ACB charts steady course
Bellingham boatbuilder continues growth

By Hilary Parker

A rendering showing ACB’s new riverine craft, which the company recently shopped around at the Multi-agency Craft Conference in Virginia.

Early last month Bellingham-based Aluminum Chambered Boats (ACB) took its riverine demonstration craft to a conference where government agencies had the opportunity to peruse the new vessel.
If all goes well, this 41-foot boat, outfitted by Bethpage, N.Y.-based Northrup Grumann (NG), will be the basis for the U.S. Navy’s new combat river craft.
“From the time we shook hands to the time we splashed, it was five months,” related ACB President Tim Metz, referring to the deal with NG. From design to build, the boat made its first “splash” in mid-May, just ahead of the Multi-agency Craft Conference (MACC) in Nolfolk, Va.
“The NGIS/ACB team worked together in a seamless fashion in presenting the most technologically advanced watercraft at the MACC. [Our craft] has raised the bar and a lot of people are talking about it in a very positive fashion,” said Metz, following the conference.
“I am proud of our team. It is not often that a large company and a small company can work so effectively together.”
What makes the craft so attractive to buyers, whether in military, government, commercial or recreational applications, is the customization ACB can offer.
Metz likens it choosing one’s favorite flavor: “We make ice cream. What flavor do you want?”
The riverine experimental boat – the Joint Multimission Expeditionary Craft, or J-MEC – integrates Northrop Grumman’s navigation, surveillance, network, and command and control systems into a tactical-class hull form designed and built by ACB.
While the military application for combat is clear, the craft will have capabilities for other missions, such a humanitarian relief for natural disasters, pointed out Metz.
The company has been doing more than working on the demonstration craft, recently delivering an order of 66 bridge erection boats to the U.S. Marines – on time and on budget, noted Metz.
ACB is constantly innovating to meet customer, and potential customer, needs, says Metz.
One current project is developing a patent-pending ballistics protection system that will be applicable to other craft and vehicles.
“We plan to offer it as an up-armor system to anyone who has existing craft or vehicles,” Metz said.
The relatively light-weight armor will be an integral part of the crafts’ materials.
Such innovation is a central focus for the company. “We will continually evolve as a watercraft designer and builder,” Metz said.
The next step in the evolution is expanding manufacturing facilities with a 190,000-square-foot factory. The site for the factory remains under discussion, but Metz predicts the company will move on that decision in the near future. Sites both in the county, other parts of the state and country are being considered. The plant will employ 400.
Finding 400 workers skilled in welding and other trades related to boatbuilding is a challenge in this region as well as many other parts of the country, Metz said.
Because of a lack of skilled labor, ACB has devised a two-prong attack to combat this problem. The first is a plan to automate as many processes as possible. The second, said Metz, is to train their own welders, and eventually expand that training to other trades as well.
Getting a new plant up and running is fast becoming a necessity as additional contracts come in. A $9.88 million contract awarded to ACB in June will provide the United States Coast Guard with 47 rigid hull inflatable boats for their Cutter Boat-Largefleet. The first boat on the five-year contract will be delivered later this summer.