Cape Flattery, shakedown run for boatbuilders within grasp of Seattle, Washington, is the rugged headland of a continent. Gateway to the American Northwest, it hosts the maiden voyages of nearly 25 new megayachts each year. Seasonal moods temper the route with either storms or calm summer doldrums.

For 25 years, this region’s boatbuilders have exploded with growth and led a technological evolution, pioneering composite construction in the megayacht industry. While the rest of the world’s big-boat manufacturers stayed cautiously aloof, the Pacific Northwest embraced technology, producing more large composite yachts than anywhere else. It happened there because the remote region bred a fiercely independent and resourceful lineage of family boatbuilders and designers who nurtured an industry.

Top: Paul and Gary Nordlund with their mother, Phyllis, who worked for 50 years in the Nordlund company office her husband started. Bottom: Plum Duff, a testament to innovation by Admiral Marine. (Click images to enlarge)

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As supplier to Alaska’s lucrative commercial fishing fleet, Northwest builders were flush with woodworkers. Unrestrained by convention, they devoured the emerging high-tech resources. While other regions imported the yachting industry as an economic opportunity, the Pacific Northwest’s heritage was a cherished community asset.

"I came to the Northwest with the concept of cored construction in the sixties," recalled Tom Johannsen, who brought Airex foam core technology from Switzerland.

Golden Delicious, a 98-foot Westport and breakthrough composite megayacht that set the Northwest trend. (Click image to enlarge)

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Top: Rick and Randy Rust combined commercial fishing boats and composite technology into one of the Northwest’s premier yacht companies. Bottom: Jack Sarin’s designs launched Westport, Crescent, West Bay, Admiral, Northcoast and the composite generation. (Click images to enlarge)

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What in most regions would have ended as a simple success story for one project became, in the Pacific Northwest boating community, a catalyst for composite evangelism. Brothers Rick and Randy Rust, who owned Tacoma Fiberglass, bought Westport Shipyard in the seventies and turned from solid laminate commercial fishing boats to composite recreational yachts. They got Johannsen to distribute his product, and designers Monk and Sarin promoted the benefits of coring materials. By the eighties, the Pacific Northwest was alone in its crusade for composite construction.The Northwest family tree of boatbuilders shared information among themselves. Earle Wakefield had a boatbuilding school and explained flat-stock construction to the Rusts, who developed cored flat panels that enabled them to construct variable-size molds. They provided parts and hulls of all sizes to all Northwest builders. Earle’s son Daryl started Admiral Marine and built Sarin’s 87-foot Crazy Horse using cored panels and a hint of what was to evolve into vacuum-bag techniques.

While the majority of the world’s builders left wood behind for metal, Boeing’s nearby research and development department reaped the benefits. By the sixties, hydroplanes and water skis were fiberglass and the 747 explored composites. Boeing engineers brought technology home on the weekends for modifications to their own boats. Innovation spread swiftly. In Canada, George and Doug McQueen abandoned their wooden wedge-seamed 90-footers and started building in composite with Ed Monk’s designs.

When ShowBoats appeared, the Northwest was a thriving big-boat producer with Westport Shipyard, Nordlund, Delta Marine, West Bay SonShip, Vic Franck, McQueen Yachts and Jones-Goodell—all family-driven yards convinced that fiberglass held their future. "Big boats" were anything over 80 feet, and while the region already was building its reputation as a mecca for fiberglass construction, remnants of the commercial fishing industry nagged at the recreational market.

By the eighties, Boeing’s Advanced Composite Development Program spread the wealth of composite technology. The Rusts’ Venus Impregnator automated the lay-up process, while Delta Marine’s Jack and Ivor Jones launched the solid-laminate Zopilote for Bruce Kessler. The Steve Seaton design was modeled after Delta’s successful commercial fishing profiles.

"In 1985," pointed out Johannsen, "among the few holdouts still not convinced about the merits of composite coring, Delta Marine did not freely share information. [The company] stayed with solid laminate fishing style boats until Jay Minor, now chief Delta naval architect, convinced them to develop cored techniques."

Through the booming nineties, the Pacific Northwest capitalized on its reputation as an innovator in composite construction. It also solidified its position as a great location for building a boat, with some of the world’s finest cruising grounds at its doorstep and a cooperative community of building specialists within the region.

Bud LeMieux, Delta’s production manager of 25 years, formed Northern Marine and built Spirit of Zopilote for Kessler. The company built Seaton-style fishing boats and cruisers up to 150 feet.

Meanwhile, Dave Christensen, who in the seventies built an Ed Monk Jr. design with Jones-Goodell tooling, ended up producing adjustable molds and worked with the Rusts. He got the idea for a state-of-the-art mezzanine styled facility to offer semi-production yachts up to 160 feet with variable mold production. Christensen Shipyards has produced 35 composite megayachts and is opening a Tennessee facility to build 225-foot boats. It is the first company to move outside the region.Over two decades, Northwest companies grew to produce boats up to 240 feet. Infusion technology revolutionized Northwest yards with cleaner, more efficient facilities and lighter, stronger and more cost-effective productions. Christensen, Northern and Nordlund are all infused, while Delta, which built the 240-foot Laurel from a steel hull, uses composites and metal for larger projects.

Westport, sold by the Rusts to Orin Edson (founder of Bayliner Marine) and run by Daryl Wakefield, is the region’s leading producer up to 164 feet, having revolutionized the build process.

"Much of the success of the Northwest boatbuilders is due to repeat business," explained Wakefield. "Like custom builders who cater to a client’s personal needs, Westport builds production boats with limited custom features and welcomes back customers who return to buy larger boats from our line."

In the worldwide boatbuilding scheme, materials are often the same, but labor drives success. Building follows lower labor costs. In the talent-laden Pacific Northwest, where leading builders and designers (Greg Marshall, Monk, Sarin, Bill Garden, Glade Johnson, Joe Artese and more) make their home, the climate for high-tech innovation is renowned.

William Roeseler from Boeing’s Advanced Composite Center witnessed the aerospace industry’s engineering of carbon-fiber composites trickle from Boeing’s weekend boaters to propel the high-tech megayacht industry. Janicki, a tooling manufacturer from the aerospace industry, supplies builders with accurate tooling from a five-axis mill and is thriving in this rarefied atmosphere of high-tech creativity. McNeel and Associates’ Rhinoceros 3-D modeling software allows designers to build from the plans and caters to the marine industry’s need for accurate, buildable computer designs in a world of truly curved surfaces. Satisfying design needs for naval architects from Royal Huisman, Delta and America’s Cup Oracle Racing, Rhino’s very first version went to designer Ed Monk, who was instrumental in developing its marine interface.

"Without that spirit of cooperation in the early years and today’s high-tech support, our region would struggle to compete," explained Monk.

Competition comes from many directions including Asia, and Flattery is now the gateway to the Far East, where the emerging marine industry has numerous joint projects originating in the Seattle area. The region’s marine community is again adapting to change. Many in the Northwest megayacht industry have flourished over the past 25 years and owe a great deal to those regional pioneering boaters before them. Most recognize that family played a role in their business success and that, in the early years, industry teamwork gave them an edge. While camaraderie still bonds the nucleus of the local marine community, it’s no longer about personal builds for owners. Today’s market is huge, and the demands of the world stage don’t allow handshake deals and family builders to join each client for an Inside Passage cruise.

"Technology is not shared the way it once was," cited Johannsen. "It has matured in the information age and hand-holding through techniques is no longer needed. The spirit of builder as artist and craftsman, even high-tech as it seems, has given way to a new business model."

Still, even in today’s "money talks" world, clients recognize that the Pacific Northwest boatbuilding community preserves a lineage where each build is an investment in a cherished local heritage. This sense of place, where Northwest families launched an industry, remains a thriving center to new
pioneers of the megayacht world.

Neil Rabinowitz is a renowned yachting photojournalist based in the Pacific Northwest.