All Trimmed and Set to Sail
Northern Marine Builds Yachts Fit for a King

by Janet O’Mara

Ever wonder where the very rich, and sometimes famous, from all over the world, moor, charter and buy boats? Would it surprise you to know the little town of Anacortes, right here in Skagit County, is high on many such lists?

It turns out that a large number of well-known people — top movie stars and directors, as well as moguls of industry — travel in and out of Anacortes quite frequently. They stay in this port town and contribute to the local economy on their way to the San Juan and Gulf islands and beyond. For the most part, they blend in with other tourists; residents tend to respect their privacy; and they often buy boats manufactured here.

“People all over the world know that if you want a quality, fiberglass megayacht, you come to the Pacific Northwest,” explains Richard “Bud” LeMieux, owner of the Anacortes yacht manufacturing company Northern Marine. With LeMieux at the helm, the company is building a reputation in megayacht construction, and sales are booming, he says.

A “megayacht” is defined as a fiberglass boat at least 100 feet long and costing $1 million or more. These are, in other words, big, big boats. Their owners are able to cruise all around the world, from Alaska to Australia, and in substantial comfort.

 

Attractive features

Features may include marble entryways and counters, wood-paneled offices with computers and all the latest electronics, galley equipment, multiple bedrooms with full-size beds and closets, heads (bathrooms) with wide showers and tubs, laundry rooms and crew quarters. All are designed for long-distance travel: hefty engines, large fuel and water tanks, and navigation systems.

If you have the money to spend, nearly any custom feature is possible. One yacht currently under construction has a “garage” and crane on the top deck for the owner’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle, used for excursions on land.

Most megayachts take at least two years from design to launch and are priced in the multimillions of dollars.

Fairly new to this high-end marine market, LeMieux is determined that his company will survive among the major players, many of them centered in such warm-weather boating capitals as San Diego and Fort Lauderdale. There’s a kind of restless energy about this veteran boat builder that lets you know he’ll never stop looking for improvements and new challenges.

“Now that we’re able to build these boats and attract good people to help us,” he states, “our goal at Northern Marine is to really get organized. What we want to offer our customers is a very well-tuned, well-organized boat-building operation.

“Are we there yet? No,” he states rhetorically. “But are we substantially on our way there? Yes! When potential customers see our quality workers with a great amount of organization behind them, I think they’ll understand we’re the best place to get a boat built.”

Matching LeMieux in energy and enthusiasm is Scott Ramin, Northern Marine’s general manager, who describes his boss as knowledgeable and honest.

 

Specialized market

“Our market is very specialized and our owner knows it very well,” Ramin observes. “He draws in people with his reputation. This is a hard industry. There are so many ways to lose money. My job is to make it so it’s less of a gamble, to build relationships — internally and outside the company — then we’ll be successful.”

Ramin relates that about 18 months ago, the management at Northern Marine analyzed the company’s operation and came up with “the process of build,” which includes construction and schedules. “Once we figured out in detail how we did that, we could factor in all the workers and parts at the right time — we changed how we build our boats,” he recalls.

After years of working for others and learning every skill in the boat-building trade, LeMieux started with one customer and a deposit on a 62-foot boat on July 5, 1995, in a leased portion of a warehouse.

“We thought it was a good-looking boat, and so did the boating community,” he recalls modestly, “so it was not too long before we had three orders.”

When the small-boat market tapered off, Northern Marine began building even larger boats, because that’s what people wanted.

“We took on a contract and it wasn’t much afterward that another order came along, and then another one,” he says. Currently, eight yachts are being manufactured simultaneously at Northern Marine, and the phone never seems to stop ringing. More than 100,000 square feet of construction and office space, all near the Anacortes’s waterfront, is being used by the company. Northern Marine ranked 23rd on this year’s Top Private 50 list, with $15 million in sales last year.

 

Supporting local businesses

The benefits of success at Northern Marine do not stop at the door. In addition to the money drawn into Anacortes hotels and restaurants by visitors and potential buyers, Northern Marine keeps many other area businesses busy. “We want to help out the local economy whenever we can,” LeMieux states. Cabinets, carpets, shower doors, marble, plumbing, even doughnuts and coffee, plus services like cleaning and catering, all come from Skagit County sources, many from within Anacortes itself.

“Building relationships” among employees, customers, other businesses, communities and county, state and federal agencies is what Ramin says Northern Marine is all about. “This is really a new way of doing business today,” he proclaims.

“At Northern Marine, we’re working diligently at becoming more organized, more efficient,” Ramin reiterates. “We’re creating an environment for success: every employee, every department. And that way, we can produce a world-class product. Then to be a world-class company, we’re going to have to take that philosophy to the community and help each other — we can’t do everything ourselves,” he notes.

“We try to be proactive in the community,” LeMieux agrees. “I think we’re one of the few bigger businesses around here that tries to keep the city government very much aware of what we’re doing — we’re not working in a vacuum down here.”

And, he adds, this involves other marine-related businesses in Anacortes as well. “We share equipment; we share knowledge — and it’s never associated with an invoice or a bill,” he concludes. “You do it as a friend, and friends help out friends.”