What's New at North River Boats

North River Boats, Inc., the Roseburg, Oregon builder of aluminum workboats, was granted a GSA contract in July of 2007 to build seven boats for the U.S. Navy to be used as diver support craft throughout the Navy’s operations. This is the second contract that North River has been awarded and produced in the Roseburg, OR facility for the combatant craft division of the Navy.
   
The contract was to provide three boats 27’ long with beam width of 8’6” and four boats 27’ long with beam width 9’6”. Each vessel is powered with twin Mercury Verado 150hp outboard motors and comes equipped with a Furuno RADAR / GPS / sounder, VHF radio, diesel auxiliary heater / defroster system, through side diver boarding door, self bailing deck and fully enclosed cabin.  The vessels are built to strict military, ABYC and USCG specifications. The first two vessels have been inspected by the Navy inspection team and shipped to their distribution facility in Virginia.
   
North River has also produced several vessels for U.S. Navy Oil Spill Response program. These vessels range in size and configuration from 19’-30’ in length with various outboard motor packages. In addition, North River has also built landing craft configured vessels to be used by the Navy as oil skimmers and boom tender vessels.
   
Currently, North River is finishing construction on two 30’ x 10’ landing craft configured vessels to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force base in Lakenheath, England, and recently delivered a 30’ x 9’6” monohulled vessel to be used as support craft for the Navy’s Unmanned Underwater Vessel program. The aluminum hull for the UUV vessel was fabricated in the Roseburg, OR factory and outfitted in their Tacoma, WA facility.
   
The company is currently redirecting the manufacturing and sales efforts to be able to sell and produce more commercial vessels in response to the softening of the recreational boat market. North River currently has contract to build vessels for the U.S. Navy, Sate of Washington, State of California, several tow boat assist companies and several fishing lodges in southeast Alaska. The number of inquiries from customers outside the U.S. has more than tripled in the past 6 months. Many of the inquiries have been for the RAIV (rigid, aluminum, inflatable vessel) product line to be used as pilot transfer vessels as well as security vessels. The company is continuing to increase their commercial market on the east coast of the U.S., building tow assist vessels for many of the towboat operators in the east. North River further penetrated this market segment by attending the annual towboat conference held in Florida in early February.

North River is also the Northwest’s leading designer, manufacturer, producer and distributor of recreational heavy-duty welded aluminum boats.  North River manufactures and distributes a line of aluminum boats from 16 to 32 feet in length suitable for use on whitewater rivers, lakes and oceans.  The full line of North River’s recreational boat models can be seen at one of the six North River Marine showrooms located throughout Washington, Oregon and California.