The region's biggest commercial dry dock is now in Everett, besting the previous titleholder at Vigor shipyards on Seattle's Harbor Island.
Everett Ship Repair, a sister company to Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, bought the floating dry dock and had it towed from San Diego by a tug Nichols Brothers built in 2010.
It's a nice circle for us," said Gavin Higgins, CEO of both Nichols and Everett Ship Repair, one of just two shipyards in the region that can support dry docking the state's largest ferries, along with Vigor.
With the expansion, Higgins said his company will be capable of repairing and maintaining the West Coast's largest ships including those in the U.S. military, as well as commercial fleets.
"This allows us to support the Coast Guard's largest vessels," he said. "It allows us to support the combatant side of the Navy. It lets us support the Military Sealift Command."
The company already works with the military on a smaller scale. Naval Station Everett is directly next door.
Higgins wouldn't share the cost of the dry dock, named Hercules, which pumps water out of a boat's hull and lifts it out of the water for easier maintenance.
The new dry dock sits next to the retired ferry Elwha, which Everett Ship Repair bought this year for $100,000, towed north and is using as a floating office, warehouse and "the hub to service all the docks," Higgins said, noting that his office is in it as well.
The new dry dock is 820 feet long — 180 feet longer than Vigor's biggest dry dock. Vigor bought its dry dock in 2017 for $20 million, and towed it to Seattle from Tongyeong, on the southern coast of South Korea.
Vigor's dry dock could lift 20,000 tons, another feat beat in Everett with the new dock, which can handle up to 35,000 tons.
Nichols and Everett Ship Repair are vying with Vigor to be Puget Sound's top shipbuilding and maintenance facility, but there is some catching up to do.
Vigor has shipyards in multiple states, including a 27-acre facility on Harbor Island. The Seattle yard traces its origins to the early 20th century when its predecessor — Moran Brothers Co. — built the USS Nebraska, the first steel ship built on Puget Sound and the first naval battleship built in the Pacific Northwest.
Established in 1964 on Whidbey Island, Nichols doesn't have as long a history or a multistate operation. But it sought to build the state's next generation of hybrid-electric ferries earlier this year. The state instead awarded the $714.5 million, three-boat contract to Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group in July.
Vigor was set to build the new ferries four years ago, but negotiations with the state fell apart after the company said the first hybrid-electric boat would cost $400 million, a figure that included an additional $68 million after the state insisted Vigor write its perceived risk into its price.
Vigor did not bid for this year's contract, but it continues to work with the state, most recently on the electric conversion of the ferry Wenatchee. The boat has been in and out of service after a mechanical failure caused it to unexpectedly lose power, but state officials said the issues plaguing the boat are "part of the process and (are) in no way unexpected."
Unlike Vigor, Nichols did bid to build the state's new ferries. After it lost the bid to Eastern, Higgins predicted that "ferries will never be built in Washington again."
With the new dry dock, Higgins suggested his company was aiming for Vigor's primary business of working with the Navy and Coast Guard. The dock, he said, "supports the rebalance of the country's military to respond to the challenges of the Indo-Pacific theater.
Everett's new dry dock joins two already there, the 220-foot Emerald Lifter and 436-foot Faithful Servant.
Vigor also has three dry docks: the 640-foot Evolution, the 448-foot Vigilant and the 552-foot Drydock No. 10.
These don't rival a dry dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, which at 1,180 feet is just one of two dry docks in the world capable of working on an aircraft carrier.
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