PORT TOWNSEND — Townsend Bay Marine has laid off 40 workers.
That leaves the staff at about 30 now, with one just hired back, said David King, chief financial officer at Townsend Bay Marine.
The action was taken after the company found itself without a boat-building project after completing the 127-foot luxury sport-fishing yacht Cielo Mare earlier this month.
The company has been the largest boat builder in the Port of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven Industrial Park.
More layoffs possible
Additional layoffs are possible, King said, given the harsh economic climate.
“It has been my experience over the years that the recession hits us later than the rest of the economy,” King said of yacht builders.
Instead of building boats, the company has five “refit” projects under way, which involve replacement work and are more than just making repairs, he explained.
King said the big-projects market is suffering a lag in business that has quieted many other boat builders in the region over the past three or four months.
Cielo Mare
The Cielo Mare, which cruised to Seattle two weeks ago, is now in the process of getting commissioned, King said.
The yacht’s interior included a large main room, full kitchen and dining room, master bedroom, three guest quarters and an extensive crew quarters that can house four individuals.
The entire boat is lined with custom woodwork from the walls to the floors, marble counters and tabletops and pictures of dolphins etched into the glass shower doors.
The vessel boasts 10 television screens, multiple media servers with 17 terabytes of storage for movies and music, streaming data capability throughout the ship, iPod docks in each room, a full public address system and security cameras, all strung together with over 12 miles of cable.
More than 45 different contractors were used to help with some parts of the work, mostly local.
The yacht was the company’s largest custom project. It was the second largest to the 162-foot Evviva luxury yacht, which Admiral Marine launched in 1993.
The boat-building executive said the company and its employees saw layoffs coming with no similar projects planned ahead.
He said the staff had grown in a little more than three years to 83 and with staff now pared back he is uncertain when growth in the workforce will take place again.
Such projects as the Cielo Mare are rare, especially given the economy, he said.
Refit work is what the company has done in the past to prosper, he said.
Other shipyard company
Earlier this month, Westport Shipyard Inc. laid off a small but unspecified number of employees in Port Angeles, as well as in Westport and Hoquiam.
Company officials declined to say how many people were laid off, but a former employee in the design department at the Port Angeles cabinet shop said at least six lost their jobs at that shop.
Bob Ruecker, human resources director, issued a statement from the yacht-manufacturing company confirming layoffs in Port Angeles, Westport and Hoquiam.
“While the number of employees affected by today’s actions is small relative to our total employment, the impact on each individual is very significant,” the statement read.
“These are people that are caught up in the impacts of the [economic] downturn. This is a regrettable situation.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
