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My editorial responsibilities routinely
take me on the road, on my way to
and from a boat story. It occurs with
such regularity that I’m never
altogether unpacked, and my time in Annapolis is a
real treat when it extends for more than a week. I
am one traveling guy.
I recently was in Rhode Island and decided to
drop in to visit some of the companies that support
our cruising under power niche. Not surprisingly,
there are a lot of these builders, manufacturers and
distributors in Rhode Island and Connecticut, two
popular boating areas enjoyed by generations of
sailors and boaters. Much of our country’s maritime
history involves these states.
You may or may not know these companies and
faces, but I thought it would be interesting to
introduce you to the people behind the products
and boats. When you attend the fall shows, you
might even now put a face to a name. This is
certainly not an all-encompassing directory of these
areas, but it does represent the highlights of a week
on the road.
Myabca USA
My first stop was in Portsmouth, Rhode Island,
home of Hinckley Yachts, Little Harbour,
Portsmouth Marine, PAE’s New England office and a
number of other marine businesses. It is also where a
new company is coming together after an interesting beginning. It is the story of a young couple with a
plan, working against the odds.
Myabca USA is the name of the new company,
which represents a line of double-ended, semidisplacement,
fiberglass yachts inspired by the llaüts
of Mallorca, in Spain’s Balearic Islands. We did a
story on the llaüt-inspired Menorquin yachts from
neighboring Menorca (PMM, Dec. ’02), which
introduced the unusual hull shape to the American
audience.
Myabca is an acronym for Mallorca Yachts And
Boats Constructors, Associated. That is the name of
the boatbuilder in Mallorca that is owned by Spaniard
Manuel Gomez, a man who has long hoped to sell his
shapely cruisers in North America. A frequent visitor to our country, he loved the idea of selling his beloved
llaüts on these shores. And he is not alone. His
daughter Vanessa also loves boating and has been
going on boats since before she was born.
So Manuel Gomez was, naturally, thrilled when
Vanessa fell in love with an American soldier, a Green
Beret officer from Rhode Island. The two were
married, and Jason Dean hoped that he and his new
wife could set up distribution of the line of cruising
boats in this country, establishing a dealer network to
handle sales of the 34-, 40- and 45-foot yachts.
A45-footer was delivered in early 2001, and plans
were made to debut the boat at fall boat shows.
Unfortunately, life has its own agenda, and Jason
was attending Special Forces training at Ft. Bragg when the events of 9/11 unfolded. All plans for
bringing boats into this country evaporated for the
newly married couple, as Jason was sent directly into
harm’s way, first to Kuwait, then to Kosovo. His
deployments tested the couple’s resolve, but when
he returned last January, re-entering American life
after three years of combat overseas, Jason and
Vanessa took up the Myabca Yachts torch once
again. The 2001 45-foot Myabca was now in need of
some TLC to begin its show debut, and the couple arranged to add a new 34-footer to their inventory in
Rhode Island as well.
And this is where I met the young couple, fueling
the bigger boat, which was still masked in green tape
while coats of varnish were applied to return the
teak brightwork to yacht standards. The couple
wanted to show me their newer, smaller boat, a real
cutie moored nearby on the Sakonnet River.
The Myabca is a twin-engine boat, and cruising
speeds are in the realm of 14–16 knots, depending
on engines. Both Volvo and
Yanmar diesels are available in the
semi-custom yachts, with a long list
of standard and optional layouts,
features and accessories. A flybridge
is optional.
The 34-foot Myabca is priced at
$320,000 and represents a good
value for a cozy cruising boat. The
iroko-and-teak interior should work
well for a couple looking to do
some coastal cruising. Jason and Vanessa will refine the models as American interest
grows, as the European layout and equipment can be
changed to better fit the American cruising lifestyle.
Boarding access, for example, is rarely done by way
of a passerelle with a Med moor in this country,
while it is SOP in Europe.
The Myabca line comes standard with bow
thruster, in addition to the close-quarters control
offered by twin engines. Teak decks are optional, as
are many other features. For now, delivery of a new
Myabca takes place in Portsmouth, although Jason is
working to establish a dealer network in the coming
months. And of course we discussed the wonderful
idea of buying the boat, but taking delivery in
Mallorca. A season or two of Mediterranean cruising
would be nice before shipping the boat home. Jason
and Vanessa are very open to accommodating such
ideas, as Italy, Spain, France and Croatia represent
some of the best cruising anywhere.
I wish Jason and Vanessa Dean good luck in
making their dream come true, bringing traditional,
llaüt-style cruising boats to the American market.
Legacy
Not far from Portsmouth is the sleepy town of
Middletown, Rhode Island, just north of Newport,
once the home of the legendary America’s Cup.
Middletown has been home for Freedom Yachts for
the past dozen years, and the semi-custom yard has
built over 1,200 Freedom sailboats and Legacy
cruisers.
I paid a visit to Roe O’Brien, VP of marketing and
sales and one of the driving forces behind the popular
and flexible Legacy line of sedan
and express motorboats. Roe
is an energetic woman often at
the hub of the Legacy docks at
boat shows, and she is very
knowledgeable and passionate
about the Freedom Yachts
operation. The company is not a
production builder, but a well
established yard with a crew of 65
boatbuilders and a total staff of 90.
Almost all construction is done
in house at the Middletown facility: hull lamination, carpentry, engine and
machinery installations, even custom stainless steel
work. Four company engineers help pull together the
variations and changes to each boat, which is a
custom project built for each owner. Roe told me
Legacy owners don’t follow a fixed profile, as the
boats have proven popular across all powerboat
markets, from go-fast express machines to capable
cruising boats. And each one is tailored to fit the
unique needs of its owners.
It is this diversity and flexibility that are the
cornerstones of the Legacy business. In my mind,
Freedom Yachts is the midpoint in the boatbuilding
spectrum, between the small, personalized customyacht
builder and the manufacturers who refer to
their multimillion-dollar boat lines as “product.” Roe
was insistent that the company cares about close
relationships between the boat buyer and the yard.
And the company works hard to maintain that relationship, which explains why so many
Freedom and Legacy owners are repeat
customers.
Even with its custom work, the Legacy
is a good value, as its smallest boat, the
popular Legacy 28, is about $175,000, fully
equipped and ready to rock. It is a good
boat built right.
The builder offers several Legacy
models, including the 28, 34, 40 and 52/54.
But my visit was well timed, as Roe was
excited to show me the new Legacy 42, a
new model that the company feels is aimed
squarely at the cruising under power
market, the realm of PMM. As she walked
me through the boat under construction,
which will make its debut at Newport in
September, I could see that the additional
space really translates into suitable living
space for cruising on a grander scale than
is available on most fast motorboats.
As a custom yacht, the 42-footer is
available in single or twin configuration, for
cruising speeds from the midteens to over
30 knots, depending on one’s agenda and
time schedule. The new Legacy 42 will find a ready
audience among those of us not yet retired, but still
interested in a serious cruising machine built to our
needs. Fully found, the 42 will cost between $680,000
and $750,000. And built just for you and yours.
As we walked through the yard floor, where
10 boats were under construction, I met several of
the craftsmen
who build boats
year round at
the facility. Roe
introduced me
to Herman
Cordeiro, lead
carpenter and
21-year veteran
of the company.
Cordeiro, like so
many men who
build boats in
Rhode Island, is
Portuguese,
having come to
America from
the Azores years
ago. And his
enthusiasm, skill and experience
are typical of
the workforce
I saw during my
Rhode Island
road trip.
Freedom
Yachts builds about 30 yachts a year, and because
of the company’s attentiveness to its relationships
with owners, it sells direct. There are no dealers.
Knowing how the boat will be used—how many
nights will be spent aboard, where the owners plan
to go and for how long—ensures the boat really fits
the needs of its owners. The customer base extends
from Maine to Florida. And the connection is
very real.
“All of our customers know my dogs’ names,” Roe
told me. “And you can’t get that relationship if there
are middlemen in the customer-builder relationship.”
It is these relationships that define what Legacy is
all about: custom boats, custom service, custom
customer care.
The Legacy 42 comes in many variations:
flybridge or not, galley up or down, exterior
brightwork or not, single or twin, fast or faster.
These are good folks who build a good boat. Visit
them at the fall shows. And this is another good reason why West Coast readers
should consider coming back east
this fall for one of the shows.
Pearson Yachts
A few miles north of Newport, in
the heart of Warren, Rhode Island,
is the huge facility of TPI
Composites, a 250,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility that
encompasses a wide range of
products and applications. In
addition to transportation, wind
turbine and military divisions, the
company has a marine division that
is the home of Pearson Yachts,
builders of the True North 33 and
38. Another effort in the marine
division is J-Boats, well known
racing and fast-cruising sailboats
that define one-design racing.
The True North boat owners I know insist the
boats are great cruisers because they embody the
less-is-more philosophy. So I wanted to see it
firsthand, and I hoped to catch busy Mark Pearson in
his office. Mark is the son of founder Everett
Pearson, a true pioneer in fiberglass boat building.
Today, Mark runs the company, which builds
180–200 boats a year, with 12–25 of each model
spread across that annual figure.
The marine division of TPI Composites builds
production boats with some degree of customization,
but its production process is tailored to building
boats that are strong, lightweight and fast. Sail or
power, these boats are strong through technology.
Patrick DeSocio, TPI project coordinator, gave me
the initial tour (my first-ever tour of a boatyard
where the guide wore Breton-red shorts and a Ralph
Lauren button-down shirt!). I learned that about 220
people, again mostly Portuguese craftsmen with
decades of experience, build the various boats, and
there is tremendous emphasis on lean manufacturing
techniques that maximize productivity and efficiency.
“A rookie around here has only about 10 years
experience,” Patrick laughed. “Most of the workers
have 20–25 years with the company.”
It takes 3 weeks to build a True North 38, using
55 molded parts that fit together like a puzzle.
The J-boats are all production oriented, all made
identical to each other. Walking around the floor
and sectioned substations, I was surrounded by
technology. In one room, a CNC cutter meticulously cut precise panels out of fiberglass
cloth—thousands of pieces—each pre-engineered to
minimize waste and to fit exactly together. They are
stacked by part number on racks that will be used to
stock the shelves near each boat in the line.
Hose and tubing are also pre-cut in bulk, as are
wiring harnesses, so workers already have the right
pieces they need to fit a hose without any measuring
or cutting inside a boat. Every wiring harness is tagged and numbered so the electrical system comes
together as a plug-and-play assembly.
The True North is not a cruiser meant to be lived
on for months on end, but a fine cruiser for one- or
two-week trips, and it is very easy to use. Owners
love the simplicity of the True North concept.
Mark Pearson and his Labrador joined me as we
walked by the assembly line, where each boat moves
from station to station for specific construction and
assembly activities. It was here that we found we
needed to back up and return to the beginning, as
the key to the success of the TPI operation is all
about the advantageous fiberglass building process
known as SCRIMP.
SCRIMP stands for Seemann Composite Resin
Infusion Molding Process, an approach to fiberglass
construction developed and patented by William
Seemann in the early 1990s. The technology used in
fiberglass boat construction before 1992 involved hand layup of fiberglass, with resin applied using
rollers and squeegees. It is tedious work that creates
serious emission levels of volatile organic compounds
(VOC). At one time, the company was one of the
state’s worst polluters of VOC, and the EPA was
looking very closely at the boatbuilder to reduce
these health risks.
But SCRIMP removes the threat and makes for a
decidedly clean boatbuilding environment, while also
producing superior products. Precut, dry panels of
fiberglass are laid in the mold, in as many layers and
overlapping panels as necessary in the overall design.
A polypropylene fabric is placed on top of the dry
fiberglass, and then the area is covered by a vacuum
bag. As air is drawn out of the bag, compressing the
fiberglass into a tight fit, resin is slowly drawn into
the bag using flow tubes, thoroughly saturating the
fiberglass laminate. Resin replaces the air as it is
removed, ensuring complete coverage, and no more.
The vacuum environment also traps the volatile
emissions such as styrene, eliminating the pollutant
from the workplace.
A traditional handlaid fiberglass part usually results
in a 60-percent resin to 40-percent fiberglass
proportion. SCRIMP allows much tighter control,
and the resulting structure is 30 percent resin to 70
percent fiberglass. The fiberglass part is lighter and
stronger, with no voids or rough edges. It is the
pinnacle of fiberglass boat construction, and it allows
the building of structures that simply were not
possible before. The technique allows engineering to
move to a higher level. TPI uses the SCRIMP
technique to construct wind turbine blades and
Humvee hoods for the military.
“We’re working with engineered fabrics to build a
better boat that will stand up for many years,” Mark
told me. And he should know what it takes to stay
the course, as his father’s first fiberglass sailboats, built
from 1959–1968, were the Carl Alberg-designed 28-
foot Pearson Triton. They are all still out there sailing.
Without question, SCRIMP has revolutionized
fiberglass boat construction, and TPI Composites
takes full advantage of its enormous utility to build boats that are light,
strong and rugged.
Mark pointed out
several other areas
where SCRIMP
streamlines
construction, such as
adding blocks of
Extreme 2000 in the
initial layup. These
plastic- and fiberglassreinforced
plates
mean hardware can
be bolted directly
through the fiberglass
into these plates, eliminating the time-consuming
need to fashion metal backing plates and fit them
later in the process. It is leaner manufacturing at its
most productive.
TPI Composites has a great future, and its marine
division is healthy. Recent government contracts
help ensure this technology will not stand still.
The enthusiasm and vision of Mark Pearson,
coupled with the skill and experience of the TPI seating for inland waterways and a low-maintenance
exterior with minimal brightwork.
Peter has remained integral to the boat’s evolution,
and Hull No. 7 has some additional features not
found on earlier boats. The boats are built with
either twin 440hp Yanmar diesels or a single 500hp
Yanmar. Single-engine boats come standard with
bow and stern thrusters.
As there are few 45-foot pilothouse trawler yachts
out there that cruise at 12 knots, the Symbol should
find a willing audience. And it is less than $600,000
for a complete boat ready to go cruising.
Peter knows most women want to cruise in
slippers, preferring comfort and carefree cruising
over extreme adventures. But the Symbol fits both
roles, as it is both luxurious and capable, with
fiberglass fuel tanks, bilge keels, and high-quality
hardware and equipment.
Trevor Kurzbach, who handles most of the
commissioning of these boats, and Peter spend
enough time on each new Symbol to continue the
refinement process. Peter hopes to introduce a
50-foot model with a Portuguese bridge and other
features of a larger cruising yacht.
Hope to spend time aboard the new Symbol 45
soon and do a proper boat tour! See it at the fall
shows.
Soft Shoe To Essex
It was time to head south on my way home to
Annapolis. But first, I wanted to drop in on the
annual Nordic Tugs Rendezvous, hosted by Wilde
Yacht Sales in Essex, Connecticut. The drive to
Essex was a lazy morning affair from my previous
night’s stay in historic Mystic, Connecticut, home of
museums and old ships, and a great cruising
destination. I love this area: full of history, great
seafood…and boats.
Arriving in Essex ahead of schedule, I stopped by
Maritime Trading Company to visit Alex Foster, the
guy who saved my feet last year at the Newport
Boat Show. Alex imports Dubarry boat shoes from
Ireland, and the shoes have been on my feet all year
as I have traveled around the globe chasing stories.
Unfortunately, I stepped on a piece of uncured resin
at the Pearson facility and was having trouble
getting the sole clean of the sticky mess under my
right foot. Perhaps it was time to get a new pair of
shoes from Alex!
My luck held out, as Alex was in his office, the calm
before the storm of boat-show season in the United
States. Boxes and boxes of shoes line the shelves of the loading area, surrounding the staff, accompanied
by the other products imported by Maritime Trading
Company. These include Oceanair blinds and
Spinlock marine products. Alex showed me the new
flush-mounted Oceanair blinds he’ll be showing off at
the shows. I’ve had experience with Oceanair blinds
on several boats, and they work great.
Alex was most accommodating, and soon I had a
new pair of Dubarry traditional deck shoes, made
with very soft leather that look to minimize break-in
time. Excellent.
See you at the shows, Alex!
Bell Power
Literally only a couple of buildings away from
Maritime Trading Company is Bell Power Systems,
the eastern distributor for John Deere engines,
generators and parts. It was Bell Power that shipped
the 8.1-liter Deere engine for Growler, and I couldn’t
believe I accidentally stumbled onto the company’s
headquarters. Bell Power services customers and example of early America. Long
a center for maritime industry,
Essex today is a beautiful
and classy place to begin a
rendezvous, which is precisely
what Nordic Tugs had in mind.
I saw 25 boats, as well as
theWashington builder, at
this year’s event, which was sponsored by Wilde Yacht
Sales, the local Nordic Tugs dealer. Nordic Tugs’
founder, Jerry Husted, was on hand, as was Nordic’s
Tracy Prescott, who came from the Burlington,
Washington, yard to attend this year’s rendezvous. Bill
Boyer and Ben Wilde of the dealership did a great job
keeping things on schedule and focused on a worthwhile
and fun rendezvous. And Essex was the perfect
location for it, as the anchorage is full of beautiful and
traditional sailing yachts and Downeast cruisers.
After a kickoff of seminars and dinner at the
nearby Essex Yacht Club, the tug owners would
head off for a raft-up in Hamburg Cove, then cruise
downriver to Long Island Sound. It is the kind of
carefree cruising we all dream of, in the company of
like-minded boat owners.
During the EYC dinner, I was reminded how
much the social aspects of our lifestyle make for
long-term memories. In many ways, the boats are
secondary to the relationships we form as boat
owners. And that is the charm of this lifestyle.
After a restful sleep at the Griswold Inn, it was
time for me to drive back down to Annapolis,
following the Long Island shoreline as I threaded
the New York City route that leads south.
I had completed a week on the road, visiting some
of the many people who have an impact on our
cruising community, and whom we should thank for
making a difference. And I look forward to doing
this again, in another direction perhaps, where there
are more faces to meet and personalities to enjoy.
It’s a wonderful life.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2004 © Dominion Enterprises (888.487.2953) www.passagemaker.com
You are reading the text-only copy of this article. To access the article as it appeared in PassageMaker Magazine, please log in to purchase and download the PDF version of this article.