Metal Shark Boats


Metal Shark Boats is a builder of aluminum vessels that operates shipyards in Jeanerette and Franklin, Louisiana.
The company was founded as Gravois Aluminum Boats in 1986, building primarily small recreational vessels, but as sales declined Gravois incorporated Metal Shark in 2005 with the goal of attracting governmental and commercial clients. The company operated out of its Jeanerette facility, building boats up to in length primarily for government agencies, notably a $192 million contract for almost 500 small response boats for the United States Coast Guard. In January 2014, Metal Shark announced that it had purchased a site in Franklin, Louisiana on the Charenton Bypass Canal and planned to establish a second shipyard there with the capacity to construct vessels up to in length; the facility opened in July. In December 2014, Metal Shark reached an agreement with the Damen Group to market and build Damen-designed ships. As of 2016, Metal Shark had built about a thousand vessels for operators around the world.
Metal Shark won the $54 million contract to build 13 Defiant class patrol vessels, under the supervision of the US Navy, intended to be given the USA's Caribbean neighbours. The class of vessels is based on the Damen Stan 2606 design—the same design nearby rival Bollinger shipyards used for the US Coast Guard's very successful Marine Protector class of cutters.
Metal Shark manufactures a smaller class of patrol vessels, also called the Defiant class. Metal Shark delivered the first of several Defiant class vessels to Senegal and Cabo Verde on February 18, 2018. Those vessels were gifts from the USA.