November 3, 2007

Sad news from a nearby Island

I was reading Mr. Completely and see that Nichol's Brother's Boat Builders on Whidbey Island, Washington is having to shut down. There is an article at the Everett Herald. My Mom and Dad used to have property on Whidbey and one of their favorite things was to drive past the shipyard and see what they were working on. The yard specialized in innovative one-off designs for ferries, yachts, tugs and everything in between. The yard itself was fairly small so some boats had to be built in two sections and then welded together. Very high quality work -- the third largest employer on Whidbey (250 people). In business for 43 years. Sad... Also at Mr. Completely was an amazing set of photographs taken of one of the WA State ferry systems bigger boats hitting a patch of rough water. Here is one of the photographs:
WA_State_Ferry_water.jpg
Visit the website for the full-size images. Glad I wasn't on that run! Posted by DaveH at November 3, 2007 9:22 PM