en.Wedoany.com Reported - Snow & Company is a family-owned shipyard based in Seattle with 110 employees. In less than a decade, this shipyard has become a steady manufacturer of government and commercial vessels, with a total of 174 hulls built or under construction. Its products include 24 large workboats (41-foot steel tugs) and 23 medium workboats (30-foot tugs) built for the U.S. Navy, as well as pilot boats and research vessels. Its current core project is building a series of 8 battery-powered ship-assist tugs for the California coast, with the first tug, Tuuli C, launched and expected to be delivered in early September.
The shipyard's founder and president, Brett Snow, is known in the industry for his shipbuilding skills and entrepreneurial drive. His career began in high school when he co-built a Herreshoff H14 sailboat with colleagues in a woodworking shop. This experience led him to drop out of high school and enroll in the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend to learn woodworking. In 1987, Snow left the U.S. and lived on the Danish island of Bornholm for seven years, during which he purchased a traditional Danish fishing boat named "Vesterhavet," which is still moored at the shipyard.
After returning to Seattle, Snow rented space at Ballard Oil Company to resume his marine woodworking business. Around 2000, as traditional woodworking work on fishing boats declined, he taught himself aluminum welding and began transitioning from woodworking to metal fabrication. The shipyard completed its first aluminum boat around 2010, and over the next six years of aluminum construction, it built 83 vessels, establishing production discipline and processes.
In 2017, Snow & Company won its first Navy contract to build 26 large workboats. In March 2020, the shipyard relocated to the former Kvichak Marine Industries site, enhancing its facility capabilities. After the move, the shipyard secured a second Navy contract for medium workboats. These 30-foot tugs became a high-volume production platform, with one vessel delivered every three weeks at peak. This project also drove the establishment of in-house design capabilities, led by naval architect Jay Edgar.
The current series of 8 battery-powered tugs under construction is the most complex vessels the shipyard has ever built. Each is 80 feet long with a rated bollard pull of 55 tons. Snow remains closely involved in detail reviews, using CAD software to inspect systems and layouts. Regarding the mass production of electric tugs, Snow expressed confidence in delivering them as standardized products.
Snow's team includes family members: his eldest daughter, Tuuli Snow, is the company's lead recruiter and the namesake of the first electric tug; his younger daughter, Tiger, participated in the restoration of the Vesterhavet. When asked about his proudest achievement, Snow points to his team rather than specific vessel types. He says the part of his work he enjoys most includes both macro-level business operations management and the engineering work of refining specific systems and details.
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