San Diego boat repair and construction facility Marine Group Boat Works has installed a new 100-ton lift that can haul and move vessels to and from the water, the company announced July 3.
Adding the 100-ton Variable Width Marine Travelift with a Tier 4 engine allows the company to serve a broader range of vessels without taking up too much room, the company said.
“This is really about safely and efficiently maximizing space, especially with one of our busiest seasons upon us,” Marine Group Operations Director Eric Lundeen explained.
“This new lift basically adds square footage to the facility without physically expanding the current yard. In other words, we’re able to block 18 vessels in a space that used to only fit 12 simply because the machine contracts to the vessels’ actual width,” he said.
The travelift, which was made possible with the help of a grant from the federal Maritime Administration, is designed to accommodate 25-foot to 100-foot vessels and can expand and contract while lifting full loads and maneuvering at a 360-degree angle, the company said.
MGBW has previously benefited from the Small Shipyard Grant Program, which helps U.S. shipyards provide training and bolster efficiency.
“We’ve used the (grant) to certify dozens of welders, purchase equipment that allowed us to do work in-house which reduced the time customers used to have to wait to outsource the work and upgraded equipment to improve the turnaround times on certain tasks for customers,” Marine Group President Todd Roberts said. “The MARAD grant is the single best grant program truly dedicated to giving back to small businesses within the maritime industry.”
In other news, the owners of the facility have launched a new maritime consulting company called Marine Group Global Services, Marine Group announced June 17.
Marine Group is known for its superyacht refit facility, Marine Group Boats Works, as well as its superyacht marina, Fifth Avenue Landing, and its boat repair shop in Mexico, Marine Group de Los Cabos.
That work has led to a heightened “demand for ancillary services that didn’t quite fit the core capabilities of a boatyard/shipyard or marina,” the company explained in its announcement.
“We were getting so many requests from customers who preferred to get all their questions answered and problems solved in one place,” Roberts said. “It’s hard to say no to customers, so we decided to turn the requests and our expertise in this region into an opportunity for expansion.”
With its system of marinas, subcontractors, suppliers and regulatory entities on the West Coast, Baja and Alaska, Global Services is able to offer its customers dockage, provisioning, shipping, logistics and passage planning.
“We spent years perfecting our shipping system between our yards in San Diego and Cabo and now we can offer that learning curve to customers looking to ship parts and supplies to their vessels in Mexico,” Roberts said.
Mark Edward Nero can be reached at mark@maritimepublishing.com