Shipbuilder Nichols Bros. shifts focus to new opportunities following state ferry bid setback

On a sweltering summer day, Gavin Higgins boards his floating office at the Port of Everett — a former ferry turned one-of-a-kind workspace with 360-degree views of the Everett Ship Repair yard. It’s an apt setting for the CEO of Nichols Bros. Boat Builders, a man whose life and career have long revolved around ships.

“I had planned to be a civil engineer, and I thought I was going to be building bridges and everything,” Higgins told the Business Journal on June 11 during a tour of the vessel. “I ended up designing steel barns, and I decided that wasn't really the way to go. So, I never, ever looked back.”

After working at Canada-based Irving Shipbuilding, Higgins joined Nichols Bros. at the request of Drum Capital Management, which acquired the company in 2008 following its bankruptcy.

Founded in 1964 by Frank Nichols in Freeland on Whidbey Island, Nichols Bros. has grown into a specialized builder of high-speed ferries, tugboats, catamarans, and other vessels.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2025/08/06/nichols-brothers-boat-builders-washington-ferry.html