New facility one of the largest in the Northwest

Lake Union Yacht Center, a full-service boatyard serving the Northwest, has moved its entire operation from north Lake Union to the LeClercq Marine building, just east of Seattle’s Ballard Bridge. The new facility has more than double the square footage of LUYC’s previous location and gives them the ability to haul out boats up to 85 tons (and approximately 80 feet in length), making them one of the largest haul-out facilities in the region.

“The demand for our services is so strong that we doubled the number of employees last year and are 40 strong now,” said Geo Tamblyn, founder and owner of LUYC. “We expect to grow again by 25 percent or more in the coming year, so we are delighted to have this new facility, which will allow us to continue to expand and better serve our customers.”

The new facility includes a 100- by 300-foot, completely enclosed, climate-controlled building and a 2,000-square-foot paint shed for up to 80-foot yachts. This will allow LUYC to serve the larger, long-term refit projects in which the boats need to be out of the water for a period of time.  Additionally, the location will be able to accept semi-truck deliveries of boats, something that was not possible before.
LUYC has long been committed to environmental stewardship, and the existing yard is equipped with systems that collect and retain toxic substances, keeping them out of the water and air. The new building will contain industrial pollutants with 100-percent efficiency.

“The regulations for doing work in boatyards are moving toward full enclosure,” explained Tamblyn. “That means tarping off and vacuuming up bottom paint will soon no longer be legal. I’m very proud that our new facility will be ahead of the coming regulations instead of trying to catch up with them, and that we will be able to assure our customers that we are doing all we can to protect the environment in which we boat.”

LUYC’s commitment to the environment extends to the move itself. They have chosen to recycle as much as possible and have transported tons of steel and building materials to the new facility, rather than purchasing new.

LUYC owns one of the largest boatlifts in Seattle — an 85-ton Travel lift. In order to relocate the Travel lift, it was suspended from Foss Maritime’s historic 300-ton barge crane and motored slowly down the Ship Canal to its new home.