By Chris Philips, Managing Editor
The first boat produced by the Nichols family was a tugboat. George "Mark" Nichols was an orchardist in Yakima, Washington in the 1930s. His 10-acre apple farm failed during the great depression, and in 1939 he moved his family South to the city of Hood River, Oregon, on the Columbia River, to build a tugboat with his brother, Luke.
The first boat produced by the Nichols family was a tugboat. George "Mark" Nichols was an orchardist in Yakima, Washington in the 1930s. His 10-acre apple farm failed during the great depression, and in 1939 he moved his family South to the city of Hood River, Oregon, on the Columbia River, to build a tugboat with his brother, Luke.
Welding was one of many skills one acquired as a farmer, and
Mark put that talent to good use, as he and his son Frank built the first
Nichols Boatworks tugboat, the M/V Whale. That first boat
established the commercial viability of a boatbuilding venture, and the
brothers opened their Nichols Boat Works for business. There isn't much
information on the Whale, but it was steel.
"Only steel," Current Nichols Bros. president Matt
Nichols says. "Steel and later aluminum, of course. We never built
fiberglass or wood boats."
From 1939 to 1964, The Nichols Boat Works built a series of
steel tugs and fishing boats for the busy Columbia River. The brothers built
tugboats for companies such as Shaver Transportation, Joe Bernert Towing Co.,
Brix Maritime, Brusco Tug and Barge, Smith Towing and Hendren Towboat Co.
The yard also produced steel fishing boats, a couple of
pleasure craft and some passenger vessels, as well as several ferries including
the ferry Wahkiakum, for Wahkiakum County, which runs between
Cathlamet, Washington and Westport, Oregon.
In 1962, Mark's son, Frank Wilson Nichols, who had grown up
building boats with his father and uncle, brought his wife and eleven children
to Seattle to start his own business. He built his first boat, a steel fishing
boat named Jenel, in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. The 42-foot
by 16.5-foot F/V Jenel, built for fisherman Jack Downing, was
powered by a GM 6-71 diesel. Frank's son, Matt, was hired as a deckhand on the
new boat, and fished in Alaska for four summers while he was in high school. On
delivery of the Jenel in 1964, Frank Nichols bought a machine
shop on a piece of land on Holmes Harbor, in Freeland, Washington on Whidbey
Island.
"We all lived in that little shack for a while,"
Matt says. The company has always placed a value on its history and modest
beginnings. For years, even after the yard had established itself as one of the
top shipyards in the country, the old machine shop was a part of the operation.
When the building was finally demolished in 1992 to make way for expansion of
the yard, the front wall was kept and incorporated into the fence that
surrounds the 14-acre facility.
The yard is actually separated from the water by a two-lane
country road, Shoreview drive, which the yard's boats have to cross to reach
the gently sloping launch site on the other side. After ten years of launching
boats by rolling them down the gently sloping beach on specially-built cradles,
Frank developed a hydraulically driven heavy mover, with crawler tracks,
allowing the vessels to be driven into the bay, where they would float out of
the cradles as the tide came in. The system allowed for the construction and
launch of larger vessels, and worked so well that in 1991 it was updated to
carry 2,500 tons.
In 1972, Frank's sons, Matt and his brother, Archie, took
over the family business, along with brothers Mike, Nate, Luke, and Willie,
with all the brothers working in the yard. Matt and Archie ran the business
together until 1996, when Archie left to pursue other interests, and Matt
bought out Archie's share in the company. One of their brothers, Luke, still
runs the yard's machine shop, and Archie still consults on the occasional
project.
"People are very important at Nichols," Matt
Nichols says. "Our reputation doesn't come just from the quality of the
vessels we build, but the people who build them." Nichols currently
employs 252 shipyard craftsmen, which is considered full employment for the
yard, although Matt Nichols notes that some projects have required hiring extra
workers. "We were at about 375 crew at one point when we were building the
Empress of the North and the X-Craft," he says, noting that
the crew is trained in the trades with private classroom instruction every
Tuesday and Thursday night. The company pays all the training costs, and is so
successful that many other companies try to hire the highly trained Nichols
employees away.
The training is certified by the State of Washington to
rigorous standards, and the skilled aluminum craftsmen participate in
continuing education classes to perfect their trades. Long-time Nichols
craftsmen earn overtime to train the new employees. Currently, all of his
employees live on Whidbey Island.
Matt Nichols' sons make up the latest generation of Nichols
boatbuilders. Bryan Nichols, who managed sales for Nichols Bros for many years,
now serves as Director of Sales at Vigor Fab. Justin Nichols, who earned a
degree in industrial engineering, built boats on his own before hiring on at
Nichols Bros. as production manager. Younger brother, George Nichols, works at
the yard as a draftsman with 10 years of experience.
"It was awesome growing up with the yard," Bryan
Nichols says. "As kids we spent a lot of time painting cranes, sweeping
the yard – we had a lot of work." He says along the way they learned a lot
about boats. "You end up learning so much about equipment, about machinery,
and you don't even realize what you're learning at the time."
Bryan enjoyed meeting the customers and watching his father,
Matt, sell boatbuilding and repair projects. "I learned negotiation and
sales tactics from the master," he jokes.
He and his older brother, Justin, worked under multiple
people at the yard each summer. "In the winter I would work a few hours
after school, cleaning up the machine shop or something, and in the summer I
was always working in the yard as an apprentice to someone," he says.
"In college I started working nights with my dad
helping with estimates and proposals, and I would go to school during the day.
Pretty soon it developed that I was working for him during the day and going to
school at night."
Bryan says he's fortunate to love what he does. "Being
able to stay in the industry has been a real treat," he says. "People
get into this industry accidentally and kind of fall in love with it."
The fishing boats built by Nichols Bros. have included
gillnetters, seiners, trawlers and crabbers, while the tugboats produced by the
yard have run from standard line-haul boats to shallow-draft vessels for
service in shallow Alaskan rivers, articulated tug and barge units, and modern
tractor tugs for ship assist and escort work.
"Nichols is a great bunch of guys that work hard,"
says Gunnar Ildhuso, Jr., President of Ildhuso Fisheries and owner of the
combination crab, pollock and whiting boat F/V Gun-Mar. "It
seems like everybody on the Island works for them."
Ildhuso had the Gun-Mar built at Nichols Bros.
in 1981. The 137-foot boat had 3,400 square feet of deck space and a hold
capacity of 11,500 cubic feet. The 1,700-HP boat was capable of 12 knots, fully
loaded.
In 1993, Ildhuso brought the boat back to Nichols for a two
six-foot sponsons and a 40-foot mid-body extension. "Nichols had the
mid-body built and ready for us when we finished the season," Ildhuso
says. The modifications increased the deck size to 6,000 square feet and the
hold capacity to 23,200 cubic feet, while maintaining a fully laden speed of 12
knots from the same 1,700 HP.
"We got the boat into the yard, and they did the work
and it was ready in time for the next season," Ildhuso says. "I think
it's a real well-run yard."
Matt Nichols says the yard performs quite a bit of
maintenance and modification work. "A lot of our customers come back to
the yard where the boat was built. We'd actually like to do more repair,"
he says. "With our yard at Freeland and our dock at Langley, we can do
topside repairs and dockside work as well as haul-out projects."
One of the hallmarks of the company is diversity. Along with
fishing boats and tugboats, Nichols Bros. has built a series of high-speed
aluminum passenger vessels.
"We're operating three Nichols boats," says Greg
Bombard, President of Long beach, California-based Catalina Express.
"We've got one newbuild – a great boat, the Jet
Cat Express, and we've bought two other vessels through them," he
says. "One that they had out on charter, and another one that came in as a
trade-in."
Bombard worked closely with Nichols to develop vessels that
would transport passengers in comfort across the channel to Catalina Island.
The Nichols-built boats feature amenities like full ride control systems for
stability, modern navigational systems, airline-style cabin seating, panoramic
viewing windows, and on-deck seating.
"We've always worked well with Nichols Bros."
Bombard says, "and those vessels have been great additions to our
fleet."
Nichols Bros. has built paddlewheel riverboats, some
military craft, a fireboat, research vessels, a pilot boat and patrol craft.
Nichols also builds great tour boats, according to Don
Wicklund, the Port Captain for Seattle's Argosy Cruises. Argosy operates a
fleet of nine tour boats around Seattle and Puget Sound, including several Nichols
Bros.-built boats.
"We love Nichols," he says. Wicklund was a captain
for Argosy in 1976 when the company was approached by Archie and Matt Nichols.
"Nichols Bros. had an opening, and they wanted to keep the crew
working," Wicklund says. "They offered us a great price, so we asked
them to build us a boat like the Goodtime," he says.
"They built the Goodtime II in two and a half months."
The 250-passenger vessel has since seen continuous service along the Seattle
waterfront. It was followed by several other Nichols boats, including the Goodtime
III and Spirit of Alderbrook, and most recently the Royal
Argosy, built in 1999 as a luxury dinner cruise boat. The 180-foot Royal
Argosy was designed to evoke the era of the Seattle "mosquito
fleet" of steamships that dotted Puget Sound at the end of the 19th
century. The dinner cruise boat can accommodate up to 800 passengers, or seat
336 for a unique dining experience provided by professional chefs working in
three full-service galley/kitchens.
"They're a great boatbuilder," Wicklund says,
noting that the yard's attention to detail reduces maintenance costs and makes
for a well-built boat.
"One of the things they do has to do with the skip welds,"
he says. A skip weld is an intermittent weld, used to reduce distortion in
welded plate. "Where they skipped the weld, they caulk all the
seams," he says. "That keeps water out and reduces or eliminates
rusting in those seams."
Wicklund appreciates that the yard is close to Seattle, and
the crew is easy to work with, but mostly, he says, "They take it to the
next step- they do that 'one more thing' to make a boat that lasts many more
years."
A recently completed Nichols boat is the 100-foot
ship-assist tug M/V Delta Audrey, currently undergoing sea trials
at the company's Langley facility before being delivered to San Francisco's Bay
Delta Navigation. The boat is actually the sixth such vessel the company has
had built by Nichols Bros., and Bay Delta's Operations Manager Peter Zwart, who
has overseen construction of the whole series, is very happy with this latest
boat.
"The boat looks great," he says. "I must say,
this might be the best boat of the six."
Zwart says he's very happy to work with Nichols Bros.
"This island has a bunch of excellent crafts people," he says.
"For example, the welding is excellent- they do a really nice job, and
they take pride in their work."
Zwart says he has built relationships and friendships with
the crew at the yard, and that much of the quality comes from the management.
"The price is fair- you get what you pay for. Matt Nichols is very
approachable and easy to deal with," he says.
In 2007, Nichols Bros. was acquired by an investment firm
and re-incorporated as Ice Floe, LLC. dba Nichols Bros. Boatbuilders. Matt
Nichols remains the company's CEO, and in 2011 Gavin Higgins was appointed COO
of Nichols Brothers, tasked with the oversight of the engineering, production,
project management, purchasing and facilities departments.
Over the course of the yard's history, Nichols Bros. has
reached many significant milestones. The construction of a high-speed aluminum
catamaran for the US Navy's Office of Naval Research demonstrated the yard's
technical expertise. Known as the X-Craft (Littoral Surface
Craft-Experimental), the 262-foot by 72-foot Sea Fighter (FSF 1) is powered by
a combined diesel or gas turbine (CODOG) engine configuration consisting of two
MTU 595 diesel engines and two General Electric LM2500 gas turbines. The
diesels can power the ship for long-range cruising, while the gas turbines
allow the X-Craft to reach 55 knots in calm seas and more than 40 knots in sea
state four. Ramps allow for roll-on/roll-off loading of equipment, and the
flight deck can accommodate two helicopters.
Another unique vessel shows the other side of Nichols Bros.
The 360-foot paddlewheel cruise boat Empress of the North
showcases the high level of finish the yard puts into its vessels. The
235-passenger Empress was built in 2003, and is currently taking passengers on
3- to 7-day trips on the Columbia River. CEO Matt Nichols recently returned
from a cruise on the elegant vessel.
"I'd forgotten what a nice boat she is," he says.
"I was invited to speak about her at the beginning of the trip, and for
the rest of the cruise people were complimenting me on the boat.
That sentiment is echoed by commercial customer Peter Zwart,
of Bay Delta Navigation, who says he really likes the way the yard builds his
boats. "We'll go with Nichols on the next boat, too," he says. That's
a nice recommendation to kick off the next 50 years.