LUXURY boatbuilder Palmer Johnson is steaming ahead with plans to create 800 new jobs in Hampshire by submitting a planning application to build a new manufacturing facility in Southampton.

The US brand, which builds bespoke, multi-million- pound yachts up to 100 metres in length, plans to bring boat building back to the heart of the city by creating a 20,420 sq metre factory on the former VT site in Woolston.

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Bosses hope to open the new base in 2009.

The application follows the controversial plan for the rest of the site submitted by developer Crest Nicholson, which wants to build more than 1,600 homes there along with shops and a supermarket.

The site will also include a multistorey car park and a hotel.

The super yachts, which will be sold to millionaires around the world, will be the largest leisure craft in production in the UK and the operation will rival Dorset's world-famous Sunseeker boat-building operation.

The deal was put together by development agency Seeda, which said Hampshire had won a "fierce international competition"

to attract the Wisconsin-based brand and said the benefits would spin off into other industries.

Peter Cusdin, Seeda development director said: "The submission of the detailed planning application is a significant and exciting step forward for the marine quarter and will bring back hundreds of jobs to Woolston.

Subject to securing consent, the original vision can become a reality.

Palmer Johnson plans to take over the old RAF base in Hythe in the short-term before moving production to Woolston and taking advantage of the old deepwater quay left over from its warship heritage.

Captain Jimmy Chestnutt, director general of the Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce, said: "The Chamber of Commerce is pleased that Palmer Johnson's plans will result in significant jobs being created once again at Woolston and the further growth opportunities this also presents for companies within the local supply chain."