Just a few weeks after Palmer Johnson received approval to build a new yacht facility in Southampton, England, it’s looking for even more new places to build, this time a little closer to home.
According to an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette, Mike Kelsey, the yard’s president, says the existing facility in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, is at capacity, despite recent expansions of both yacht-construction and paint buildings there. In fact, he told the paper that Palmer Johnson has quadrupled production within the past three years. Despite the increase in business, the yard cannot find enough highly skilled craftspeople to continue to expand in Sturgeon Bay–but pools of workers experienced in welding aluminum, pipe fitting, and marine electrical systems exist in other areas of Wisconsin and neighboring Michigan.
Building hulls and/or superstructures as well as other select parts in these regions won’t pose a problem for Palmer Johnson. “We have also invested significantly in designing and engineering a new production methodology based on a modular concept, which allows us to build large components of a yacht off-site,” Kelsey was quoted as saying.
The paper didn’t mention specific towns, but it did state that once the new facilities are up and running, the Sturgeon Bay yard will be used mostly for assembly and finishing.
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