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struggle in the

From page 46
Though. union representatives
have estimated that less than 20
per cent of actual construction
work will be done in Versatile’s

North Vancouver yard, company:
will”
:Ltd., Matsemoto’s neighbor since .
1952, is currently employing ap-

management has said it
endeavor to split Polar 8 work

equally between North Vancouver’

and Victoria.
Versatile, which began life on
the North Shore in 1906 when

Wallace Shipyards moved to North °

Vancouver, has also closed ap-
proximately one third of its
seven-hectare North Vancouver
site as part of future company

plans to sell that portion for com-'

mercial or residential development.

Company management and Ver-
satile unions are still attempting to
negotiate a new contract.

The North Shore lost one of its
long-time shipbuilding fixtures
earlier this year when Matsumoto
Shipyards Ltd. owner Sam Mat-
sumoto, 70, decided to retire from
the shipbuilding business and sell
his Dollarton waterfront property.

Matsumoto, which specialized in
building smaller vessels such as
fishing boats, Canadian Coast
Guard patrol boats, and yachts,
had. been in business in North
Vancouver for almost 40 years.
The company pioneered aluminum
boat construction on the North

‘Shore, and launched its last vessel

Tuesday (July 6) when a 21-metre
aluminum barge designed for car-
rying glacial water to California
slipped from: the shipyard’s . ways
into Burrard Inlet.: °

‘McKenzie Barge & Marine Ways

proximately 40 people, which is
about half its full capacity.

The shipyard specializes in barge
construction.

McKenzie naval’ architect Victor
Gadsby said, ‘Things are not
booming. It’s a very competitive
business, but we are picking away
here. Things are pretty steady.”

Farther east, Vancouver Ship-
yards Co. Ltd. landed a $6.2 mil-
lion federal government contract in
1987 to build a 700-class icebreaker
for the Canadian Coast Guard,
and launched the 160-foot Type
700 navaids tender Eckaloo in Ju-
ly.

General meager Tom Ward
said the company is keeping 150 to
180 workers busy repairing the
fleet of its corporate parent,
Seaspan International Ltd.

Seaspan is Canada’s largest tug
and barge company. It currently
operates 45 tugs, two trainships
and 240 special-purpose barges.

At peak periods, Vancouver
Shipyards, which has been on the

North Shore since 1967, has
employed up to 600 tradesmen.
Arthur McLaren, .owner of
Allied Shipbuilders Lui., said his
yard is ‘concentrating on’ ship
repair work during the current
stagnant shipbuilding market.
'“There is nothing around the
corner that is going to double our

_workload, but I hope there is

nothing around the corner that is
going io cut it in half,’’ he said.

“Allied, which repaired the 39-

metre replica of the HMS Bounty
in 1986, won a $4.5 million Fish-
eries and Oceans Canada contract
in March to build a 90-foot coastal
survey ship.

The company joined with Van-
couver Shipyards late last year in a
national consortium that came up
with an unsolicited proposal to
build 12 mine patrol vessels worth
an estimated $360 million.

Thus far the federal government
has made no official response to
the proposal.

Shipbuilding and repair has
taken some telling body blows over
the past few years with the overall
slump in world shipbuilding mar-
ket, but the industry locally, which
pumps an estimated $125 million
into local economies, remains the
North Shore’s vital industrial
heart.

From The North Shore, _
Wood Products For ‘The Worid

For nearly two decades, the North
Shore has been home to one of the

Ships load ai our terminal’s three .
deep-water berths and deliver their

49 - Wednesdzy, July 27, 1988 — North Shore News

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