Master Boat Builders To Add Defense Yard

Coden, Ala.-based Master Boat Builders has announced plans to build a new $60 million, 150,000-square-foot defense- and government-focused shipbuilding facility, which will be located directly across from the company’s existing commercial shipyard on Bayou Coden.

The 20-acre site will be dedicated to government and defense programs, both complete vessels and modules, and is expected to support 200 new jobs.

“This new facility is about building more capability here at home,” said Garrett Rice, president of Master Boat Builders. “By dedicating an entire yard to defense programs, we’re creating the capacity and flexibility needed to deliver for all of our customers and supporting the nation’s call for a stronger, more resilient maritime industrial base.”

The announcement follows numerous other recent shipyard expansions and acquisitions around the country, in large part in response to presidential executive orders focused on shipbuilding and work by Congress to develop the SHIPS for America Act. Other shipyard expansions, partnerships and acquisitions include Hanwha purchasing Philly Shipyard, Davie Defense acquiring Gulf Copper and Bollinger and Edison Chouest Offshore forming their own shipbuilding alliance.

“This new yard is being designed with serial production and modular construction in mind,” the company said in announcing the project, “enabling us to build steel and aluminum vessels and fabricate complex modules for Navy and Coast Guard programs, including the U.S. Navy’s Landing Craft Utility (LCU) program through our recently announced strategic outsourcing agreement with Austal USA.”

That memorandum of understanding, announced in September, emphasized the strategy of “distributing work across complementary facilities” in order to “reduce bottlenecks, shorten production schedules and create surge capacity for future demand.”

“Shipyards like ours can and should be a force multiplier for the U.S. maritime defense industrial base,” Rice said at the time. “Teaming up with Austal USA, we’ll add much-needed capacity and help get critical vessels delivered on time and on budget, contributing to a strong, more resilient shipbuilding sector.”

Master Boat Builders is partnering with Thompson Engineering and RJ Baggett on the design, engineering and construction of the new facility. According to Master Boat Builders, the new facility will feature dedicated workforce training space, with a focus on training and equipping the next generation of shipbuilders.

Featured image caption: An artist’s rendering of the forthcoming Master Boat Builders defense-focused yard. (Illustration by Thompson Engineering)