Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS September 2017 70s Memories: The Next Model (Or Reinventing a Business) So, where to go from here? We’d been
in the boatbuilding business half dozen years. Orders steadily growing. What’s the next step. Nothing stays the same nor lasts forever. Great rapport with Jarvis Newman as he worked up the lengths of new models. However, had this niggle would wake me a few minutes earlier each morning with the big “what if”. Of the four years spent at U. of Me,
trying to concentrate on business courses, one I remember most was a professor set- ting the topic for the day aside with state- ment...”Okay boys and girls, today we’re going to talk about the real world”... And one takeaway I’ve remembered ever since was, “Every so often if you’re in business you’ve got to reinvent yourself.” Meaning, look at what you’re doing and either do it better or add something. And though the
path might not have looked so diff erent to an outsider, in our 30 years this was what we tried to do. When Jarvis started to work up his
line with the all-fi berglass 32’ designed by Ralph Stanley and more capacity was needed to fi nish them, we quickly realized fi nishing one boat at a time in a one boat shop would never cut it. We’d be lost in the dust. First section of several additions lat- er cinder block building was built by Glen Webber from Bar Harbor. Winter we began building a crew and wasn’t long before a completed lobster boat cleared front door each month alongside other orders. Great fun except when we’d have to get Doug Gott to bring the dozer over and clear a path through snow and ice down the beach to fl oat off on the coming tide. Brownell Trailers were a muchly heralded miracle.
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Few years went by and we’d been
on a two week vacation. Mind had fi nally settled down and was sleeping past 3 or 4 AM. Needed a model of our own for Lee S. Wilbur and Company (didn’t even have a company name related to boatbuilding). Knew as well we’d have to start our own line. Began thinking the next step. Real- ized there was no one who’d fi lled in the gap between Newman’s venerable 36’ and Young brother’s 40’. Spent a goodly part of the vacation doodling some ideas. Making up material lists and layouts. Home again. Went straight to Ralph Ellis and had him do a half model for 38’. Method then used to fi gure out what a hull was going to look like. Shave a bit here to fi ne out the bow, fl atten the run for more speed. Take it to North End Marine for reproduction on pa- per then real moulds. “Fire and Fury” as the man says. After the Wilbur 38, which had a run
of about fi fteen boats off , we launched the 34’. This was my all-time favorite boat. Ralph again went through the half model routine but this time I had him set her up on the shop fl oor so we could get a good look at the lines and do some more tweak- ing before having Northend do their magic. Oh, by now had changed operation name to Wilbur Yachts.
Several years passed until we grew
into a service and repair business. Not the best reinvention move ever made. Then took on moulding and completing 60’ Ray- mond Hunt Yachts of which we built three. And then made a big mistake of reinventing down and trying to become “manufactur- ers” and have dealers by introducing a 30’ model. Wrong move. This was not a “re-in- vention”, more like a “de-invention”. I’ve been out of boatbuilding a lit-
tle over 15 years now. Watched the scene change. Downeast style yachts and plea- sure boats had their time and I realized it too late. Several of us laughed at the Hinck- ley Company when they introduced their “Picnic Boats”. We scoff ed at these “toy boats”. They’d never hold up in a good sea. Nothing in the water but fl at bottom. Proba- bly biggest mistake I’d made over 30 years of business. Couldn’t see this was a new trend. HRH had halfheartedly chased us (downeast builders) with a 42’ model, we/I should have done the same. It was no longer a market for ex-sailers and heavy weather boats. Speed was king and I couldn’t wrap my head around this next re-invention for the company. Thankfully, our son-in-law John Kachmar has, and is doing well in the Service and Repair business.
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