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welcome everyone

uh to our podcast uh

dog talk and today i have the honor of

having

stuart jones uh joining us for this

podcast

a little bit about stewart like many of

us stuart jones was first introduced to

voting in a

young age his family built a boat when

he was 10 and the rest of this industry

my god by the way that would be my my

dream i grew up in the wrong family

stuart

stewart has a lifetime of rigging

industry experience

as well as offshore sailing and we're

going to be talking about that he runs

pro-tech yacht services

uh full-service rigging and metal

fabrication shop in north vancouver

uh and pacific yacht system is also

based here in vancouver

stewart has participated in three

victoria to maui races

so that's victoria from vancouver island

all the way to maui hawaii

and was on the winning boat twice so

congrats

uh he also participated in two admiral

cup races in the uk both on the boat

and i might not pronounce that right

hannah china from vancouver

has been new yeah oh it's right here

from the map that's right

my by the way my english and

pronunciation is not a skill i have and

i'm okay with it my brother teases me

about it

all the time all the time he has spent

numerous years on the board of the

bc marine trades association and voting

bc

heavily involved with the west vancouver

yacht club which is a yacht club here

in greater vancouver teaching sailing as

a youth

serving as a boat mem board member and

also

commodore and now is an honorary life

member of that yacht club

stuart is the principal race officer and

pro tech is the title sponsor of the

annual

youth sailing event called the pumpkin

bowl regatta

which has been seen up to 246 youth and

100 volunteers each year

in october throughout his career stewart

has always focused on safety

and that's important especially when it

comes to rigging after a very windy

straight race stewart was one of the

four

founding principals instructors of the

offshore

personal survival course when referred

to

as safety at sea course that is offered

in british columbia

this course has international

accreditation and is run

fully by volunteers first met stewart

years ago stewart you probably didn't

even know who i was back then

i remember when i bought my boat my

catalina 36

i was in your shop getting help like

many people

coming to the frown counter uh when i

was doing most of my work myself on my

boat

and your team helped me out

not i'm at that time i didn't have any

budgets like i made today

and uh over the years i've got to know

stewart working with many clients that

we have in common

and recently stuart did a bunch of work

on my catalina

and i'm very thankful so stuart thank

you for joining the podcast

yeah i'm super happy to be here jeff

that's

awesome awesome awesome we get to talk

about boats and sailing and

yeah exactly doesn't get much better

than boating that's right

yeah if you're not going to be on the

water dreaming we're talking about

bluetooth next best thing

so i remember we were out in in the

parking lot at your office there one

evening not so long ago

and i started asking um and you've got

this

crazy racing experience which i think is

really

brings the racing boats i mean they're

off

you're pushing those boats to the limits

um

and um that experience and you've raced

obviously

can you tell me a little bit about how

your racing background

is sort of influencing how you run your

outfit and

what you guys do there especially

vis-a-vis safety

yeah yeah well jeff i sailed with my

family and we

raced our family boat and then i moved

on and started racing with

other people and luckily i met some of

the great

personalities and racers of vancouver

and sailed with them

and one of the first guys was vladimir

plasmic who was

kind of like a crazy yugoslav very

enthusiastic so lots of things happened

but

it also opened up huge doors and i got

to sail with

he would bring in professionals from

california

dick deaver and other guys to check out

the sales and check out the boat

and that's how you learn from right

being around people that are like

real rock stars not just local ones

and i was super fortunate there and then

i moved on to sail with a guy

um called a great sailing personality

john newton

who took his boat to europe twice and i

was really fortunate my summer job

while i was going to university was

actually running his boat so

i'd run his boat here in vancouver take

it to all the races and then pack it up

and put it on a freighter

and then pick it up in london and rig it

all up and then we sail

in the admiral's cup and then you know

just doesn't end there like the

vancouver

crew would then head home and then it

was my job to

deliver the boat wherever it happened to

be and pack it all up again so

it's a pretty outstanding summer job but

i got to meet

people from all around the world

all around the world you know people

think that race ends when you kind of

get to the finish line in somewhere like

england and then you find out that

oh yeah stuart yeah just take the boat

to norway and he'll come home from there

and like just that is that little

sentence is a huge undertaking

but yeah you meet so many fantastic

people when you get to do some of this

stuff

yeah that's what it's all about isn't it

jeff it's 100

and you learn so much from others that's

that's a great i think it's the same

the marine i mean it's probably like

that in every industry but specifically

in the marine industry because you have

to learn so much on the job

uh you know you can only prepare so much

in class

and a lot of it is you're right it's

sort of meeting the challenges but also

leveraging from the experience of others

um and

you know wanting to do things right of

course when you went

uh and i i think that's really

fascinating because as voters some of us

certainly have heard of the fastnet sale

and was it 1979

yeah 79. yeah so you were one of the i'm

not sure

unlucky participants how would you even

define your

the chance of living well we were very

lucky we all lived

15 people died that night so we're a

super affordable

you were a kid that back then you were

saying um how old were you when that

happened

i was 25 yeah

25 years old yeah that must be like

going to war

honestly that night like that yeah well

yeah it's but yeah you know you have

your

teammates around you right the crew and

of course some of them

are kind of incapacitated by stuff like

that and

other people just push on through and

are able to so it's like

it's mind and body they both have to

work together

some people their mind is going good and

their body isn't

yeah no kidding and i i've been

listening to a lot of podcasts lately

about actually people living really

difficult situations

and you hear about stuff like that you

want to give a little bit of context to

everyone in terms of

what fastnet in 79 was all about

just so that people have a sense a

little bit of what we're talking about

here

oh yeah sure yeah so

how do you explain it so we live in a

technological

age and in 79

people don't realize kind of um

there was no standards for very many

things

we would have a very minor safety check

before a race

yeah so being that there's no standards

just to give you a point

um like the safety harnesses that you

use

and the hooks that you hook onto the

boat with in a storm or at night

they're all homemade so they're

basically three strand rope with

kind of a cheap stainless steel

carabiner with no safeties or anything

on it

um there was no inflatable pfds

we would have like a bellstrom life

jacket with some extra

webbing that we attached to keep the

safety harness on

there was no gps there was no lower nc

all we navigated with was uh dead

reckoning off lighthouses

and points of land and then we did have

um signals off some of the lighthouses

that we were using

to hone in on so yeah it was

really primitive and unfortunately the

wind picked up

tremendously like there's many books

about it and

um a lot of people in england it was

just a local race to them obviously this

was no

little local race to us we had come the

whole way from north america

and the boats in admiral's cop

there was about 56 of us and there's

three boats per country so we're racing

a separate division and these boats are

pretty well prepared with

pretty experienced sailors from all

these different countries

but a lot of the local boats in england

they were just

guys that had phoned up their buddies

and said oh let's go fasten

that race this year but when is it oh

tomorrow

or two days so they didn't spend that

much

time really preparing it because it was

just

a thing for them so unfortunately the

wind

increased dramatically you know

65 knots and enormous waves

and i talked to jeff about it we

wondered how bad it was and i said well

the water was really warm

because there's a super warm current

comes up through there from the south so

it wasn't cold but the conditions were

obviously dreadful

and the smaller boats just they

they didn't weren't as well prepared as

they might have

been if there was strict controls and

they're just obviously a small boat is

affected way more by

waves and the waves were like

tremendously tall like higher than the

mouse by

a lot and in the troughs they were so

short and tiny they weren't

big ocean waves they're short kind of

semi inshore waves so

there there is no wind in the bottom of

the waves

which people find it hard to believe but

on the top of the waves the boat would

go flat

with just like a storm jib on no me

and when we're down in the bottom of the

wave there was

not hardly enough wind to sail so

very different conditions and most of it

most of the damage was

really done by the waves not by really

the wind

and a combination yeah with

frightening nights frightening the next

two or three days after as boats were

pulled

we ended up at the royal court yacht

club which was

you know i we sailed just about 24 hours

after

we got dropped out of the race just to

get

to a safe harbor and you know there

would tow boats in that were like

basically barely floating above water

line with

mass broken off and

um gear everywhere and we had no idea if

everyone on that boat

had died or they'd been rescued or what

because the fishermen were just

bringing these boats in and then

dropping them off and leaving

yeah it's not when we go sailing we

don't we don't expect

to see kind of visible signs of

huge trauma so anyways that's kind of

set me on the

on the thing of like making sure that

you know you see a couple of things like

that and

you go like no safety is pretty

important

pretty important was that a genesis a

little bit of what

uh the spark in part that made you i

mean obviously you have an interest in

voting but

is that why in part you started the

rigging

aspect of voting and doing such a high

standard of doing so

yeah well i was doing lots of rigging

anyways like i have been working

part-time for the mass company in

vancouver

and i'd go and do trips to california or

even when i was in england i'd go and

visit the other mass companies

be it on dinghy mass companies or other

rigging companies because

i you just want to find look deeper into

the subject you're involved in like some

people don't look deep at all

we know those people and then other

people you get

you know you get satisfaction of finding

out how other people do stuff

that's a great thing about going around

the world or moving to different cities

and seeing stuff

is that your whole knowledge isn't

created by what you see in your local

environments

right yeah it's so true and that's also

the power of now

of even a medium like youtube is the

participation i mean i

it's the same thing i do even on my i

learn from the readers just from their

questions you know and

you learn from there's no such thing as

a dumb question you learn you're like oh

what

what's the angle like what can i learn

from that question

where are they going whether they what's

the missing piece of the puzzle

and you're right as much as we live in a

world where we're lucky i mean we

we all can make a living a lot of us

here in vancouver can make a living just

working on boats

uh but you know it's still a limited

body of experience you know it's not

it's not the whole world it's just what

we see here

locally is what we get to work on yeah

yeah the interesting thing jeff is

that i tell people like everyone's got a

different vision in their mind of what

what they think we don't have a tv into

a person's mind we can only listen to

what they say

and so from dealing with many people

over the years

for us to be successful for a customer a

particular customer

we have to just all the only thing we

have to do we don't have to like

create the space shuttle or anything

it's a really simple thing we just

have to answer their anxiety level right

and everyone's got a totally different

anxiety level

right you can have someone that's like

feel so safe within their skin and

everything that they don't need

anything yeah they could do anything and

then there's other people

are so apprehensive about everything in

the world and then they you stick them

on a boat well holy cow

we hardly have enough time to deal with

them because the anxiety level

creates so many possibilities and it's

your job and my job

to fulfill that and they're a successful

happy customer when they have no anxiety

left

and so we call them sometimes needy

because they need lots of stuff and lots

of things to reassure them and then

the next person you might talk to jeff

he doesn't want anything except

the piece of equipment in a box and he

feels comfortable he can do it

perhaps he doesn't even even need that

thing in a box

but yeah yeah everyone's so different

and we have to

we have to answer that anxiety level if

you've done that then

we're successful with every customer

it's such a good

point that you bring i i describe it

when i hear people buying an

um a used boat which is you know most

people end up buying a boat

that is not brand new i tell them you

know you got to remember you're buying

that person that previous owner's risk

tolerance

you know that that previous owner

decided what was important

and what wasn't and you know once the

boat leaves the factory and it's been

owned

ten years five years 15 years in my case

you know my

vote was 1990 bought in 2006 so 16 years

three owners you literally have three

layers of ownership

where their risk tolerance is all

different i.e their anxieties

right what do they worry about and some

people don't worry about how much

and so the challenge is when we all work

on votes is you're not only adapting to

and meeting the needs of the current

owner but you also have

to backtrack and see where is it that

the previous owner

had a risk tolerance for and does that

align with the new owner

and what are the differences between the

old owners

you know so willing to just take chances

and the new owner is going hey you know

what i'm bringing my grandkids on board

this is totally pleasure voting if the

missus is going to come on board you

know i don't want to have

i want to minimize surprises everybody's

already apprehensive of going on the

water

you know reduce risk as much as possible

so that my experiences on the water

are positive um and that's

you're right it's it's it's everyone has

a different sort of tolerance to risk

oh yeah and the questions the questions

how they start

like my funniest day is always when a

person phones up

like just like you and me we have to

find out a little bit something like

what's

what's the scope what's the boat what's

this can you ask a guy

well what kind of boat do you have and

the guy looks at it and he says

sailboat you have to go like

you want to say something like we aren't

getting anywhere here you have to kind

of open up so like how big is it

how old is it and all this and that's

the

that's the funniest thing is you and

myself trying to figure out where a

customer is coming from

and what he has because some people have

don't have a very good tolerance

for telling you much they want to be

private

and they need to open up if we're going

to do a good job for them

and realize where they're trying to go

and go and what their goal is

that's how we create what a person needs

yeah totally um it's we have the same

you know it's funny when we started our

company i mean our company is only not

battle we started

seven so maybe 14 15 years ago 14.

and it was the same thing is about that

conversation you know like what are you

what's you know what are you planning to

do with the vote describe the vote how

long have you had the boat

and what are you going to be doing with

that because all of us go differently

um and so there's no cookie cutter

solution for everyone

you know there's no side one size there

is no one-size-fits-all football

you know you know even even common boats

like

catalina or grand banks doesn't matter

every boat

over time that boat even though they

were all the same at the factory when

they came out

over time they've evolved to basically

adjust to the need of the owners

and the budget lots of evolution going

on

a lot lots yeah absolutely

so tell me a little bit about um so that

fascinated rate must have been pretty

incredible so you were back then you

were about i think

you remember saying about 25 26 when

that happened

yeah so i i was 25 i had like three

really fortunate summers

so when i was 25 i spent the summer

beginning here delivering the boat

around to the

different regattas and then taking it to

england and then taking it

and then i call it shipwrecked in

ireland but anyways we ended up in

ireland and i had to then

get some people together to take the

boat back to the

to the south coast of england and then

from the south coast of england i took

it to norway

and you know i was going to university

then

i missed the first two weeks of

university but

my brain was at such a high level from

this summer

like honestly i was no farther behind

than anybody else because

it was a pretty exciting time that so i

was 79

1980 we

there's a whole bunch of youth all my

age so we all

went and did victorian maui race

the next year so again we spent the

whole summer on the water and

we're all young and so

we raced down we raced in

the kenwood cup which was a series down

in hawaii it was called clipper cup at

that time

so that lasted quite a there's five

races including one that was

850 miles or so that went around the

whole state of hawaii

and then because none of us had any

money we all sailed boats home

so that was that was 1980 and then in

1981

we built a new boat to go to england so

i went to san diego

and helped finish building the boat in

january and february

and then brought the boat back

from uh los angeles to vancouver on a

truck

and then put the boat back together

again here did the races in vancouver to

get the boat up to speed and then took

the boat all apart

put it on a cradle and shipped it to

england

on a freighter again and then i picked

it up in england and rigged

it all so that it would be all ready for

racing and that that

boat is called pear mer now and it sits

at royal van but it was pacino when we

built it

and it was lightning fast boat it was a

really fast boat so

i have a picture of admiral's cup in

1981 and

after the first race canada was the top

team in the world so

we had we had good boats and one of

canada's other boats was graham kirby

who designed the laser it was his boat

and he designed that boat and the third

boat was amazing grace which

is around the lower mainland here but at

that time it came from ontario

so we came tenth in the fastnet race

that year which is

a pretty big accomplishment

and so yeah there's three great summers

of like

total boating at a high level so it's

great you're gonna be hooked after that

i mean if you weren't you gotta be like

i gotta get myself on the water

because i'll make a job out of this well

you just feel so fortunate right

yeah absolutely absolutely

yeah there's uh you know it's there's

definitely a a

voting community here in um british

columbia

washington state of course very similar

yeah very sad

very very similar uh with that body of

water and vancouver island that protects

us i mean there is so much opportunity

to go boating here

and if you want to go if you want to go

on the outside you're welcome to

you want to stay on the inside more

protected you're welcome to so it's

uh there's an inland i i call it an

inland sea

um where things are you know pretty they

can be pretty bad

um but most of the time they're pretty

benign

and then so tell me you also i thought

that was so cool

um a few years ago uh you and your son

and i think also the owner of the boat

and their son

also went you did a vic maui tell me

about that how how was that as an

experience

go racing uh and having a

father-son team on the boat like that

that must be

just up there yeah well it's just

yeah the evolution of how this

friendship came like we were

um dinghy sailors

the owner of the boats peter salisbury

so he was what we call a keen eagle

sailor he came from eagle harbor

and i was from west so we all in the

youth sailing we all knew each other and

peter carried on more in danny so like

he

sailed flying dutchman's and so he met

ted turner when ted turner was a dinghy

sailor and

you know he's still as a young person or

a middle-aged person ted turner was

still a character like

he would start talking and there'd be

everyone would be around him

because he just says outrageous stuff

and

he's a character right and so peter

sailed dingies more

than i did i sailed things but then i

kind of moved on and did other stuff

and um so we sailed together to hawaii

and won the race in 1980

he had done the trip to europe similar

that i had done

in two years earlier so in 1975

he went with vladimir plasmic in his

boat to admiral's cup

and he was the one that the same kind of

job i did he took care of the boat and

you know after the races he sailed the

boat up to sweden or something and then

all the way down to yugoslavia in the

mediterranean

and then back across the atlantic of

florida

where vancouver sailors got on it and

seattle sailors and they did a big

series of races in florida and then

truck the boat to vancouver so we have a

fairly similar background in

working for these boats and doing

deliveries

pretty young so we sailed together on

different boats in vancouver quite a bit

and peter is yeah we get along really

well

and so he decided

um kind of eight years ago

that he would he had enough money and i

said like

okay well if you got enough money it

means you can't kind of if you're going

to do a big project like this you got to

make sure you got enough money you

aren't going to have to eat peanut

butter sandwiches every day

to afford it you got to have you know a

big

it's a big deal and so he decided that

we wanted

to design a boat and work with a

designer design a boat that

we could both our sons are approximately

the same age we could race to hawaii

together on

and then bring the boat back here and do

other stuff so

we went to different people that were

designing boats and

he did most of the work and um

we sat down with these different

designers and came up with some ideas

and then we picked a designer which was

paul beaker out of

seattle at the time and he's one of the

few

carbon techs in the world and he

does these fantastic things with carbon

fiber

and totally understands it like the f1

guys come and see him

when they're trying to design stuff

because they know he's

got tech and the feel and can

build everything himself as well

so he's unbelievably capable he did all

the stuff for the america's cup when the

americans

started to win in san francisco he had

been called in to redesign the stuff

so he's a total foil expert and sale

expert and

his amazing guy and super down the air

so he designed this boat

and then we went around to different

people to build it so we

talked to different people that had

different kinds of setups

and some of them were at the transition

stage like they were building boats one

way

and the opportunity to build this boat

for us

would then set them up for the future

because they just kind of

like just like every technology when

there's a new technology

you have to kind of embrace it then you

got to have someone that kind of

gives you the lift and the step to move

on it's really hard to get there right

and so this boat is you know 35

feet long it's got a retractable drive

unit so no propeller hangs down in the

water

um it's got 1200 pounds of water ballast

and at 35 feet long it weighs barely

over 6 000 pounds so

there's just no weight it's all

horsepower

and so we put this together then we

found out we had this

incredible boat that went so fast

that it was also a big handful

because it's like it's got its own heart

and mind right

and so we quickly realized that it was a

little bit too much for four people to

handle

and we did really well in it here it's

tremendous boat and we sailed in hawaii

and we

we went with a crew of six the first

year

which included both our sons and then

two other people

jeremy hill who's one other one of our

great friends

and he had done similar rate he had done

the same races to hawaii that we had

done but he had never gone

sailing in europe and he was he had done

lots of time

dingy sailing and so

the six of us went and we realized that

the we won the race

and we had really the boat was just so

fantastic because it's always in control

beautifully designed boat and all the

systems work really well and they're

quite different than what you would see

on a normal boat

around here nothing the same as a

cruising boat

and yeah everything works really easily

it's

you know the only thing that's not easy

is sleeping because the thing goes so

freaking fast it makes so much noise

it's hard to sleep so

you know just doing deliveries you might

be going trying to go slow

and you'd be doing like six or seven or

eight knots

just and then all of a sudden it gets on

a wave and it's this this surfboard that

just wants to go and then

you can't slow it down all of a sudden

you're doing 18 knots and the

poor people downstairs can't sleep so

this has just happened just three years

ago when we did a delivery to los

angeles for the transpac

race like you can't slow it down it just

wants to go

so we did that right the first maui was

six people

and then we decided that you know we

really needed to push it

and because if you have six people then

you have

six people's clothes and they have six

people's water

and six people's food so the more weight

you put on this

in effect the slower you go so we

decided we're gonna

do it with four so our two sons by then

were busy doing other stuff

my son started to have children and

other things like that so that

opportunity wasn't there

and jimmy was working with his business

up at whistler so

uh we got uh jeremy hill came and joined

us

he's like he sailed on the first race so

he's been involved in the boat since it

was launched

and we had another person so there's

four of us

and it was like absolutely crazy because

we would be going for

hours on it on end between 16 and 18

knots and

it wasn't a fun like old-fashioned vic

maui like

the sun barely came out we saw one

sunrise and one sunset

and that was the very last night so

usually when you sail across an ocean

that's

you're reveling in mother nature and all

these different things

and you know teasing each other about

people are seeing oh you are have you

seen that boat over there when they come

up on watch and

you go like no but that's not a boat

they go yeah it's a boat i can see it

and then like

of course it's the moon coming up over

the from the distance or something like

that

all these little tricks that happen but

with four people holy cow

it's like totally brutal no coffee ever

because

there's absolutely no time to make

coffee because two people are on deck

and you quickly grab food and

you you know you realize if you ever had

a man overboard like

there'd be one person left on deck

because there's only two of you

and if you're going 16 knots it's just

frightening

what what might what might happen

so yeah we're baby conscious then we

have

beacons that so we're all electronically

attached to the boat but

yeah it's pretty neat and then recently

they just completed the transpac race

two years ago so

it's done three trips to hawaii the boat

and it's called longboard

yeah i got a chance to see it uh we did

very little work on it

um and i was i mean i was impressed

i have to say it's impressive it's

impressive

um and you know great things don't have

to be big

and you saw that vote and i was like

it's like you know it's like to me it's

like a mclaren which i only see

you know there's a few mclarens in town

of course in vancouver

and you get to see them you're like yeah

maybe not a big car but that is a hell

of a car

and uh i remember coming on board i'm on

board

and i was like whoa this is this is a

race horse

this is something else you didn't

mention the builder

uh desire who was the builder of that

boat by the way

um so the the designer was beaker

and then the builder was in anacortes

and he did quite a bit of work on the

america's cup down there

so um i can't this name escapes me for

the moment i think it's jim betts

is that right yeah jim betts yeah yeah

yeah super nice guy

boat shed that he had a boat shop down

there it had like

because they're working in composites

they have like

it's like heat control building so the

floor has

heat in it and um yeah they vacuum bag

all the panels

and the just the manufacturing boat it's

like

ultra high tech like they make panels up

they do

um cnc um routing of all the pieces and

then

they're folded up and then a tab is put

on them and

you've got a whole big component made

like yeah

it's amazing yeah i i haven't seen that

level of bull building but i have seen

uh we you know just seeing at platinum

we had tim on the podcast

uh i've seen him build you know 100

footers 120 footers 150 footers

and the amount of thought process and

solutioning

that is involved for those builders the

amount of head scratching the amount of

problems that come up

the puzzles that they have to solve you

get tremendous respect

for those people because every day

they're challenged there's always

something that's going to come up i mean

there's just no other way

it's just you know there's not a lot of

repetition in the world

and so yeah it would be they're

definitely problem solvers

um yeah so these boats these boats

like so it's actually when you say these

problem solvers so of course

platinum they're like fixing and

working on these big boats that have

already often been started

but on this boat it was a build from a

piece of paper and a computer

so these guys actually did no problem

solving

because all the pieces are so well drawn

out

and they're all routed so for instance

i'll give you an example if the chain

plates where the chain

plate goes onto the hull so that's foam

so that panel of foam when it's lying

as a flat piece before it gets put onto

the mold when the boat is being built

they actually around the chain plate

they route

the foam out for every single layer of

carbon fiber cloth

so you'll see a graduated

levels around the chain plate that are

micro thin

for each level of cloth that is

reinforcing that

so by the time though that reinforcing

area has

it's like eight layers in one spot and

you know five four three two one you if

you look at the foam it's been routed

out like that so by the time

in the build when they're adding the

outside layer onto the hull and vacuum

bagging it on

there's no fairing really whatsoever

because

all the fairing has been done by routing

out the foam to those different levels

so it's it's a huge degree

of like detail in the drawings end up

with actually there's no interpretation

like there's only one

place things can go and they you make

components up and fold them together and

you just stick them in and they

automatically fit

so it's incredibly how fast you can do

it but you know that's

a level of an intensity and detail

that's done at the beginning so

if you don't do that you aren't going to

get a boat that's going to turn out it's

going to have tons of foam and

people try and interpret it as you said

what's going on and then like those

hours just kaching go up right

yes what was your

best day like most sellers talk about

nautical miles per day

for sailing so when you're on longboard

what was the

uh you know what's the best day that

you've done for a run

so long we're you know well

from maui or from all the way from

victoria

to hawaii we average like around 10

knots or a little bit more

so that includes beating out of juan de

and then turning the corner and the

times when

you're putting the boat back together

after some crazy incident and

um yeah so we're we spend hours on end

sometimes going like 16 knots and 18

knots for hours

and we're not because of that like it's

hard to understand if you sail like a

cnc

40 or any of these 43-footers where

we don't really surf so we don't sit on

a wave and then all of a sudden

if everything's perfect go flying down

the wave

and accelerate we're already accelerated

because we're

we're actually planing so it's just like

a powerboat with a motor

at three quarters throttle and you can

feel the bottom of the boat moving up

and down on your feet

that's exactly when it's that windy

that's what we're doing so

we actually we only increase in speed a

little bit on a weight

we will increase in speed but normally

the boat speed indicator

if you're doing 16 or 18 knots

it's staying on depending on the wind

and how you have the sail set

it'll be sitting for five minutes or

longer

at exactly the same decimal speed

wow because the boats just set up with

the wind at the same angle

and the boat's got the bow way up in the

air and the stern down

and it's just like a powerboat with the

motor going there's no difference does

that feel

how does that feel to i mean that's

it's uh to me it's almost like you sit

back and you imagine all the

i mean you you saw the old way you know

votes weren't doing that in the 50s or

60s 70s right

i mean how does it hardly any boats do

that these days

still how does that feel it does because

it's

yeah it's it's yeah well at first

like it's breathtaking then you get used

to it like everything else

yeah it's very fun

yeah that's uh there she is longboard

she's beautiful she's always out of the

water in the parking lot i see her all

the time

she doesn't have any marine growth on it

yeah

it's something else absolutely um

so what are the trends that you've been

seeing in your industry

over the last few years um

what are the things that or and also

second part of that question is like

what do you see happening in the future

um in in the marine industry

specifically related to rigging

and fabrication well we're finding now

that

that people are embracing some of the

more expensive gear

more so like everything as soon as you

move to a higher level things cost more

but

now it's really understood at a way

higher level that

if you spend a little bit more money for

a piece of rope

that there's actually a return back to

it like

the rope is actually going to work

better for you

so there's all there's always going to

be people that

are trying to do it on a really short

budget but if you've got money and

you've got a super nice boat

then the rope is going to make a huge

difference because it's way lighter it

doesn't

absorb water so it doesn't get heavy on

a rainy day

you tighten it up and the length isn't

going to change because it's not going

to be stretchy

and so we're finding like

it's a lot more acceptable to spend more

money on rope

that that's a that's a huge thing and it

and the boat works way better

so yeah yeah so so we see that like

what we would call yacht braid which is

like

which we would call it crummy polyester

rope it's

you know not a nice thing to say but

it's pretty basic is

we're selling less and less of that

product and more ropes

that have a core out of a

way better fiber so that would be

usually it's dyneema or spectrum yeah

and those ropes perform

so much better way less friction from

because the diameter is a little bit

smaller and

the length stays the same so yeah way

more dependable and the covers

because you're paying a little bit more

then they're made better so the rope

doesn't get dirty as quick and doesn't

look

like it's wearing out as quick and yeah

there's value in it it's not just like

buy this because it's expensive there

actually is

huge value and way better longevity so

we see the rope

that's better and there's more and more

companies now making ball bearing blocks

with better bearing systems in them and

then those blocks are also lighter so

they don't bang against the boat as

badly and they just work

better so yeah i think it's people are

embracing the fact that

from their everyday life they understand

technology and

someone's not selling them some kind of

piece of thing that they don't need that

i guess that that's really it is people

embrace technology

now better than they did 10 years ago

because they see it everywhere

yeah yeah 100 we see the same thing you

know once you it's all about the value

proposition right uh

unfortunately it's it's not the least

expensive is the best value or the most

expensive is the best value

then you know you got to do some

homework and there's always

you know there's some stuff that of

course there's a premium certain in my

industry there is a premium on certain

items but

it's not as like everything else is just

you know everything below the lowest

price is just bs

now you same thing with batteries

anything that we're doing is the same

thing you find that

sweet spot for your budget and what can

you appreciate

why why you would be spending your money

on this item

and that's part of the education and

learning you know what are the benefits

from anything that you're going to buy

right

yeah yeah yeah so it's an interesting

thing with you know we talk about

race people but equally with cruising

people

the cruisers around here they embrace

technology but we are always so upset

because all the cruisers would embrace

the technology

of refrigeration

and then all the technical stuff because

it's really easy to do like

you can just go and buy it you can go

see jeff and jeff's are going to fix you

up with all this stuff

and then we get the guy and the guy goes

no i got ropes

no no my sales goes in and out yeah i'm

fine

and they felt that the most important

thing going offshore was

buying the stuff that went in the boat

and we would tell them no no it's like

once you leave here it's all about how

it sails because around here

as you see so many people have sail

boats but they just

motor yeah and you have to rely on all

your sailing gear once you leave

vancouver and go offshore and it's a

quick lesson because

the mouth of juan de fuca you go outside

of

vancouver island it the first as soon as

you get there it's ugly

and then you go wow we don't really have

the gear for this so

i was always upset because i try and

sell stuff and people were all

interested in electrics and

refrigeration

and other stuff they weren't interested

in their sailing because they felt that

around here they

could handle sailing so well and

i was always so angry no you're going to

go and help all those guys in san

francisco and san diego that have their

businesses there and not me

i was always jealous they pulled in

they're like this i

i've seen it countless times by the way

same thing they pull into

all these ports down on california and

they're like yeah this broke

that broke this broke yeah need to do

this need to do that

and then they get re and now they

obviously because being on the water i

mean

you find out the truth it's going to

happen

the proof is hard yeah it's hard it's

hard

always hard absolutely yeah

i think i think in some ways i don't

know the same thing i think with the

internet in some ways is now that people

are sharing

you know we learn not only from our own

mistakes but from the mistakes of others

i use that all the time i'm like you

know like everything all the many

valuable life lessons i've learned were

on my own vote

and other people's vote seeing their

pain seeing you know how and then you go

okay like i don't have to live the

trauma

to learn from it you know i don't have

to literally live at first

you know first person and i think the

internet is a way first

people are curious depending on the

anxiety that you said

if they're about to research then they

go like oh yeah okay

um you know you got way more you gotta

you don't want to over prepare and

certainly there is an argument where

some people

prepare forever and never leave and it's

finding that balance between going in

completely and i've heard great stories

of people just going

i mean they're just doing it and they

you know it was not easy and they were

young

generally and then and then there's the

people that prepare forever

and because of life you know life

changes and they never get to live that

dream so

it's you don't want to be at both ends

but you got to find the balance for

yourself

somewhere in the middle between no

preparation and

just forever preparation yeah and that's

the way it's a great balance

it is a great balance like you know

we've we

that's the fun thing about seeing how

people rationalize what they're going to

spend their money on

yes it's super interesting and then for

you and me

we if we have the time we try and go

inside their head and go okay

so why is he thinking like that yeah

that's like

wow sometimes you don't want to but no

exactly

to convince a person about how they're

thinking wrong you have to try and

figure out where that thought has come

from

yeah yeah questions are good for that

you know um and uh people's motivations

it's interesting

you know a lot the motivations are not

all the same uh

there's so many different motivations so

many i need to tell you one of the

things that's really interesting jeff is

we've worked now with jake from your

company quite a bit

recently and um well not recently for

the last couple years

and then from myself talking to him

and from feedback from my customers

like the two of us are you know we're

the heads of our company but

i i see now how much our technicians add

to the whole thing

because they have to we tell the story

and then

a lot of not a lot but a number of

customers just kind of like

they've had enough of us after we've

said like talk to them for five minutes

because they think they're just getting

the runoff on our industry

but the the techs that work for us

they're the ones that give the

confidence to the customers

100 because they see them handling this

stuff and how they

like in your business they bang the

buttons and all it all comes up

sometimes and

you know my guys they go they go up the

mast in like two seconds and the people

are going whoa

okay these guys are real

and like your technicians are real and

our guys are real and then

the customers see that and then they

kind of like flow in line and then they

start to accept kind of

the stuff that we're saying and there

was a huge period of time in vancouver

where people did all their work

themselves

so it was yeah and so that's been a big

evolution really in vancouver

to have confidence that someone else is

going to do the right job for them

so it's interesting the changes right

yeah and and i get it all the time you

know uh most of the voters

that we deal with are self-made meaning

you know

they've succeeded in a realm in their

life enough to have disposable income

and you know they don't they don't get

easily bullshitted

they've got a good meter uh and

they

you're right and they they want a

certain level like if they're going to

delegate the task

to someone else they don't want to come

back and they don't want to think that

they could have potentially done it

better or even equal like they need to

be wowed

it's sort of like if i'm gonna pay you

all this money to do something

it better be better than what i could

have done and you're right that's where

the technicians come in

uh in terms of making the the promises

that we make to our clients

a reality and inspiring them to know

that okay

i get it you know this is these are

these people have made a life

out of actually making these ideas these

uh visions right what these dreams that

we want to come true

and um it's funny i always think about

all these beautiful castles when i was

visiting europe and you know you'd see

these

doors into a room and you'd hear that

father and son team had carved that door

for

ever and then you think about the

craftsmanship that's involved in

actually

building all these things and i think

the voting world is very similar you

know our

effectively i see a lot of what we do is

like artistry you know i think it's it's

it's the ability of science and

aesthetics coming together

because boats are beautiful um which

makes them even more

dangerous to all of us that are in love

with them because not only are they

functional but they're great and then

delivering that to the owners and

it's uh it's it's a great i don't know

i don't in some ways i see that owners

are patrons of the arts

and the art that we do is the work that

we do

and we enable them to have a better boat

which again depending on their anxiety

level is what they want they want a boat

that is

more reliable safer you know that they

don't have to worry about

yeah it's uh it's it's it's true it's

cheesy but it's so true it's a real

honor every time i walk away

and the same thing you guys do with my

boat and we do all of us do for all our

clients

is is giving them that confidence

because it is scary on the water i think

a lot of people maybe not admit it

but it not every day on the water is

bliss you know

i heard the expression i don't know if

you heard it 99 days of bliss and one

day of sheer terror

and i tell my clients that like if you

haven't had the day of cheer there

just wait it's gonna happen and you

don't know when it's gonna happen and

it's one day that you didn't go out

because you were an idiot and you didn't

listen to the weather report

it's because you're going to have been

caught in something that you should not

have been caught in

and that day will certainly you'll it's

going to be hard to forget

hard to forget oh yeah well everyone's

loved in this sailing in the strait of

georgie or they're lulled into the fact

that it's

never really bad yeah and it is

things happen things happen yeah we

the safety at sea course when we're

teaching we have different

levels on um there's different parts on

heavy weather sales and sailing and

strong winds besides all the technology

that has to do with like

if you set off an e-perp what actually

happens

who jumps out of bed and who springs

into action but

you know the the best thing that we tell

sailors like if it's windy

like don't take down your sails and go

in

actually go sailing for an hour or two

because you need to like get comfortable

because it's way different way different

and again you're right you got to be

outside your comfort zone

within reason of course yeah to then

be comfortable within the normal range

because if it's always great

the moment it gets a little dicey then

that's where you're sort of like i'm out

but you know there is the boats

generally can handle more than we can

so you want to find a reasonable amount

in there where you're not quitting not

quitting is the wrong one where you're

not

stopping yourself from enjoying being on

the water because you

haven't had the opportunity to gradually

practice your way to a level where you

feel comfortable

yeah yeah and we're always trying to do

uh

you know just like we're telling our

customers about that they need to do

things that are both we're always doing

stuff in our businesses too like

our the equipment that we work with now

is like way better than we had 10 years

ago we have

um you know we don't have a drill press

like a guy has in his basement with

belts and that that run it anymore it's

all geared so when we're

drilling a piece of stainless steel we

can power that

drill bit down to going super slow

it's not gonna the belt's not gonna slip

on it we have

you know it's a power feed so there's

not a person pulling on it

if you just press a button and it goes

down and drills the hole and the drill

is still

sharp because it's going at a proper

rate and there's coolant and stuff

and so manufacturing we've

you know water cutting all the different

parts so there's no

things are way cheaper to make now

because we're cutting them on a saw and

then grinding and doing all this if

we're going to make a custom part up for

something we design it on a

on a drawing we send it off to a water

cutter

three days later it comes back and we

just put it all together and it's

you know apart from polishing a piece of

metal which there's no technology for

that

um it's like way better and our swedging

machines for handling

putting the ends on pieces of rigging

we've

you know we have we had pieces of

equipment that were enormous

and built before the second world war

and they did

huge pieces of wire and the whole

building would shape

and then now we have this piece that's

not very big and it's all hydraulically

driven

and it doesn't really make any noise and

it puts this guy

you know on a piece of half inch wire

which is 30 000 pounds

attaches the fitting on with like no

fuss

and it's amazing so so our industry

it's moved along it hasn't stayed the

same like we build stuff

a totally different way we the ends we

put on rigging and that are all done in

a way different way than we used to

and yeah like it's really sad we take

these

big pieces of equipment that have

gigantic fly wheels on them

i guess it must be like four feet across

a flywheel solid big chunk and with

great big belts onto it enormous

and we like scrap the machine because

it's not used anymore you know

it's kind of crazy but it's the way the

technology goes

yeah and it's for the i mean in some

part it is for the better

um you know it's it's about you know

these boats too you know boats you know

i i say you know you see both out there

20 30 40 years old vote i mean it's

pretty common not everyone has a brand

new

it's not like a car or an iphone you

know you're not swapping boats

i mean some of them do of course again

there's always exceptions but the

majority of owners are not buying

a boat a brand new boat every two three

four years and then

swapping for another one you know like

boats are gonna age

um and they're gonna mature actually

which i think there is a

counter in two they they do get better

uh

out of the factory over a period of time

and then it starts declining

there's always there's always there's

always a little bit of bugs or

things that need to be ironed out in the

systems on a boat

over time uh but then they're out in the

field and they're all voting you know

and

it's same thing like the reason why you

know decided to spend

and invest in my vote it's all the

memories that you make on those boats

it's hard to

just treat a boat as a car you know it's

not it's i

for me it's not the same you know the

the boat is

a vessel not only for transportation but

for all the memories

all the amazing things that you get to

do on that boat

and it's it's emotional uh attachment

to all these experiences because you

remember that you were on that boat

everywhere and all the things you would

and therefore the gear that you put on

the gear that we put on

to make those boats stay with the times

but yet the shell

stays the way it was and is

again i think that's the beauty of it is

that you can't keep those older

uh boats in great shape by maintaining

them

by putting the money in and doing of

course everyone has a budget

and not everyone can do everything

absolutely but

at least if you decide it's on your list

that year or this

whatever then you can do it you there is

generally there's gonna be a place that

can help you to bring it up

yeah i think that's how they justify it

these boats create these family moments

right

percent the great the greatest pitches

of your family are the stuff that

happens like

at christmas holidays and summer

holidays and other stuff

and like for a huge part of the season

the boat is where it's all happening

and it keeps the family together like i

know when we built our first

boat um we came from montreal which

and eastern canada and that and

we we what did we do oh which my dad was

one of the people that

founding members of the north shore

winter club

okay because they had been doing all

that stuff in montreal

their whole lives yeah and so then they

realized like that

the winter club was it's not family

oriented like

you do nothing with your kids

except family skates like the parents

girl the kids

either do figure skating or hockey but

it's not really a family thing

and so they kind of looked hard and

hard at each other and said well what

are we going to do as a family so

we bought skis and built a boat so

there we were it keeps the family

together

your dad literally so this happened when

you were 10. so

how long was the process to build a boat

oh it was so we hired a guy

the boatyard is still there so that was

1964.

so it was right underneath the oak

street bridge

in richmond and it was all cow fields

there and there's still the boatyard

there

the shed is still there it's right

beside there's

a train bridge that goes across the

river there yeah i know exactly what

yeah and so how long was the boat what

was the length overall the size

of the thunderbird it was 26 feet

there's it's plywood

and the the guy that had the shipyard

there

he repaired like log salvage boats and

little tugs and stuff he had a marine

railway

so he did all the heavy work on building

the boat like he had a

band saw that was you know 12 feet high

and huge pieces of timber for building a

26 football

a thunderbird and so he worked on it in

his spare time when he didn't have other

jobs

and then we worked on a night and on

weekends

so yeah basically a year to build

wow but yeah 26 foot boat

and then i had two sisters so we'd go

away for three weeks

five people on a 26 foot boat

and then every single weekend starting

right after easter and ending at

halloween

you know that's when the mass went back

in from winter storage and

came out for winter storage and we would

be

either sailing or racing or spending the

time at

gambier island with but there's so many

of those boats even friends i have today

our parents all had the same boats

because

for i don't know 3 500 you could have a

boat but at that time that was probably

pretty expensive but yeah you know it's

funny i was in europe a few years ago

in croatia and in croatia you get to see

those you know

mega yachts you know they're 200 300

whatever

i mean they're huge they're they're

palaces and the flip side is i remember

seeing

and it's you know again croatia is

beautiful then we i remember seeing a

family

they had a hunter oh my god it must have

been a 25 foot

i'm talking like no dodger there's no

refrigeration

like open and there was five kids

two parents this thing was able to go on

a trailer and they were out there having

the time of their life

and i was like you know what they're

doing it you know you don't need a 300

footer you don't need to look at

whatever's inside i

one of the examples i give all the time

i'm like you could have mona lisa

inside your boat 300 footer you'd be

here in british columbia you'd be like

yeah that's really nice

but i'm gonna look at the view now the

view outside

what's outside i mean it's okay on a

rainy day

looking at the museum at heart but if

you're into nature

the vistas and the life and the memories

that you can build

on the water with loved ones and in that

family i can still see them

you know they you know it was just like

i was like how awesome is that

and they were teachers and they would

spend two months on the summer on this

25-foot boat

these are effectively camping it's a

tent tent with you know a mass and you

can get places

and um i was just like yeah the whole

point is being on the water

you know it doesn't matter how big the

boat is it's not gonna really change

how much fun you're going to have i mean

the other day you're either going to

have fun or not

and if you don't have if you've got a

100 footer or 200-footer

you're not in a happy state you know

you're

the vote's not going to make a big

difference it's not i mean it helps

but it's not going to be a big

difference no we live in this world and

like

yeah mother we want to be around mother

nature and see it

we had a customer just so this is

june 15th basically so a week ago

one of our customers was here for a long

way too long he was here

because his engine broke down he was

stuck at my dock

and we were trying to get rid of him to

get other boats in a super nice guy

and so drew from north sales was gonna

say he keeps his boat

in secret code because he couldn't get a

place closer to vancouver

and so drew was gonna sail with him up

the coast to show

how his boat worked and because this was

the second summer we've worked on it

and drew had done stuff from north sales

so he left here

in the morning and so last week it was

blowing from the east so they

ran out and along the side of bowen

island

there was like three or four humpback

whales jumping like

right out of the water and landing wow

and so they they slowed the boat down so

they would go slower because they could

watch this all happening

and then they sailed further up the

coast so another 15 miles further they

got to

like white islets towards sea shelter

and that's usually full of seals and

some

a couple of killer whales big males with

the big fins that figured out the sealed

deal and so they were like having a nice

seal lunch

and they started jumping out of the

water and landing on the seal and doing

all kinds of stuff

and uh so in one day they saw this

you know beautiful british columbia

right yeah they had this perfect foil

with the wind behind them two sets of

mother nature's stuff but

yeah we live in a fantastic spot here

yeah and it's just about being on the

water you know you if you spend enough

time there you're going to see stuff

that you think you could only see

natural geographic you know you i

remember

i remember just two years ago i saw the

first i s not the first time

but i saw sea otter uh not a river otter

on barkley sound

and it was out in the middle like

clearly off a reef like

way out like i'm talking even outside

the broken group was in between the

broken group

and uh you feel it and there was just

sort of in fact i was like wow

a cr i'm like oh that's insane

and then the other day we were there too

you know saw a bear swimming from island

to island

saw literally another time a sea lion

literally come into the bay underneath

the boat

find a salmon how does a sea lion catch

up to the salmon i have no idea

literally got shots in movies of this

literally

shredding the salmon to pieces by just

literally twisting its mouth

the fish went flying there's like

there's shots of blood everywhere in the

sky

and i'm like i just saw a sea lion

literally hunt a salmon i'm like

and yeah it's it's and that's just a

sample

it's it doesn't happen every moment but

you those memories stick with you

you remember them you know there's

obviously days where you see nothing but

then there's days where you see so much

and you're like

oh my god yeah it's incredible being on

the water is awesome

um so you talked about a little bit

about what things are going i want to go

to the second part of that question a

little bit

what do you see the future and the

rigging side look like

on your side like what are the things

that you think are

sort of near future or just not so far

away

on the rigging in terms of innovation

and stuff like that what's sort of

getting you

like you know what are your clients

wanting or what are the things that

manufacturers are doing anything like

that that you're seeing as

big game changers in your industry

yeah well you always have to kind of

evaluate all the game changers that are

happening because

a lot of them are end up being so so

complicated

no one can use them so they have a short

their introduction has a short lifespan

because it's just the technology isn't

necessarily user friendly right and so

you know around here it's quite

different like in europe

it's generally a little bit windier so

people are more committed to kind of

stuff like that around here

there's not enough wind so they just

motor and like yeah

people want better fuel economy on their

diesel motor

so we got to try and keep them focused

on like okay you have a sailboat you're

supposed to sail

and uh it makes it really difficult but

yeah like

the biggest technology changes that

we've seen are like

some people are embracing better sales

instead of just like

a low price stacker on sale because

you can if you can sail you're both

faster and it's more efficient then

you'll

you'll motor less and sail more

so generally speaking it's not that we

rarely have the chance of there being

too much wind

it's all trying to make our boats work

better in lighter winds so that's why we

have

these cruising spinnakers because

they're way more sail area

and you can sail in lighter winds and is

that called the gennaker as well

is that what it's called yeah identical

yeah and then some of the newer ones are

like

code zeros and stuff and they have a

code one

so the code zero and code one technology

kind of comes from the european design

boats like

the hanza and some of the bavarias

where they have great big mainsails and

little tiny jibs

so quite different from the catalina

that you have with quite a large

jib they have like a non-overlapping

headset so as soon as the wind's under

10 knots they don't go the boat

basically doesn't move

and so by putting this enormous big

lightweight

sail up then the boat becomes actually

super lively and actually very

so that's that's a big thing is just

allowing in light airs to have more sail

area

without too much fuss because no one

wants to

go running around getting more ropes up

and doing all this kind of stuff

yeah so i've heard i've heard of voters

as well code zero is popular brought

short i've heard of that too

people going places i've heard it don't

have one but i've definitely heard of it

yeah did you ever do the now tell uh so

the big maui what about van isle

have you done the van already yes i've

done i've

been on the van isle three times but

i've never done

the whole way around at one whack

because it's just so much time in the

summer

and we've and it's actually not even the

summer it's always in

early june so we're still kind of

wrapped up in our industry in early june

and it's a long time there's a lot of

rest

times on the van aisle through 360. so

when i go sailing i like to go sailing

so

it's good to be social but it's like too

long

but it the van aisle 360. it's

it is tremendously exciting like to go

to all these little towns and to sail up

johnson straight like i've done

i haven't done the leg from nanaimo to

campbell river

but i've gone on in campbell river and

done the whole

east east side of vancouver island from

campbell river up to port hardy and

around the top to winter harbor

and not very many people know but i

spent a tremendous amount of time

kayaking as well so that's how i

introduced

my kids really to the water was kayaking

and doing

kayak camping trips on the north coast

of vancouver island

so you're so close to the water i love

that stuff

you're talking on the west side or

you're talking on the east side of the

ground that you do we go on the west

side up high

so kaioken and that area and then down

to

um sound in that area and then i've also

we've done up by telegraph cove on the

inside

um which to go see the whales which is

just fantastic

just up north of robson bike i've heard

of it

yeah yeah

you have to be in a kayak and have a

killer whale well we've had like

i don't know probably six or eight

killer whales just going around our

kayaks and going underneath and coming

up on the other side and then

continually doing loops around you and

it's i think yeah we're just so

fortunate here to have nature like this

it's amazing and that they aren't hungry

yeah it's the way i describe it is they

choose

not to eat us it's just a choice

it's a good choice they have yeah it's

it's it's just like you know

it's you know it's just not worth the

water it's just not worth it um

yeah the kayaking is amazing and i agree

being on the water

um you get to see nature really close up

you know

same thing i just saw recently kayaking

saw a pot of killer whales passing

cytocolony of seals not sea lions and

seals

and honestly the the

killer whales the they must have been i

don't know 100 yards 300 feet which

feels like

honestly like you're right there like i

didn't live what you're talking about it

was

it was you know and i had binoculars so

you could see them up close and even

that just 100 yards from the killer

whale

you're like wow the seals were

definitely feeling it they were like

completely frozen

didn't even move it was like it was like

a hold up in a bank like freeze

everybody like they were all huddled

literally one beside each other they

were barely breathing

they're like you know as the

as this the killer whales are just

passing by and then we got to see it

again you couldn't have seen that you

know sea kayak doesn't make any sound

you know you're not really intruding on

anyone's life

they just keep on doing their thing yeah

it's incredible it's just incredible

ah that's awesome so you're now

tell me a little bit uh again um about

the culture of

because i've seen in your shop the

culture of

all these team members that you have

they seem to be really

pulling in one direction like they seem

to be

really living your vision did you find

that that was hard

to get team members to be doing that or

is that something that's happened over

time

and now you've got a great team it just

feels that the vibe

just seems like they they know where the

ship's got to be going

and it sounds like they're really into

it have you

was that something that grew over time

or is it something that you were able to

inspire

right from the get-go with with all your

staff and team members

well it's it's it makes it easier when

uh

when our customers embrace technology

like they have to embrace the fact that

we're trying to make everything work

better for them

and then we can demonstrate it pretty

easily when we go to a boat and

and because that's what we're doing you

know

they don't have any fun if a person

doesn't want to spend money

if a person just wants to go with the

lowest level of technology which is a

crummy piece of rope and we tell them

like you know this would make your boat

way better

they don't embrace that and that's not a

good day at work for them

but if our customers have confidence

that we're going to make their boat work

better for them

and take regard that their money is

being well spent

then the customer is happy and then my

guys are totally keen

because they go the extra level to make

it work because they understand

like this guy's going out on a limb kind

of because he doesn't understand just

what we talked earlier everyone's an

expert at what they do

so i don't ask my customer what they do

and tell them that

they should be doing it different like

they need to kind of have confidence

that we're professionals in what we do

and my guys

they're working and playing with all

these different fibers and

materials and everything else and when

we're finished like their boat's going

to be better

like i have my guys have no sense

or qualm that we're never going to make

anything worse like that's not why we're

on the planet

and the boat's gonna work better and so

when everyone embraces that then it's a

good day for all the guys in the shop

and that if if someone doesn't feel

comfortable with hiring us but they

hired us

anyways that's not a good day in the

shop because

there's no confidence so yeah my guys

like they're they're great guys and you

know we have all different levels we

have

everything from the welder down to the

guy chopping up chunks of metal to

simon designing some fancy thing out of

stainless steel like

everyone feels good as long as the

customers are are happy and are

embracing the fact that we're making

their boat better

and uh that's rewarding even for myself

i remind that exactly what you're saying

stewart you know

the the biggest paycheck you know

honestly you know you could be making 10

million a year 100 it doesn't matter

your clients aren't unhappy it's really

hard to feel good about yourself uh even

if you could have the biggest paycheck

you know

it's just you want to drive people to be

happy with

their part of the being part of their

dream there's maybe some things that

sometimes like

hammers like this is not just anything

this is for many of us boating is a

lifelong

sort of you know it's an obsession it's

it's a beyond a hobby it's a lifestyle

and if we can make

those votes better then the clients are

going to be extremely thankful

and i'm not talking about thankful by

paying your invoice but i'm just

thankful like yes you've made my vote

better

voting is now safer better and you feel

like wow i was part of your journey

in actually accomplishing the dreams

that you set out to you know

again mike i started dreaming about

voting when i was four i didn't have a

dad that

was building a boat and dead but let me

tell you i was up like a lot of pressure

my dad can't swim so it didn't happen so

i had to do it on my own

but yeah being part of that dream um and

as a technician when i used to do the

work

you know you feel so good about giving

someone

uh the feeling that yeah my boat is

actually now

closer to what i was hoping to have

and bridging that gap it's super

powerful super powerful

people give us a they have to give us

lots of confidence to

make their life better and their boat

better otherwise

the partnership doesn't really work no

it doesn't

really no people don't get out of what

they should get

which is like so true a fact that they

know it's going to be efficient

and safe and make their life better

yeah well i actually i want to thank you

for taking some of your time

uh and sharing a little bit about your

stories about voting with us stewart

and for all the listeners uh thank you

for joining us on this podcast

sharing our passion about voting and

everything related to voting

because there's never enough of boating

stuff and

again stewart thank you so much for your

time and i want to say uh it means a lot

that there are other people out there

like yourself and your crew that care

i mean that's what it is right it's uh

loving

loving what you do and being passionate

about it is definitely one part of the

of the success of delivering great

service to

all our clients and voters out there so

thank you stuart for joining me

yeah and we love working with all the

youth out there you know so we've

sponsored that

big youth regatta in west van because

they're the next guys

they're going to be the next customers

and

the whole sailing industry right now

is we're all kind of on a roll but

people are are

entering the indus this whole boating

lifestyle at a huge rate

huge rate so you've got west van that

are doing sailing and racing and that

kind of stuff we've gone from

you know having a steady run of about

15 to 35 kids now it's shooting around

90 youth are involved in coaching

and so that means every week there's

like 90 kids out there

and we're hiring then the older youth

to coach right so we're creating this

whole network like it's just not like

you sailing but then you have the next

level then you have the next level of

managers that are managing all this

and it's incredible the amount of people

and these

are going to be our future voters like

the people that work for me

that do rigging work most of them were

youth sailors

because they got the bug and they

decided not to do the corporate world

and others have done university and

other stuff

and they got no they've come back and

said no they'd rather just kind of

work with their hands and work with with

people that have boats right

so that's all the future it's all it's

looking positive jeff

it is it is looking positive and it's a

sunny day in vancouver

so it's hard not to be in a good mood

right now

oh that's awesome thank you yeah thanks

so much yeah

that's awesome

you

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