since copied, responding to client demand for shorter delivery times and a tighter price point. But it’s one that is well-trodden ground for Westport and this is writ large when touring the Port Angeles facility with Hagiwara and seeing such a well-oiled operation in action; it’s fair to say the process is more akin to an automotive plant in terms of the efficacy and symbiosis of the various departments.
“Right now, we have six boats [under construction] across our two facilities. We pride ourselves on a base 60-week schedule for all of our vessels, with an 80-week for the 50-meter. We can tell a customer exactly where we are in the build cycle. If we’re 34 weeks into a build, we can guarantee [the client a vessel] in 26 weeks. And that’s what our clients expect.”
Westport is now owned by the Edison Chouest Group, the offshore drilling giant that acquired the builder in 2014 as a previous two-time customer – with hull 14 of the 50m marking the acquisition. But Hagiwara asserts that it has not altered a process that, he says, is intrinsically linked to a high level of labor expertise in the region.
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