THESE are the first images of the manufacturing plant that will soon be crafting multi-million pound megayachts on the Woolston riverside in Southampton.

The city is set to see the launch of 100m long luxury vessels by US boat builder Palmer Johnson - the largest leisure craft ever produced in the UK.

The palatial playthings of the global super rich will be a major rival to south coast yacht manufacturers such as Poole's world-famous Sunseeker.

City planners who unanimously approved the factory on the former VT site on Monday night were told the glossy aluminium yachts will be unlike anything seen before in the UK. Up to four will be in production at one time, taking around 16 weeks to complete.

Click here to watch a video of the yachts that will be built on the site

Lee Archer of Palmer Johnson said the production would begin with super yachts from 50m long but would reach 100m in coming years. "I suspect we will get there first," he said.

The return of boat building to Woolston, which at its peak in 1979 saw 4,900 employed by Vosper Thornycroft, will create at least 800 jobs, including contractor and supply chain jobs.

About 450 are expected to be filled by the skilled local labour market, one of the chief attractions of Southampton for Palmer Johnson, who snubbed other European locations.

The boat builder is currently preparing for boat shows next month at Cannes and Monaco on the French Riviera.

A handful of design and engineering staff are already working on prototypes at Hythe Marine Park, the former US army base, where Palmer Johnson has set up shop.

The Hythe workforce will rise to around 120 production workers by the time the Woolston shipyard opens next summer. Half of them will move across Southampton Water joining 150 to 200 new skilled staff.

Mr Archer said: "We are eager to move to Woolston and integrate with the local community and, with two important orders placed which need delivering by 2009, time is of the essence.

"The UK expansion of Palmer Johnson to Woolston will enable us to deliver and meet the global demand for our products.

"The wealth of marine experience in the region and Solent area is something we are keen to tap into and we are looking forward to working closely with local sub-contractors and suppliers."

Plans for fit out and fabrication sheds, offices and storage facilities over 20,240 square metres were approved alongside plans for 1,620 homes, a hotel and supermarket on the rest of the VT site.

Seeda, the regional development agency that owns the site and wooed Palmer Johnson to the city, will now let a £10m enabling works contract to level the site and carry out remedial works.

Wisconsin based Palmer Johnson, which began as a builder of wooden fishing boats for the Great Lakes in 1918, employs about 350 staff at its US plant.