San Diego-based Marine Group Boat Works, a family-owned boatbuilding and repair company with yards in Chula Vista , National City and San Jose del Cabo, has been awarded three Navy contracts to build five small, powerful steel tugboats, six large steel workboats, and 16 aluminum 60-foot dive boats, for a total of 27 new vessels with a value of over $45 million.
Upon completion of construction in San Diego, the workboats will be delivered to Navy Base Yokohama, Japan and spread throughout naval force bases in the United States.
In a fourth separate Navy contract, Marine Group will dismantle and dispose of two 224-foot Avenger-class Mine Counter Measure (MCM) ships built in the mid 1980s — the USS Avenger and the USS Defender — in accordance to state and federal environmental regulations, recycling parts where possible.
The combined period of performance takes the shipyard’s workload and order books well into 2020, the company says.
“Our vision was to bring custom boatbuilding back to California where we have trained a new generation of craftsmen,” said Todd Roberts, president of Marine Group, in a company news release.
The Navy conducted a nationwide call for competitive bids from qualified shipyards with less than 500 employees who have proven design concepts that would fulfill the Navy’s new fleet missions requirements.
Marine Group’s workboats will be used to assist in mooring, moving support equipment and opening and closing safety barriers within Japanese harbors. The 16 dive boats will be assigned to support Navy divers on the East and West Coasts.
According to a recent report titled "Economic Importance of U.S. the Shipbuilding and Repairing Industry," released by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), each job in the industry leads to another 2.7 jobs nationally. Every dollar’s worth of goods and services spent leads to another $2.66 in the wider economy. (The report evaluates 2011 data from private shipbuilding and repair sector.)
“Multi-year, multi-vessel contracts are what our economy needs. With internal forecasts and data from our past construction of vessels, building these boats will add about 25 jobs and pay out about $22 million to subcontractors and material suppliers,” said Roberts.
For Chula Vista, National City and the region where Marine Group is located, these new construction contracts will lead to approximately 68 jobs and $58.5 million spent in the wider economy.
