Professional BoatBuilder - April-May 2018

66 Professional BoatBuilder

YARD PROFILE: Schooner Creek

Service and Repair

The yard totals more than six

acres (2.4 hectares) of which two

are dedicated to long-term stor-

age for customers’ boats; and the

remaining four, less the footprint

of the building, are made up of a

mast yard for rigging, haul-out

area, and a repair/service area.

There are another two+ acres of

water with docks and two float-

ing work sheds.

“The majority of our business

is repair,” says Flanigan, who saw

the wisdom in developing a pre-

dictable revenue stream. Two

lifts, 25- and 70-ton capacities,

both industries as their own entities.

And that’s why you get so good at

b o t h .”

As with so many yards across the

country, finding qualified, capable

employees requires constant effort.

“We’re bringing in people from all

over the country,” Flanigan says. “From

Port Townsend to Miami, we have to

spread a pretty broad net to get people.

But we’re lucky, as there’s a lot of com-

posites happening here. We try to lure

them away from aerospace.”

Once hired, crew are trained in-

house and via a variety of training pro-

grams, including those developed by

the American Boat & Yacht Council

(ABYC), and organizations such as

Wing Inflatables in California and

Boatswain’s Locker training for servic-

ing Steyr Motors. For developing infu-

sion expertise, Schooner Creek brings

in a trainer from DIAB (www.diab

group.com).

Repairwork remains Schooner

Creek’s bread and butter. Its loca-

tion on the Columbia River has a

6' (1.8m) tide, 100 miles (161 km)

from the ocean.

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