Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2016 '70 M - O C C By Lee S. Wilbur Enduring these past 600 or more days
of trying to elect a president, listening to what I can only describe as catcalls or bet- ter yet cat screechings and scratchings has in some way prompted a political journey back over time with the building of Wilbur Yachts Inc. I’ve been out of boat building, a career which I wouldn’t have traded for any other imaginable, for some 13 years and have fi nally realized who our closest competition really was. One that was con- stantly at our side, constantly handing out new and sometimes insurmountable prob- lems was not HRH and Co. down the street, or Young Brothers over in Corea, or Sabre Yachts down in Windham, it was the Maine Government and the Federal Government and the related politicians. I’ve often made the statement or ob-
servation “We send good people, people we trust, to Washington and soon after arrival they must be passed through a “de-gauz- ing” tunnel to come out on the other end with a whole diff erent attitude or outlook as to why they’re there in the fi rst place.” I’m anxious to see if our new President-elect has the fortitude to withstand the “tunnel.” If he can, He’ll be one of a kind and per- haps head us back in the right direction.
As I’ve mentioned before, I kind of fell
into boatbuilding. 1970, with a college de- gree, about the only avenues open to a job in “Sou’ west Harbor” were working for a bank, teaching school, or going lobstering. Banking would have bored me to death. Lobstering would have been impossible with remembering where I’d left the last ten traps or whether I’d fueled my boat that night. So, I taught school until that job fi z- zled then set out to learn how to build boats that would fl oat upon the water. First year or two were a bit challeng-
ing, but I had some great help, asked myriad questions and about the third or fourth boat things began to fall into place and realized it was time to hire the fi rst pair of hands. Dick Wogisch, carpenter and other trades, came on board. We had no more than fi n- ished the next boat together, and Dick had fi gured out where I left tools (Thus began the habit of cleaning shop most nights) we were getting ready to bring the next hull in from Jarvis Newman when phone rang one evening. Customer on the other end said he didn’t dare to start construction because of the Arabian “Oil Embargo”. Politicians and the oil companies hadn’t had the courage to either stand up to or work out a solution to the fact they’d lined their pockets by keep-
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ing oil payments artifi cially low all those years, then selling high. They were bound and determined to just keep on sticking it to the Middle East. Well, they stuck it to us. And it wasn’t to be the fi rst time. Along with it came the dreaded “Infl ation”. Federal Reserve of course, they didn’t
have a clue. Only thing those boys could come up with was to raise the interest rates at the banks. “Infl ation was a real dirty word and not one of them stopped to consider that modest infl ation can be a good thing as we’ve since learned. And what happened? We’re at the Miami Boat show, half doz- en Maine Builders displaying in one area, standing around commiserating over no clients, no work, crews back home waiting for a good call, when over the loudspeaker comes this funereal voice. “Federal interest rate has just risen to 25%.” The depression that settled over that huge hall you could have cut with a dull paring knife. We were all ready to pack it in, go home, and “go to fi shing”. People still had to eat even if none really needed a boat. Somehow, some way, we all survived.
Set back a few years. Built workboats, did some repair work, fi nally started to pick up when along comes another recession. “Feds” still hadn’t learned what “prime the pump” meant. How to put a few “funny money” dollars into the economy. Along- side, State of Maine legislature adds sales tax of, and I could be corrected, 2% on any fi nished boat that stayed in the state more than 2-3 months after completion. Idiotic.
Here boatbuilding was becoming a “major” industry if we can call anything major in our state other than the now dis-appearing paper mills. And our esteemed legislature down in “Gusty” is out to destroy the “rice bowl”
We somehow managed to get through
these new challenges when along came the idiocy of OSHA. Idea was somewhat right. Execution was not. Came with such laugh- able edicts as “all power tools to have no longer than a 3’ power cord”…I remember Raymond Bunker laughing as he cut the plug from the end of a new drill, taped on about 20 feet of cord and said, “There you numbskulls take that and…” Not to forget of course, the “new” environmentalists. Our shop was /is built completely on ledge. Not uncommon on “Million Dollar Island.” Couldn’t scratch a foot of original topsoil off the top if you tried. Word comes down from Augusta and one of those new screwy lettered acronyms, we’d be commanded to dig a four (4) foot by 4 foot trench around the property to control any “dangerous chemical runoff of health hazard variety.” How we’d get over this trench on the road side was never quite addressed. Luckily it died a natural death. Few years later…cycles seemed to
be about every 2-3 years…after we’d managed to either have the latest hurdle removed or found a way around it, our esteemed United States Senator from Port- land, Majority Leader, comes up with this marvelous notion: government should put yet another hand in the wealthy pocket and term it a “Luxury” tax. Minor item, the wealthy were/are the only people with money to spend on…boats, nice cars, jew- elry, airplanes, etc. And what few of that political ilk stopped for one second to re- alize, “who?” builds these “luxury” items. What would happen if the wealthy were to say they weren’t going to pay this 20% sur- charge. Question was slow to sink in. But when it did the results were consequential. When we speak of the wealthy, who
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