An unvarnished insight into the boatbuilding industry

[ndutton]

A recent discussion about prop guessers reminded me of this.

During the years I was in the boatbuilding industry I had the good fortune of working with and learning from some great engineering minds. At Jensen Marine (Cal, Ranger, O’Day, Luhrs and DeFever), George Bristol was our chief engineer aided by Al Robertson. These guys were good. At Capital Yachts (Newport, Gulf) the in-house engineering was done as a collaboration of the plant owners, production manager and key line employees, a good team with considerable experience. Owners Bill Smith and John Williams had extensive backgrounds as did the manager Tom Whistler. Ernie Golden and Larry Nelson were key to development as well. At Islander I had the pleasure of working with excellent engineers Phil Arnold who moved on to Sparcraft, Leif Beiley who (I think) worked later with naval architect Bob Perry and ultimately designed and manufactured his own one-design racer, and George Cano. The chief engineer at Islander was a special case. He has since passed on but the comedy that was his body of work remains engraved in my memory.

The shocking realization
Hinge systems have one basic requirement that cannot be changed. For them to work at all the axes must be collinear. The Islander 28 had a new hatch concept, a frameless tinted Lexan hatch formed to the deck camber and recessed flush into a pocket. Every hatch ever installed on a boat had two robust hinges. Our chief engineer tried to avoid the cumbersome look of these standard hinges and specified a continuous or piano hinge along the curved edge instead. Before the Lexan hatch was drilled an argument erupted and the engineer adamantly stood his ground ultimately throwing his title as chief engineer into the fray. Everybody backed down and his design was installed, the hatch would not move, an emergency replacement had to be ordered to meet the already scheduled launch date and hull #1 launching party.

In my role as purchasing agent I was responsible for a budget connected to units produced so I made certain the expense of this extra hatch was charged to the engineering budget rather than mine. The production manager did the same with the additional labor expense.

Trig? We don’t need no stinking trig
The Bob Perry designed Islander 32 had just been introduced. Our sales department requested a tall rig option for racing so the chief engineer was assigned the task. He wisely contacted Bob Perry to specify the relocation of spreaders on a two foot taller spar but decided to specify the rigging modifications himself. His solution was to write a memo for me to order the prototype standing rigging as standard plus two feet on all lengths. Well, another argument ensued over the greater effect the mast height would have on the headstay and backstay compared to the shrouds and the fact the spreaders weren’t two feet higher off the deck thereby making the lower shroud lengths incorrect. Out came the ‘chief engineer’ title again. The rig was ordered as specified, it was wrong and another expense was transferred to the engineering budget.

Then there were conflicts of interest
Many of the parts that go into a boat are off the shelf items. Engines, props, faucets, cleats, etc. are examples. Other parts are proprietary designs unique to the company and/or the boat. Chainplates, rudders, certain castings, etc. fall into this category. The engineer is tasked with the design of such proprietary parts.

Islander’s chief engineer would design proprietary parts then patent them under his own name. He would negotiate with a single vendor to manufacture the part with an attached design royalty to be paid to him directly, all kept on the QT of course.

This became an issue when one of these vendors ran into financial difficulties and we could not get delivery of the parts. It held up production and shipments. Production was screaming, dealers were screaming, customers were screaming. The purchasing agent was called on the carpet in a management meeting to justify why the company didn’t have the parts to build the boats. Well, they demanded an explanation so an explanation they got!

“You see, the vendor is financially stressed and cannot supply the parts.”
“Why not get them elsewhere?”
“Can’t.”
“Why not?”
“No other vendor is licensed to produce the parts.”
“Huh?”
“You see, the parts are patented and this vendor has the sole license."
“We thought they were Islander designs.”
“You might have thought that but the designer patented them under his own name and draws a royalty off each part sold. I legally cannot go elsewhere.”
“Exactly who is this designer?”
“Your chief engineer sitting right over there. Ask him why we don’t have the parts.”

Aah, those were the days.

[CalebD]

Neil,
I don't know if you have seen Bob Perry's blog that he started up not long ago: http://perryboat.sail2live.com/
He posts links to sailnet and SA when writes a new post.

[ndutton]

Thanks Caleb, I was not aware.

Bob Perry and I chatted a few times but my duties did not require me to interact with him regularly. I wouldn't recognize him now 35 years later and he wouldn't know me from Adam. Of all the people I mentioned in the post I bump into Tom Whistler every few years and keep casual contact with George Bristol's daughter and extended family. George passed a few years ago.

I tell ya, those were guuuud times.