It’s been a while since a vessel was set afloat on the test pond at Twin Anchors Marine’s manufacturing facility.
That’s where the “Happy Eh” was last week, one of two vessels the company is manufacturing for a rental fleet in Ontario. A third boat is also in the works. This will be a higher-end private craft that will be shipped to California.
These are the first houseboats to roll off the Twin Anchors Marine assembly line since 2011, when a houseboat was built for a company in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“We’ve come up with an excellent product here and the guys have got something to be proud of and it’s exciting…,” says Twin Anchors manufacturing manager Nigel Watson. “These are more than $300,000, the two for Ontario. The private vessel for California is a little bit higher. So it’s a good revenue for us.”
The company is still building well-site trailers under its TA Structures banner. However, the slowdown in Canada’s oil sector last winter, resulting from lower oil prices, forced the company to lay off up to 40 employees earlier this year. With the houseboat orders, the company has been able to bring people back to work – something that Watson is grateful for.
“We’re fortunate here and for a small town – the staff that we have available within Sicamous is still here from back in the day… when we were building houseboats primarily,” said Watson. “I think we brought six back this week and our plans are to get more people back. And these are high end – they’re high hours, so we need more people to manufacture them as well, which is good for the business and good for the people in the town.”
Watson notes this time of year is typically slow for the company, but he adds the phones haven’t stopped ringing with companies looking for quotes. This, he says, has to do with the B.C. government’s push to develop the liquid natural gas industry.
“The government has still got a little bit to do with the LNG project – I’m sure they’ll get that in place, and then we’ll be busy,” said Watson. “And the good thing is, we’re still set up to do it, we’ve still got the guys available.”
