Effing Christ! Chouest is now in the yacht building business!

this is just great…the worst of two worlds combined! The ultimate Joe Boss of bosses and Billionaires…what can ever be next?

[B]Chouest family buys yacht builder Westport[/B]


Yacht launch at Westport

JUNE 7, 2014 — The assets of Westport Shipyard, Inc., the largest yacht builder in North America, have been acquired by Westport, LLC, an ownership group that includes Gary Chouest and other members of the Chouest family.

As well as owning Edison Chouest Offshore, the Chouest family also owns American Custom Yachts in Stuart, FL.

Westport, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has three shipyards in Washington State, in Westport, Port Angles and Hoquiam, and a marina and sales office in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

With over 400 employees, Westport has completed more than 120 yachts since 2000. And one customer was Gary Chouest.

Westport president Daryl Wakefield, who will remain in the position, says “Gary has always been passionate about our industry, and we are honored to count him as a customer, and now our majority owner, as well.”

Westport says General Manager Dave Hagiwara will also remain, along with the rest of Westport’s management team and employees.

“Similar to the history of the Chouest family business, Westport began five decades ago with a fishing fleet, and has diversified into many other core businesses, focusing on customer satisfaction and the pursuit of excellence,” said Gary Chouest. "We are pleased to join the Westport family, and look forward to pursuing the synergies that exist between the Chouest companies, ACY, and Westport.

“We will continue to pursue the employment of skilled local workers, and will remain an active participant in the communities Westport serves.”

Steamer, why the hell didn’t they buy Trinity? At least they are in Loosiana…

[QUOTE=c.captain;138895]this is just great…the worst of two worlds combined! The ultimate Joe Boss of bosses and Billionaires…what can ever be next?

Steamer, why the hell didn’t they buy Trinity? At least they are in Loosiana…[/QUOTE]

The story I heard from the second cousin of an unreliable source is that Gary walked into the yard to order a yacht. The earliest available delivery date was a couple years into the future. He bought the yard just so he could move to the front of the line.

Because John Dane wouldn’t sell Trinity. Not only do they build mega yachts, they are building the 300’ LNG supply boats for Harvey and some crew boats at their Gulfport MS yard.

ECO bought a yacht company years ago in Jupiter Florida, ACY, American Custom Yachts,

[QUOTE=c.captain;138895]Steamer, why the hell didn’t they buy Trinity? At least they are in Loosiana…[/QUOTE]

Would you buy a superyacht built by the same labor pool responsible for Aiviq?

It looks like the Chouests are moving uptown … gonna be sippin champers and hobnobbing with the swells in Monaco now.

But for the record, while Westports are not bad boats, they are still a “production” boat. It’s kinda like flying to yourself to Hong Kong to buy a suit instead of sending the jet to bring your tailor in from Saville Row.

[QUOTE=rigdvr;138904]Because John Dane wouldn’t sell Trinity. Not only do they build mega yachts, they are building the 300’ LNG supply boats for Harvey and some crew boats at their Gulfport MS yard.[/QUOTE]

you mean there is a man in Louisiana (or the entire Gulf for that matter) who has said NO to Gary Chouest…

and lived to be able to tell others?

isn’t is incredible how much Gary Chouest looks like Vito Corleone only with a much weaker chin?

Trinity doesn’t build a world class mega yacht?

It looks like the Chouests are moving uptown … gonna be sippin champers and hobnobbing with the swells in Monaco now.

well I don’t know about Monaco giving him open entre into that uberwealth blueblood society so quickly, but I hear the hacieda in Palm Beach has its own slave quarters…

this is the guest house…

[QUOTE=c.captain;138923]Trinity doesn’t build a world class mega yacht?[/QUOTE]

Read this book. http://megayachtnews.com/2013/02/grand-ambition-book-bruce-knecht-megayacht-lady-linda/#axzz34CcSoi2l

Order it here: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Ambition-Extraordinary-People-Millionaire/dp/1416576002

I think it is available as an eBook too. It is a great read for a good insight into that world.

He supposedly bought ACY because he wanted a 50knot 90 foot sportfish and the designers didn’t want to do a boat that big. so he bought the yard and said now you do.

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;138946]He supposedly bought ACY because he wanted a 50knot 90 foot sportfish and the designers didn’t want to do a boat that big. so he bought the yard and said now you do.[/QUOTE]

There isn’t a yacht “designer” alive who wouldn’t sell his children to have his name on the design of a boat like that. Most yacht designers are stylists who make pretty renderings to sell to a prospective owner then it is up to the architect and engineers to animate the cartoon. Those drawings are turned over to a yard and if the yard thinks it can build it they might submit a bid that the buyer likes … it often goes downhill from there.

In any event, any designer and any architect will sell whatever vision you ask for, that’s what they do for a living.

By designer I meant naval architect. They hadn’t built anything that big before and they weren’t really interested. They seem to do a lot more service and major refit work so that doesn’t surprise me that they had size limits they wanted to stick to.

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;138956]By designer I meant naval architect. They hadn’t built anything that big before and they weren’t really interested. They seem to do a lot more service and major refit work so that doesn’t surprise me that they had size limits they wanted to stick to.[/QUOTE]

Ah so. It was the yard that didn’t want to take on a project they felt they were not capable of completing successfully. That is a smart yard. It would take a really stupid owner to “force” a yard to work outside their capability and expect a good outcome.

In the real world, many yacht yards readily take on projects they can’t complete on time and on budget. In most cases they knew that didn’t have the expertise, experience, and workforce to estimate and bid the job accurately but wanted the creds for a high visibility project.

It’s theater, not shipbuilding.

That’s essentially what I’ve been told from a couple people, and a former employe there. They still pulled it off beautifully, I think they just had a size range they liked working in and didn’t need the project. Chouest has a couple other of their boats in smaller sizes.
My family is in the yacht yard business and my fathers yard occasionally builds a boat, generally with a smaller partner company in the case of wood boats, we do the systems work. High end projects are hard to bud and can get out of hand quickly. It certainly is a challenging business to make money in and one or two big flops can kill you. Sticking to primarily service, refit, and re power is a better business plan in my book.

Monterey Marine (ACY before ECO) built an 80’ that did 50 in 1989.

Especially in the realm of high performance one-offs. Get the weights, LCG, or other numbers wrong and you have built a beautiful multi-million dollar piece of crap.

Well that pokes some holes in what I’ve been told!

More carthorse than racehorse ... the Aga Khan's £100m yacht | Daily Mail Online

Unless your last name is Chouest, I’m sure you’ll never know the real reasoning behind a lot of decisions that get made.

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;138966]Well that pokes some holes in what I’ve been told![/QUOTE]

ACY was Monterey before ECO purchased it. I was lucky enough to go to the ACY yard some time back and they put out a great product. Pricey but a nice product. They built the 90’ boat for Gary because he wanted a boat that big that would do 50 knots. The funny thing is the guys at the yard thought they could get the boat to go 50 knots without the HP (currently almost 10,000 HP) and reducing the fuel tank (almost 6,200 gallons). Gary purchased ACY for a number of reasons with one of them being he wanted a boat fast. They almost exclusively build boats for the Chouest family as they have several under construction now and they’re all for family.

Not to mention they just plain build good boats. In my previous incarnation as a captain on yachts I had been there as a service customer … When it was Monterey, and when it became ACY. I was very pleased with their service department, and impressed by what I saw when they gave me free reign to crawl around boats under construction.