Washburn & Doughty

Washburn & Doughty is a shipyard located in East Boothbay, Maine.

The company was founded in 1977 by Bruce Washburn and Bruce Doughty, then employees at Bath Iron Works.[1] For the first several years of its existence, vessels were constructed on a lot in Woolwich until it moved to a building in East Boothbay.[2] In July 2008, the shipyard burned to the ground in a fire sparked by a cutting torch.[3][2] The fire caused an estimated $30 million in damage to the facility and under-construction vessels, and led the company to lay off 65 of its 100 employees.[3] Immediately after the incident, the company began designing a replacement building, with operations continuing at other sites until being consolidated back to East Boothbay the following year.[2] In 2016, the company began planning to expand to a site in Brunswick, Maine on the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, where it would locate steel cutting and some fabrication operations.[4]

Washburn & Doughty initially constructed primarily fishing boats, including some early examples of freezer trawlers on the US East Coast.[1] It subsequently expanded into passenger vessels, and in 1997 delivered its first z-drive tugboat to a design that would eventually be the basis for most vessels built by the company—by 2018, Washburn & Doughty had delivered over 50 such tugboats.[1][5] Led by Bruce Washburn, who was educated as a naval architect, the company designs about three quarters of the ships it builds.[1] Since 2000, the company has built almost exclusively tugboats, becoming the largest builder of them on the East Coast by 2007[6] and holding just under 30% of the market in 2016.[4] In 2018, it was awarded its first ferry construction contract since the 1990s for a 154 feet (47 m) vehicle and passenger ferry, to enter service in 2020 for the Maine Department of Transportation.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "At Washburn & Doughty, most new tugs are home-grown by design". Professional Mariner. November 26, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Washburn & Doughty to rebuild following catastrophic fire". Professional Mariner. September 23, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "A Shipyard Fire Shakes a Tradition-Rich Town to Its Core". The New York Times. July 22, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "East Boothbay boat builder plans expansion to Brunswick Landing". Portland Press-Herald. April 21, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Washburn & Doughty wins bid to build $8.8 million state ferry". Mainebiz. February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Tugboat builder scraps Harpswell plans". Mainebiz. October 25, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
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