Manuel Garrido Otero, the great-great-grandfather of the Garrido brothers, raised a small workshop of about 100 m2 near O Grove’s harbour, in the same place where today’s shipyard stands, albeit in a larger building. The chalanas, chalupas and gamelas were the first crafts built in the workshop. There the great-grandfather of the current carpenters, José Garrido Moldes, together with his cousin José Garrido Carrera and his two sons Ramón and Manuel Garrido Álvarez, built Galician traditional crafts like the dornas and two local fishing motor boats of 22 m in length, called María and Rosita.
Construction of one of the very first big boats in the shipyard
One of many dornas built in Astilleros Garrido
The following generation, grandfather Manuel Garrido Álvarez, ran the carpentry for 30 years, building ships like the “Voltaire”, a traditional craft of 14 m in length for fishing sardines, equipped with an auxiliary gas engine. Other examples of constructions were motor boats like the “Meco” built in 1936. During the 1960s and after the retirement of grandfather Manuel, the father of the Garrido brothers, José Garrido Vidal, took the reins of the family business.
Voltaire, traditional sardines fishing boat, 14 metres long
During that period they built the first bateas (floating structures for the mussel industry). This type of work was not so complicated given the skills of the carpenters, but it helped them get through those hard times.
Construction one of the first bateas in Astilleros Garrido
There are four Garrido brothers; one of them has a degree in Chemistry, but the others — Pepe, Carlos and Fabián — continue the family activity in the same place where many years ago their ancestors founded the dockyard.
In 2002 they received the visit of H.M. the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, to see the state of construction of the twin galleons Silma and Sanxenxo.
King Juan Carlos I of Spain visiting Astilleros Garrido