Hodgdon Yachts Inc. (HYI) of East Boothbay recently announced expansion plans to build yacht interiors at the Richmond Business and Manufacturing Center. Although the company has already commenced work at the Richmond facility, Timothy Hodgdon president of HYI cautioned that long-term commitments still depend on a few unresolved items. He also stated that the company fully expects to roll the short term lease into a long term situation within a month.

"This move represents a significant expansion for Hodgdon Shipbuilding and we have plans to create a minimum of 20 jobs immediately, with the potential for further growth should plans proceed as expected," Hodgdon said.

"I do want to make it absolutely clear, however, that this expansion will not affect operations in East Boothbay. We expect to continue our custom yacht building business at its present location as usual. Company home offices, headquarters, and yacht building operations will remain where they have been for almost two hundred years, in East Boothbay." The company currently has several contracts underway at the East Boothbay shipyard.

The "Hodgdon Completion Center" a division of Hodgdon Yachts, Inc. will involve mostly woodworking and will give rise to additional modernization of the manufacturing process with the latest in state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. Currently the company is using computer numeric control equipment, computer aided drafting department for support, and other new equipment to streamline the production process. "It is our intent to further upgrade our capabilities aimed at increasing throughput while preserving the quality that Hodgdon is known for. Our skilled craftsmen produce a top level of quality and this move will add volume."

Among other projects, HYI is currently building an interior for a 114' motor yacht which is under construction at a shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida. This type of interior construction is what the company expects to develop at their new Richmond facility.

On another front, Hodgdon Marine LLC received Tentative Developer Status by unanimous vote of the Bangor City Council on January 29. This approval refers to a waterfront parcel on the Penobscot River in Hampden that the shipyard is interested in exploring. Hodgdon is reviewing options should the recent successful launch of the MK V.1 technology demonstrator for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) develop into future military contracting programs. "We plan to aggressively pursue various construction programs with the USN, USCG and Foreign Military Sales" said Hodgdon. "The first step in achieving these goals is to increase our composite shipbuilding capacity, should we be successful in securing future contracts." He also stated that this is very early on in the process and should not be considered anything other than an exploratory process.

The City Council's approval positions the company to commence a long-term strategy to compete for military composite shipbuilding programs. With the launch of the MK V.1, Hodgdon, along with its affiliate Maine Marine Manufacturing, and with support from the University of Maine are currently building capabilities within the state to do just that. The relationship with UMAINE, as well as strong support from the state government and federal delegation has been an important part of the effort. Along with help from the governor's office, the cities of Bangor and Hampden are working with company officials to do everything possible to see a division of Hodgdon Shipbuilding located on the Penobscot River.