Birth of a Boat
I got invited up to observe the progress of the new Fathom 40. Hull #1
is being created in a mammoth aluminum shed up in the bustling town of
Sedro Wooley, WA. Many of the interior layups are done, the stringer
grid popped out of the mold yesterday afternoon, and the hull is
getting prepped for infusion.Interesting pedigree for this boat; the three partners in the company
were all in upper management positions of Nordic Tug (in fact, one was
the president for several years). Five of these boats have already
been sold, and the first one hasn't been completed. They hope to have the first boat launched in time to have it in
Seattle for Opening Day, May 5. The wonders of compter assisted design never cease to amaze me. In one
corner of the plant there's a guy building wiring harnesses. Every
single wire is labeled, of course, and they are all precut to the
exact length they will need to be and have the appropriate connectors
installed. Using the 3D images on the computer screen, they know how
each wire will route, what side of a system or accessory it will
connect to, etc. The guy building the harnesses admitted that there
could be some risk in putting together wires for a hull that hasn't
yet been assembled. "We could be off by as much a 1/1000th of an
inch," he said. :-) One thing that I thought was notable, some of the infusion molds make
as many as 9 parts at once. For example, there are some cutouts in the
form used for the cabintop above the pilothouse. Rather than mold
around the "hole", a small part is built into the mold and included
in the infusion matrix. In one case, the cover for a grey water tank
was being created in what would have been a wasted "space" in the old
days- and there would have been additional expense for laying up the
small part as a separate item. I always enjoy watching boats being built. Couldn't do it for a
living, the fiberglass smell drives me nuts within short order.
The new infusion processes seem to have radically reduced the amount
of fumes in the air- but there are still more than I'd care to breathe
on a regular basis. The systems and materials chosen for this vessel inspire confidence
that it will be a pretty good boat when finished.
The experience of the partners and their key employees (mostly lured
away from guess who) also bodes well for the Fathom 40. |
Chuck
Mar 8
|
| JimH is nothing but a low life blowhard looking for nothing more than
to be able to act out here because he's a little pansy chicken shit in
real life. |
basskisser
Mar 9
|
| for the paperback publishers. He said he always put in lots of descriptions
of the land, and building. Got paid by the word. He said he also read a
lot of paperbacks during work. The divers would take a book with them and
just tear out the page after they read it and let if float off as they hung
on the line during decompression stops. |
Calif
Mar 9
|
| school. Got something like 7 cents a word. :>} When I wrote for PC Week magazine, I got about $1.25 a word. Wrote an
every other week article, about 750 words. A grand a column. Much more
than BYTE magazine paid me, and even more than PC Magazine paid me. This
was the year after Peter Norton introduced his first set of utilities.
The dark ages. Anyone remember Volkswriter? Neat word processor written by a Chilean
named "Camille...something or other" out in Monterey, California, guy
who did it as a moonlight project while an employee of the Navy language
school. |
Harry
Mar 9
|
| Wayne Green was a cheap...um...never mind. |
Tom
Mar 10
|
| Yeah, yeah. Leave out all technical info, and talk about the
iridescence of the night time sea. Take it to arts.poetry.
Chucks's stuff is fine.
Besides, I remember a nicely rendered vision of ice glazed harbor from
Chuck. Very nice, in fact. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 9
|
| Seconded. But I never read a boat mag. Get all my info from the
illustrious experts here, one and all. Well, almost..... --Vic |
Vic
Mar 9
|
| Hills Like White Elephants - almost all dialogue.
Unfortunately, Elephants can't plane. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 9
|
| As opposed to saying less with less? ;) Dan |
Danlw
Mar 9
|
| It is. Ric Reid, (former president of Nordic Tug), told me that Greg
had the design together within just a few days of accepting the
contract. "We're pretty sure he'd been working on this concept for the
last few years as a kind of designer's pet project," he said. Some unusual aspects: There's no skeg. The theory is that the prop
wash against the skeg increases vibration. The prop is protected by
virtue of the fact that the keel extends down below the blades. There is stand-up headroom on the port side of the engine room. The
molding for the main deck has a raised settee above the port side of
the engine room, and that creates the necessary vertical clearance.
Stand-up room in portion of the engine room is quite a feat on most 40-
footers.. The hull is a split mold, and will be cored above the waterline. Darn
nearly everything will be infusion molded. More info: http://fathomyachts.com/ Interesting. I had noticed that it was Marshall that designed the 85'
Pacific Mariner while at the boat show and had looked at his web site and
there was a bit of info on the 40' Fathom--more in my price range. Hope to
see the finished product. Dan |
Danlw
Mar 9
|
| Whining whiners are whimpy... |
Wayne.B
Mar 10
|
| >typewritten conversation and a lower standard applies. Oh yes, much lower indeed. |
Wayne.B
Mar 10
|
| Being paid by the word just might have an impact on your writing style
I suspect. You probably cost her some serious $$$s. |
Wayne.B
Mar 10
|
| He was an interesting character though. I believe he was married to |
Wayne.B
Mar 10
|
| Indeed it was. If it's true that one is defined more by enemies than friends, Chuck
is doing just fine. I have had an issue with a few of the past
infomercials but that message may have been received. |
Wayne.B
Mar 10
|
| Well, in her case, it's a question of being very, extremely and
incredibly smart and a deep researcher. When she gets on a roll, she
just doesn't know when to quit - everything is fair game. I've often told her that what she really needs to do is return to
school and this time, take up medicine. :>) |
Short
Mar 10
|
| He was a character - very much like Larry who occasionally visits here |
Short
Mar 10
|
| Charles Dickens was "paid by the word", in that all of his stories were
serialized and the longer he dragged out the story, the more he was
paid. It was very similar to the old Saturday movie serials where each
installment had a cliff hanger. What I find even more interesting is
since Dickens rarely was a few chapters ahead of the publications, he
would be able to see the public response to his story, and alter it
based upon their reaction. Todays equivalent of the movie "preview",
where the studios show different cuts and different endings to the same
movie. |
RJSmithers
Mar 10
|
| Gawd. I never liked Wordstar with all the weird control key crapola. In
fact, when I bought my first IBM PC ('82 or '83, I think), the dealer
tossed in a copy of Wordstar on a floppy (no hard drives then), and it
drove me so nuts that I brought the whole kit and kaboodle back two days
later, demanding a refund. He had a trial copy of Volkswriter there, so
I tried that and liked it a lot. Later, I got used to all manner of key sequences when I adopted XyWrite,
which was and is my favorite of all time DOS word processor. My favorite BYTE writer was always Jerry Pournelle. |
Harry
Mar 10
|
| Maybe it would be better if you wrote about boats, Jim. You obviously know
a lot more than Chuck does, and you're surely much more trustworthy. Go for it! |
JLH
Mar 9
|
| Chuck, what you're implying is a reading comprehension problem. |
JLH
Mar 9
|
| Barnacle: A very low form of marine life that contributes nothing to
the normal operation of a boat and is a PITA simply "along for the
ride". Seems like there will always be a few barnacles. It's fortunate
that we don't have any posters to the NG who are non-contributing
lower life forms simply along for the ride. But let's examine my egregious screw up: How would I dare post some boating related content here? Will someobdy
please pray for my poor misguided soul and send me an email informing
me about it? That will give me something to post that would meet with
Jim's approval. I live and die by JimH's opinion of me, and it's so
distressing to see him unhappy or displeased. Perhaps I should apologize to JimH and his on-line prayer group for
cluttering up the rec.boats board with comments about a visit to a
boat factory. Who gives a durn about boats or how one brand or another
is built? What was I thinking? Anybody know where I can buy a lottery
ticket? Not only would that be the highlight of my week, it would make
interesting, boating related reading. :-) |
Chuck
Mar 9
|
| Perhaps you ought to read some Hemingway. Almost everything you post is
overwritten or overwrought or both. Write shorter sentences. Write
shorter paragraphs. Edit out the fluff. |
Harry
Mar 9
|
| Everybody's a critic. :>) |
Short
Mar 9
|
| Never claimed to write like Hemingway. One or two people like my
style. Sorry that you're not among them. :-) |
Chuck
Mar 9
|
| I would assume their is a real knack to write an magazine article that
is interesting enough to get people to pick up the magazine, and meets
the number of words you need to fill out the space available for the
article. I find your articles as good as any I have seen in any boating mags,
they are better than many I have read. PS - Can you send me my commission check for keeping this thread running
in rec.boats? You were late on last months commission check. It is
common knowledge that boat mfg'ers will pay mega bucks to have a
magazine article reprinted posted in rec.boats. |
RJSmithers
Mar 9
|
| I didn't suggest your writing was like Hemingway's, or that it should
be. I suggested you read some of his writings so that you might learn a
bit about saying more with less. He was the master of that. |
Harry
Mar 9
|
| Purple prose is painful. |
Harry
Mar 9
|
| Purple is painful. :>) |
Tom
Mar 9
|
| >style. Sorry that you're not among them. :-) I enjoy the articles very much, but I often find myself drifting off
for some reason. Probably early onset of Old Timer's Disease.. :>) |
Tom
Mar 9
|
| If your apologies are a dime a dozen, a few wouldn't hurt. I've a feeling
they may be worth a little more than that, however. You've surely done nothing warranting a *real* apology! |
JLH
Mar 9
|
| On Mar 9, 8:05=EF=BF=BDam, RJSmithers <removereginald_smith...@yahoo.com> |
Chuck
Mar 9
|
| Check's in the mail. |
Tom
Mar 9
|
| Perhaps he should call a few names also, Harry? |
JLH
Mar 9
|
| Harry, it's so strange how your appreciation of Chuck's writing has changed
since the political fighting in the group has gone down! |
JLH
Mar 9
|
| Actually, Harry is partially correct. A lot of what appears here is
sort of a "stream of consciousness" format. I don't edit, spell check,
etc and some of the sentences run on far too long. It's a tendency I
struggle with in things that actually matter, but the NG is simply
typewritten conversation and a lower standard applies. |
Chuck
Mar 9
|
| Funny you should mention the Bank of Monolopy. One of my Dad's brothers was a VP at the old Parker Brother's factory
in Salem, MA which developed Monolopy. There actually was a Bank of
Monopoly in the building with a faux valut, faux armed guards and all
the trappings of a real bank. When they did tours, it was the
highlight of the day. I have pictures around here somewhere that I should scan of that. |
Tom
Mar 9
|
| >sort of a "stream of consciousness" format. I don't edit, spell check,
>etc and some of the sentences run on far too long. It's a tendency I
>struggle with in things that actually matter, but the NG is simply
>typewritten conversation and a lower standard applies. I have a very good friend, known her for years, who is a freelancer in
the medical field. Very sharp and knows her stuff. I swear to you, we've discussed her articles ad nauseam - she cannot
deliver a 1000 word article in under 2500 words. :>) Almost
everything she does has to be broken into two parts. One time she sent me an article she did about some strange type of
skin cancer and asked me what I thought of it. I replied with my
usual "you've got to gut this and get to the point" so she challenged
me to gut it and still make it meaningful. She would submit both
pieces and see which one was accepted. I did, I won and she didn't speak to me for two weeks. :>) |
Tom
Mar 9
|
| Is this the one designed by George C Marshall?
Thanks, Dan |
Danlw
Mar 8
|
| Make that Greg, not George. Dan |
Danlw
Mar 8
|
| Another glowing assessment of a boat by Chuck. How lucky you are to
observe hundreds of boats with no flaws. ;-) Heck, if one did not know better one might otherwise think your *review* is
a shameless advertisement for Fathom boats. Ka Ching! |
JimH
Mar 8
|
| If one really didn't shot from shine, they'd think my report on a
visit to a boat factory was a "review". But one would have to be just
about dumber than a barnacle to arrive at that conclusion, so there's
darn little chance of it happening here in the NG. (On the remote
chance that you failed to notice, there *is no* boat to review. Just a
group of molded sections and a partially laid up hull.) |
Chuck
Mar 8
|
| It is. Ric Reid, (former president of Nordic Tug), told me that Greg
had the design together within just a few days of accepting the
contract. "We're pretty sure he'd been working on this concept for the
last few years as a kind of designer's pet project," he said. Some unusual aspects: There's no skeg. The theory is that the prop
wash against the skeg increases vibration. The prop is protected by
virtue of the fact that the keel extends down below the blades. There is stand-up headroom on the port side of the engine room. The
molding for the main deck has a raised settee above the port side of
the engine room, and that creates the necessary vertical clearance.
Stand-up room in portion of the engine room is quite a feat on most 40-
footers.. The hull is a split mold, and will be cored above the waterline. Darn
nearly everything will be infusion molded. More info: http://fathomyachts.com/ |
Chuck
Mar 8
|
| One would definitely have to be dumber than a barnacle to think anyone
would pay someone to make a post in rec.boats. |
RJSmithers
Mar 9
|
