6 WA Shipyards Win Shipyard Infrastructure Grants
Shipyards in Bremerton, Everett, Mount Vernon, Port Angeles, & Seattle receive Small Shipyard Grant Program awards totaling $5.2M
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that six shipyards in the State of Washington have received FY26 Small Shipyard Grant Awards from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.
The grants include:
Safe Boats International LLC (Bremerton) received $321,474 to launch an aluminum welding and fabrication training program, including 17 welding machines, eight welding booths, an air filtration system, and training tools like clamps and hoists.
Everett Ship Repair LLC (Everett) received $456,216 for electrical upgrades to support a new 35,000-ton floating drydock, along with training for shipyard staff on production processes. Sen. Cantwell wrote a letter of support for the project.
Rozema's Boat Works, Inc. (Mount Vernon) received $938,176 for metal fabrication tools including a MultiCam CNC router table, a 230-ton Cincinnati CNC press brake, and a mechanical shear.
Arrow Launch Service, Inc. (Port Angeles) received $750,000 for a 75-ton travelift — a machine used to lift boats out of the water for repair or storage.
BRIX Marine Inc. (Port Angeles) received $1,259,190 for four 10-ton remote-controlled overhead cranes, including the hoists and tracks they run on.
Delta Marine Industries, Inc. (Seattle) received $1,508,597 for a 620-ton travelift — a heavy-duty lift for large vessels. Sen. Cantwell wrote a letter of support for the project.
In total, the grants amount to $5,233,563.
The Small Shipyard Grant Program generates incentives for small shipyards to modernize and repair facilities as well as make capital improvements to upgrade equipment and processes that make them more efficient and competitive. The grants fund a variety of projects including infrastructure improvements, equipment upgrades, repair and reconfiguration. Grants may also be used to support employee training programs to promote technical skills, increasing workforce efficiency and productivity.
Sen. Cantwell has championed the Small Shipyard Grant Program for nearly a decade. In addition to annual efforts to increase funding for the program each year, as Commerce Committee Chair she led the 2022 MARAD Reauthorization, which authorized $30 million, and then championed a 50 percent increase in authorized funding in the FY2024 NDAA.
At an October 2025 Commerce Committee hearing on rebuilding U.S. commercial shipbuilding, Sen. Cantwell highlighted the importance of investment in the entire maritime supply chain, including small shipyards. Tuuli Snow from Snow & Company testified about the importance of a $817,150 Small Shipyard Grant for her shipyard. Snow testified that the investment enabled the Ballard shipyard to hire approximately 15 to 20 additional workers, expand employees’ career pathways, and potentially establish an in-house apprenticeship program, and how more resources for shipyard infrastructure and training are necessary to grow the industry.
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