PORT ANGELES — After nearly seven months of construction, Westport Shipyard Inc. officially opens its enormous new facility Monday — an event that is expected to attract more than 500 supporters.
“We’ll christen the building Monday, and hopefully in about two years, we’ll christen the first boat,” said a smiling Lee Taubeneck, Westport Shipyard Port Angeles general manager.
Taubeneck smiles because he is about to see a dream come true at the 102,000-square-foot Westport yacht-building facility at 637 Marine Drive — construction of the world’s largest “production” super yacht at 164 feet long.
The yacht’s price tag: A cool $27.5 million.
The 72-foot-high, $13-million building constructed by Fisher and Sons of Burlington, is on a 3-acre site that Westport bought from the Port of Port Angeles for $530,000.
Once a production rhythm of two boats under construction is reached in 2004, the facility will employ 200 workers each earning about $40,000 a year.
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The rest of the story appears in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News.
