Booming American Tugs offers worker training

When Port of Skagit officials unveiled preliminary plans last year for long-range re-development at La Conner Marina, workforce housing was a key variable for future investment.

Port leadership emphasized that its maritime tenants are engaged in growth industries and will better expand their labor forces to meet market demands when more local housing is available.

Consider American Tugs, on Pearle Jensen Way, a boatbuilding firm whose top-of-the-line pleasure craft feature rugged hulls like those used in the Alaska salmon fishery. The company, which dates to 2000, produces semi-custom vessels ordered by clients on both coasts and the Great Lakes.

While marina housing is a future possibility – and perhaps in the distant future– worker training is very much part of the here and now at American Tugs.

"We hire from entry level to master technicians," General Manager Troy Olason, who resides on Morris Street, and walks to work told the Weekly News. "We train from start to finish. We try to get better every day. We've developed a pathway for people to work in the factory in the mornings and get to the SVC (Skagit Valley College) Maritime Center in Anacortes for afternoon classes."

In addition, American Tugs has developed an internship program for high school students via the Northwest Career and Technical Academy Marine program.

Workers at American Tugs are hired from maritime trade schools, industry recruitment and referrals. Even craigslist is scoured for budding talent.

Those diverse skill sets are needed to tackle a challenging production schedule.

"We're trying to finish eight boats this year," Olason said, "and 10 to 12 next year."

Olason said American Tugs has an 18-month wait list for current boat orders.

That trend will likely continue, he said.

"With an all-new East Coast sales team that just launched," Olason explained, "the demand may double over the next year. So, we need to keep hiring."

The growing demand, Olason intimated, reflects the popularity of American Tugs uniquely designed coastal cruisers.

"In late 1999, a team of three industry veterans – including our current president, Kurt Dilworth – partnered with naval architect Lynn Senour to form Tomco Marine Group," said Olason. "Leveraging their combined experience, they created the American Tug 34/365, a perfect couple's cruiser based on Senour's original 34-foot fishing boat design.

"The AT 34/365 offered an unprecedented combination of comfort, craftsmanship and seaworthiness, becoming an instant classic," he stressed.

Olason works with students as a La Conner High School assistant football coach. He logged nearly two decades with the 4A Bothell Cougar grid staff.

Olason, lauded by his fellow La Conner coaches for crafting innovative offensive schemes and game plans, is equally comfortable scouting talent and building a workforce roster at American Tugs. The company strives to construct a balanced lineup of fiberglass composite technicians, woodworkers, carpenters, electricians, marine system installers and detailers.

Olason gets to navigate his twin passions here: the boating life and coaching football.

"I'm a third generation, lifelong boater," he said. "My grandfather and his twin brother built a 34-foot Monk from plans in the 1950s and the Olason family boating tradition began. I've worked at a few marine businesses along the way."

Olason founded CruisingNW.com, a digital boating resource guide and magazine.

"My professional background at the time," he recalled, "was in the automotive industry, managing events and special projects for the marketing and public relations departments of automotive manufacturers. I wanted to translate the knowledge and experience (I had) gained to the marine industry."

Olason and his wife, Theresa, were wed in 2016 at the Swinomish Yacht Club. Naturally, the couple moors a boat at La Conner Marina.

"We love it here," Olason said. "We live in a Hallmark Movie. I walk two blocks to my boat, three more blocks to work."

It's likewise a short walk to Whittaker Field, where Olason has resurrected his coaching career. His lengthy resume includes a role helping to guide Bothell's 2014 state title winners and taking part in a famous nine-overtime playoff game in 2009. He is in his first year assisting Braves' head coach Charlie Edwards with a program in rebuilding mode following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I thought I was done coaching," Olason reflected, "and then stumbled across a situation that I could help with."

His day job brings the same sense of self-fulfillment.

He manages a well-established local based boat-building venture that turns out best-in-class models in a thriving market and which provides opportunities for those wanting to train for the marine trades to ride that wave.