Navy boat builder eyes Katahdin area

EAST MILLINOCKET – A Kennebunkport boat manufacturer might bring needed relief to the Katahdin region, where more than 1,000 Great Northern Paper company workers have been idle for 77 days while the bankrupt business negotiates a likely sale.

Jim Montgomery, a former Millinocket man who owns shares in American Boat Builders Inc., and Frank Kristan, company president, said they are seriously considering locating a new boat-manufacturing facility in the Millinocket area that could employ as many as 2,600 people in the next three to five years.

Kristan said Wednesday he expects to make a final decision on the Millinocket-area location early next week.

The two men said they have to move fast in order to land government contracts to build boats. The company is looking to locate a Homeland Security base at a Maine port. Their proposal is currently under review by departments in the Transportation Security Administration. The company specializes in the Avenger series, a fast, maneuverable aluminum craft ranging from 30 to 100 feet long.

Montgomery, 59, who lived in Millinocket from 1978 to 1981 and has since traveled around the world, said he didn’t know of another area that had 2,000 people with a good work ethic. “Millinocket may be a great answer for us,” said Montgomery.

He and Kristan acquired the company last May from the designer of the Avenger boat and moved it from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Kennebunkport. The men have invested about $8 million in the two prototype boats and said they have had them tested and approved by the U.S. Navy for use by the military.

“We plan to make a minimum of an $8 million investment up here,” Montgomery said of the Katahdin area, if it is chosen for the facility.

Currently, the company has no factory to manufacture its boats and does not employ anyone except Kristan.

The men arrived in East Millinocket on Wednesday afternoon to meet with town officials, planners and educators at the Katahdin Region Higher Education Center to set up programs to train potential new workers.

Kristan declined to disclose details about properties for the facility. He said the company is looking to establish a port security base in Maine that would provide jobs not only for manufacturing the boats but to service them for 20 years.

Kristan said the company has contracted with General Dynamics to provide logistics and support services for the Avenger boats. Kristan said he and Montgomery have looked at other locations in Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Kristan said the company needs to get its new plant up and running before the government contracts are issued later this year. “We have the boats ready to go. This is really our last decision,” he said referring to locating a site to make them.

“We have been searching for a site,” said Montgomery. “Personally, I think it was a little divine guidance. Millinocket needs us and we need them.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, who as a state lawmaker knew Montgomery, was instrumental in bringing officials of the boat manufacturing company to Millinocket.

“It provides a great deal of hope for the future,” said Michaud. “The region needs to diversify its economy while continuing to work to get Great Northern’s mills up and running again.”

The prospective employers said they are looking to hire 600 people in the next three years and possibly to train as a subcontractor for another company an additional 2,000 people. Montgomery said the jobs would be phased in 40 to 60 at a time. He said pay rates would range from $10 to $20 an hour.

Michaud said such good-paying manufacturing jobs would help to make up for some of the more than 22,000 the state has lost since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted.

American Boat Builders Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary, Avenger Boats Inc., has submitted a proposal to the U.S. government for a National Port Security Fleet to meet requirements of the Port Security Act.

Officials said the fleet would include at least four high-speed vessels (HSV) up to 300 feet long for coastal patrols on the East and West coasts, the Gulf, and Great Lakes and at least 900 Avenger patrol boats for patrol assignments.

“The HSV will be fully integrated with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security requirements for coastal patrol and rescue missions,” said Kristan. “It would include medical facilities, accommodations, detention cells, deployment of the Avenger boats and a helicopter landing area. It will also include state of the art on-board communications for processing and reviewing documents at sea.”

Kristan said the fleet would be based at the Kittery-Portsmouth Naval Shipyards in Maine, where there is 187,000 square feet of building formerly used for nuclear submarines.

The men said the boats would be designed and manufactured to meet the demanding needs of the world’s armed forces, major rescue organizations, government authorities and commercial companies.

Kristan said the Avenger fleet designs were developed in the 1990s for use in a number of applications worldwide. He said the boats include weapon platforms that deliver state-of-the-art performance to defeat threats to port security and coastal waters. It provides speed and stability with maritime interdiction capabilities for ship boarding in high seas.

Avenger Boats Inc. is developing relationships with shipyards and potential ship builders of the Avenger Fleet in the United States, Canada, China and Australia.