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hi everyone jeff cote here with

another session of dock talk with jeff

cote today i'm honored to have

tim charles with me tim and i met years

ago

when i was still a young pup um and i

was invited to work on some of his

projects

at one of his many companies tim is a

big time boat affectionato you're into

voting basically

uh tim has multiple companies some

companies that do

large stuff like crescent yachts and

we've had the pleasure of working on

some of his projects

and then also he has another company

called a tactical

and they do boats right now that we've

worked on

uh 40 feet and these are basically just

beasts is the way i would describe it

they're amazing boats

tim also has another company that does

repair on refits

platinum marine and then he's got a

boathouse company

you've got a wrapping company you're

involved in marinas

uh and even servicing boats at another

marina i mean i'm probably missing some

tim

i feel it's it's i don't know where you

get all the time and thank you by the

way for being here today

with us to share a little bit about your

passion about marine electrical

with us and marine boating in general

all systems

you you really take it from a to z over

here at pys we're more focused on

certain elements of voting

uh but thank you for joining me today on

this podcast

super happy to be here it's fun let's do

it let's do it

all right excellent so tell me uh did

you always know

on your side that you always wanted to

be in this industry

uh the marine industry i know you it's

part of your hobbies

and you're on your free time you're also

voting

i like myself but did you always know

that was gonna be your calling

i think that most people maybe relate to

this comment that you know

once you're around the marine world once

you get a taste of it whether it's

you know on a river on a lake or on the

ocean it's hard to get it out

and it's hard to get away from it and

everybody develops a passion so

i can't say that yeah you know i was

always into it but i was lucky enough to

have a family that was involved in

boating and

i was from an early age and it just

becomes part of you i think it was a

natural thing

to get more and more time in the water i

live in a community that is close to the

water

um there's a marina close to my house so

it was natural one of my first jobs was

uh pumping gas and sand

i so

uh yeah i'd say from an early age it was

it was probably uh bred into a little

bit

yeah same i mean for me and that's what

brought me to vancouver with voting

you know i always wanted i mean it's a

dream come true to be able to

not only spend your weekends on boats

but when you're working

you either can be on a boat or you can

dream about voting or solving voting

problems

um i have to bring up this your title by

the way

everyone always gets a chuckle on your

emails you know a lot of

people put different titles that are

sort of their education

you know mba cma but yours

is sort of like principal marine problem

solver and builder of cool stuff

i love it tell me more about how you

came up with that title for yourself

i love it i would say uh you get to a

point where you wear a lot of hats when

you're an entrepreneur

and i've worn everything from room

pusher

to build payer to physical doer

everything in between

and uh over the years get to a point

where

things change a bit so lucky for me i

have a very good

group of loyal and capable staff and

individuals and it's allowed me to step

back a little

bit and take a better look so most of my

time spent

by uh trying to solve problems you know

i don't get a lot of phone calls of all

the you know great things going on it's

a

you know what's uh upside down what

needs to be dealt with you know we need

a creative solution and that's where

experience and being creative and maybe

sometimes a little aggressive finding

solutions so

you know and then just the cool stuff

came from a factor of uh

i wanted to call it cool but uh

maybe that's not as professional as it

could be

so no it wouldn't be bald though i can

relate yeah

it's um that's that's the one privilege

i think

we all have working in the marine world

is when you realize that our clients are

enabling us

to really be creative at finding

solutions to

common problems that we all face on the

water and to make our experience better

and to be part of that in delivering

that service for that end product

is extremely gratifying and

uh right you know for me on my side you

know the paycheck's nice and yeah of

course it gives you the toys but really

the sense of satisfaction comes from

knowing

when you do have those rare phone calls

of course they don't always tell you how

happy they are

but that's what we seek right that that

sort of like hey this is amazing this is

great this is what i was looking for

finally i'm doing what i want to be

doing you know thank you

those are the most gratifying um and

this is what actually

i don't know about you certainly drives

me to keep working harder at solving

more problems so that we can

have voters enjoy their time on the

water whatever that may be

what kind of boating do you do uh

personally on your side

so we're i'm based on the pacific

northwest vancouver area

we have a lot of great salmon fishing

you know crab

prawns things like that so love to spend

some time with friends and family

uh out trolling for salmon you know i've

got a grady white

and like to be out there on the water as

much as possible

um do some family boating we're actually

in the midst of building ourselves a new

family boat right now one of the

tacticals

and uh be on the water of you know

island hopping cruising

um you know i'd love to say we go away

weeks at a time but we're very busy so

we have to make the most of our time in

the water

um but it's a passion industry like you

just said a minute ago and uh

you know the passion for being on the

water you know those who know

know and uh you know there's different

levels of elevation

of when you think about being on the

water and i think that the more time you

spend on the water the more good days

you can have

and the more that you realize that it's

a magical place

it's a place for you know recuperating

generating

and it's just a special place it's a

different world and even through this

covid period

um one of the only places in the world

that's made sense is being on the water

and uh where we can you know there's

restrictions and following the rules but

you know a lot of things make sense in

the water so for us and our family

it's a big part of our lifestyle and

what we do and we've been lucky enough

to

you know uh build a business around

something

i feel the same way i honestly something

people ask me

like what would you do else if you

weren't doing this i'm like what do you

mean something else

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

the golfer that golf's

um you know and for a living you know

it's uh the hockey player that plays

hockey for a living you know there's

people

that get to do and every day be

passionate about their work and

are eager and yeah in the boating world

the time on the water

it makes all the efforts that we all put

on the land

to get out there so worth it there's

there's just no replacing

in terms of um let's let's pivot a

little bit because you brought that up

and i want to spend a little bit of time

talking about your um

one of your companies tactical um and

we've got involved and you invited us to

work on that project but i mean tell us

a little bit

about that boat and what was

the what did you feel the market needed

in terms of delivering a 40-foot

powerboat

with outboards what was your sort of

drive and

where do you think the need is on that

yeah so you know this this is a project

that truly originated out of passion

um you know building larger custom

yachts over the years doing complex

refits all sorts of things

you come to a point of of knowing what

you want or how you want to vote so

one of the goals um that i had is i had

access to world-class people in our

industry and still do

so i went to a designer greg marshall

which is quite a famous

uh vancouver baseball island designer

does projects all around the world

i said look let's build the boat that

everybody wants to vote on now let's

build the relatable boat that we can

make swiss army knife we can go fishing

we can go adventuring

we can get somewhere quick and

comfortable we can entertain we can do

all of those things let's build that oh

let's make it tough let's make it you

know yacht caliber super durable

let's put crazy ideas into it let's go

over the top and let's not follow any

rules

and that's how tactical started we

wanted to build something so

you know the the first boat we built um

we sold to some

excellent clients they had a very

similar vision they helped get it over

the goal line what it was

your company was heavily involved in

that and you know we went to people that

were passionate and knew what they

wanted to do

and uh you know the systems in that boat

are just

overkill they're awesome they're just

still unbelievable

um you know the boat is a supercar and

um so the second one we're building

right now

is a different version of that it's very

unique in the fact that

even more focused on being maybe not the

best term but a

swiss army knife you know a little of

everything but doing everything well not

just a good fishing boat

not just a good you know cruising boat

but a boat you can truly you know depend

on and some unique things with

you know diesel outboards we're putting

triple diesel outboards on this next

product

we wanted something that was going to be

reliable something that

could go to long um you know and and

somewhat economical but still have the

you know the torque and the horsepower

to cruise at 30 knots all day long

yeah that's that's the big to me when i

look at that boat

you know getting somewhere especially

being blessed of living in a place like

british columbia or even washington

state

is that you have endless places to go

and if you can get there fast enough

you can see a lot of it in a summer and

you can have

you know basically top-notch world-class

anchorages

every weekend um and you can see them

all

because you're flying at 30 knots um of

course you're gonna have to pay the fuel

bill for that but if time is precious

you might be able to take a weekend or

three days and have something that is

absolutely extraordinary and it's almost

like magically being there you know

otherwise you know if you go slow and

you're a sailboat at five or six knots

or

you're a trawler at eight or ten there's

certain destinations you just can't do

it in a weekend

so that opens up i think that's a great

thing about that vote is it opens up

so many destinations starting from

an urban center and yet you can enjoy

them all in a weekend or three-day

period

yeah for sure and you know one of the

maybe misconceptions of the boat or the

design looking at it was

speed and speed wasn't really our

concern you know we know we can talk

about it 40 knots but it wasn't about

going 40 knots there's a lot of debris

in the water of the pacific northwest

it's not always comfortable for the

guests on board at those sorts of speeds

so at the end of the day it was about

being able to go at reasonable cruise

speeds

uh in rough seas and the boat was really

designed and focused around being

comfortable so

everything we've done was focused on

optimizing crew speed you know a lot of

companies will say that but we truly

didn't care

if we got excuse me those last couple

high-end knots of the boat it really

wasn't important to us was all about

you know what could we do at cruise

speed um what's the ride quality of the

boat and that was the focus of the whole

design and

you know continues what we've learned in

the first one moving to the next one so

it's a very semi-production type

situation they're very custom boats

we'll never be in full production of

these

um they're unique machines and uh you

know that's that's our niche you know

we're not looking to pump out you know

10 15 a year plus or more that's just

not what we do

the skill sets the amount of man hours

required in the detail these boats is

it's a lot so being realistic about it

is where we're at what are the when

you're doing this iteration

what were the things that you thought

that and i know you're trying to

really capture the essence you're

building a boat that you think i mean

i'm paraphrasing but

you're building version two a boat that

really fits what you're looking for it

sounds like

and your your tastes uh in the sense of

your preferences for systems tell me

how did you go about deciding what you

were going to build

in hall number two like how do you go

about deciding

you know you know are you going to put a

generator on that are you going to put a

water maker

like what are the things that what was

the sort of the design philosophy

in the systems on this boat what was

your approach yeah so

you know at the end of the day we want

to take advantage of technology where we

can where it makes sense

um you know we build quality products

for everything we do but i hate being

the guinea pig

you know we've been the guinea pig

before and you know hopefully people can

understand you know being the first is

not always the best

i love seeing other companies do things

and then being able to improve on that

and that was one of the focuses this

boat is we didn't have to have the most

you know cutting hull design we didn't

have to have

the number one battery bank system ever

done before that's never been done

we wanted proven things and so you know

dealing with your company we back and

that was one of the requests you know

let's put some great you know features

in this boat let's take advantage of

what systems are out there

let's look at the proven stuff let's use

the materials that don't have big

warranty recalls and things like that

let us let's get a boat that is bullet

and let's work through and fine-tune a

bulletproof one so

that was one of the focuses on this boat

is um you know the configuration

systems what's truly required what's not

what's opulent what's not what's just

fun to have you know those sorts of

things so

working through all of that we've come

to expect on this on this next build

that uh you know i'm really proud of and

i think the boat is

is truly a multitasking machine

that has as much dock appeal as anything

that will be down there that's

that's bigger than it or you know

shinier looking

it's a very unique vessel yeah for sure

i mean being involved again i'm always

grateful to be working on everyone's

boats including yours the ones that you

create and make happen

um the system's on that boat you're

right i mean you look at it

and there you pay a price to be at the

forefront of innovation oh yeah look at

that that's gorgeous

yeah just saying it's something look at

those inspiration

oh that is just amazing look at that

back deck it's just crazy

that's lovely absolutely lovely um

yeah the i i'm always saying the same

thing people come to me they're like oh

here's the latest and the greatest i'm

like latest and greatest is something

you have in your pocket

uh and if it fails you just go get

another one on a boat

when you're in the middle of nowhere

there is nothing more disappointing

disconcerting maybe not for yourself but

if you have a partner

and things are failing and they're

failing more than they have to for

the cool factor you're really gonna

start

doubting the boat you know like there's

a price to be at the forefront of

technology

and certainly some clients are willing

and they're going in there knowing that

they're

they want to be that early adopter they

want to be able to say

that they figured out the kinks and they

they were able to overcome these

sort of growing pains but the majority

of voters

certainly on our side i'm always leaning

i'm like you

don't want to be the first you don't

want you to want to be the second

because reliability

and simplicity on the water most of us

aren't techs

or we don't have an techs working for

us and when we're on the boat you want

to be

able to either resolve it yourself or

maybe potentially someone at the marina

or in the anchorage

be able to help you a little bit to

figure out if something does go wrong so

yeah i'm a big fan i like cool i like

you and i like

fancy and gadgets and geeking out but

you've got to be make sure you're the

right voter if you're going to do that

right because not everyone can handle

the problems don't don't get me wrong

you know we push the limits on certain

things in that side of it

maybe just not to the you know the

pinnacle of what's the latest and

greatest but there's some pretty cool

products in this boat i mean

we've got pop-down tvs that you can see

from the back deck that end up having

connection points to go to uh underwater

drones going on the boat we've got

air drones going in that hook into hdmi

you can see on the big screen

you know just a gambit of different

systems going throughout the boat and

you know we we elected to not go with

the generator in this boat and that was

uh

you know a little bit about that but it

was one of the features that you know i

think opulence is quiet in peace and

when you can be on the water and have

you know a good amount of uh

time that you can spend operating all

your systems being in a silent mode and

me that was opulent and peaceful and you

know why you want to go

boating and quiet time and you know even

just the neighbors around you that may

be anchored to enjoy that and have that

part of you know those remote locations

so not having a generator was uh

a pretty big decision on a boat this

size would normally have it so

you know going to a proven battery bank

system and what that looks like and

some advisement of your company and you

know helping the specs of those products

you know i'm happy with those sorts of

decisions and proof will be in the

pudding when we get out in the next

month or two to test it

yeah the um the concept as a reminder

here in british columbia we don't have

great or crazy amount of heat in the

summer

it's pretty rare to have days that are

over 30 degrees or

100 degrees fahrenheit so

over here in the summer we don't have to

have a generator to run air conditioning

so that gives us the option of really

having battery banks

to power lights refrigeration yeah of

course nav

systems you know you could have

obviously water pump all this sort of

daily things but you don't need and it's

definitely possible

on a 40-foot boat and we're doing a

60-foot boat 70-foot boat

you know where you've got a boat that

can actually operate off of an inverter

off of a large battery

we even did an 80 0a that only has to

run the generators for

four hours between three and four hours

a day and then 20 hours of the day

they're just running off the batteries

so yeah i think that is

a little bit i agree i think it is to me

there's something neat about being in an

anchorage

having the creature comforts from home

you'll be able to run a microwave you

can even

run potentially i know again some people

are running induction stove tops from

bar

from batteries through an inverter being

able to do that

without the sound of a generator mind

you there are generators that are very

quiet so i'm not gonna

not all generators are very for sure for

sure uh

but it's pretty neat to be in an

anchorage and to be able to

have a coffee at five a.m in the morning

on a beautiful

sunny summer day and then have your

nespresso running

and pouring yourself a cup of coffee

without having to run a generator

that is pretty neat yeah that's that's

pretty special and that uh

that just goes back to the passion of

being on the water and being able to

take things to the next level so

yeah yeah so tell me a little bit about

you

one of your other companies that's

interesting and um i certainly partake

in this

uh you've got another one of your

company that does and for some of the

listeners they might

again there's more adoption i think in

vancouver

for this but this is wrap boat so this

is a concept where you're not only

wrapping the exterior but you're also

wrapping

certain items inside a boat to improve

the

finish with having the look it's

basically

a veneer effectively is what i would

think uh

can you tell me a little bit more about

your experience with wrapping boats i

know that

you're at the forefront here locally for

sure and uh

tell us more a little bit about wrapping

boats why you got into that space and

what do you

see as the benefits to everyday voters

yeah no that's a great it's probably a

very

you know probably my most fun business

to be honest but

uh you know five six years ago we got to

a point where

um you know painting prices and labor to

paint traditionally

is labor some inexpensive and there's no

way around it that you know there's a

commitment whether you're repainting or

painting a new boat or whatever it may

be

it's a very laborious thing when and

labor you know across north america just

continues to go up so

it doesn't feel good to give people a

price to paint the boat you look at it

and they have sticker shock in it and it

makes you want to have options and find

ways so we looked at what was going on

around the world

and i would be lying if i didn't say

that europe was ahead of us a bit in

marine vinyl wrapping just maybe for

volume and acceptance and things like

that

so we looked around and we saw that you

know there's just there's another way

so we decided to get involved with

marine vinyl wrapping and you know the

first

couple years there was a lot of people

very hesitant about you know you know is

it lasting is it going to be strong is

it going to work and

well there's there's a whole separate

conversation that could be had in detail

about that but

what we've proved over about you know

going into our sixth year is we've

wrapped votes from

you know jet skis all the way up to 120

foot dots

uh we've done unique things on 150 foot

plus yachts

um you know we we are doing stuff that

you know we never would have thought

possible years ago and

it just makes sense you know it's it's

not something that is for absolutely

everything and once you understand

that there's places where vinyl works

well and it doesn't and you and you're

able to

you know truly understand how it applies

uh

where it's going to work well where it's

not and you can draw a line between that

and tie in the rest of the marine trades

you know with regular painting and

different traditional techniques of

repair and everything else

um we've come to a happy place now where

it just makes a lot of sense

so you know i would say we're in an

acceptance phase now for sure it's past

the fad in the pacific northwest

and it's now into we're seeing more

companies pop up more companies getting

into it

it's definitely a great product for

someone to

try at home in some small areas sure

yeah the

you know having had your company i wrap

my own boat i can tell you you know

the one thing about a boat is it's it's

not just like and i'm not saying cars

are

completely different because i'm not a

car nut but

in our industry people have very fond

memories of their experiences on a boat

and sometimes

you know you choose to stay with the

boat you have because it's the boat you

know

it's the boat you love and it's sort of

like almost in some ways becomes you

know the family cabin

it's it's the the place where the best

memories of your life potentially have

happened

and you know speaking for myself you

know my boat is

yeah i could you know potentially sell

it and get a bigger one

you know because you know the budget i

had when i was 30 when i bought my first

boat which i still have

and my budget now would be different you

know it's it's almost it's over 15 years

but i can't park from it you know i love

that boat

i just love the memories i

know the boat it's the boat that i know

and i think what's amazing about

that product that you have you know the

the end result of wrapping a boat is

it allows you to invest in your boat and

really

make it feel new again but still

feel familiar um

and that's pretty powerful you feel like

you're giving back you know it's

you're not letting it look you know run

down because as we know sir you know the

sun is not very friendly to gel coat

and not all boats over time especially

my boat was over 30 years

you know a 30 year old boat is not going

to look you know if it wasn't well taken

care of throughout its life which you

know i'm guilty i didn't really

understand

how you needed to cut and polish the

boat

more frequently than i i should have

done it more frequently than i did

and uh eventually it gets wise your boat

is awesome but cosmetically it wasn't

quite there's what you're saying

yeah i think we can all relate to that

for you yeah and i think that's what's

so amazing about is you can

really make a boat very unique

and you can make it feel

i don't you can personalize it it's uh

without having and i mean certainly the

paint jobs would do certain aspects

but you couldn't do everything the wraps

are really the color schemes are pretty

amazing

and some of those wraps are are hard to

reproduce by paint i think i think for

you're totally right it's about falling

in love with your boat again and

you know just like a home renovation you

know you watch the shows where

you know the husband and wife they

renovate the house and they decide

whether they're gonna sell it or they're

gonna you know

keep it and a lot of times they keep it

because they fall back in love with

something that they already have when

it's cleaned up and there's a lot of

comfort and sentimental value and uh and

value in general there to do that so

vinyl wrappings like that you know if

it's used properly and correctly

and um you know and done right and done

well

it's tremendous value in a very quick

period

yeah that's how i felt about it too uh

absolutely i think

falling in love with the vote again or i

don't know for me i feel like

my vote is sort of a dependent you know

it's it's uh it's you know it's almost

like

it's something that you feel that you

need to care for

you you're responsible to for upkeep

you're responsible for the system you're

responsible for

all of it and uh there's something

i don't know it feels weird but it feels

good to know that you're not giving up

on her

you know that you're going you're like

yeah you know what you've done a lot for

me

and i want to reciprocate um you know

and again you can do that at a fraction

of what you know an all grip

uh paint job would be right because i

mean those are great and i've seen them

but i mean

like you say it with the labor costs

it's hard

it's not everyone can justify you know

they're showing arguments for doing it

but not everyone can

swallow the cost of an auger paint job

on their boat don't

don't get me wrong um you know i make my

living

making sure we do refits and paint jobs

on on many

different size vessels um and we still

sell more paint than we do vinyl but

i've watched final you know creep up

over the last five years and

i would say we're at about uh 60 40

split right now between projects and

you know it wasn't how it started and i

would say maybe a year or two from now

will be well over 50

50. wow that's really interesting that's

that's a big change and we're talking

about boats that you know range from 30

feet up to 150 feet so

yeah yeah the coast it has its place and

you know it's got its limitations but if

you understand that

and you're able to use that properly

it's the best of both worlds

yeah and some people it's funny i get it

all the time because i um

people say oh what happens when it

scratches and surprisingly you know i've

screwed up

it hurts of course you scratch it but

the repairs actually

are not 100 perfect if you're looking

for it

but if you're not looking for the repair

and you're just looking at the hall

and i'm not talking about looking away

from 100 feet i'm looking away from even

five feet

you're not gonna see it you've gotta

look for it you have to know that it's

there

you gotta seek it um and i've screwed up

a few times where i've scratched it and

i'm like oh god

that docking is not perfect

and i'm like it hurts and then i

generally what i do is i leave it there

for a period of time just to remind me

how stupid i was

and i'm like no no you need to suffer

you need to see that you need to see

that scratch for a while just just every

time it bothers you

it's good it's going to remind you to

talk better next time

be more in control of your vessel and

then i'm like okay now i'm ready to

repair it because i feel like i've

suffered enough from the consequences

of having done that scratch it's all

about

value and everybody perceives value

differently and like i said

you know vinyl's a great product but not

for all applications

and there's times where painting makes

sense completely over vinyl

and just understanding that and

depending on the value depending on the

life of the boat

um you know there may be someone that

has a boat that you know it's got a

value of under ten thousand dollars and

then

the day to go and get a pink you know

quote from a company that could be five

to ten thousand dollars to paint that

vote

it doesn't make any sense it's not any

value so you know looking for options

looking for reasons um

it has its place and so i love the

product and it's

it's something that customers are happy

with the quick results end of the day

you don't want to see those

uh you know little repairs well you can

always pay the price and take the time

and and pay to vote

but it all comes down to value and how

you appreciate what you have and what

you're saying

yeah and it's good too i mean the end of

the day is it's all about having a

bigger toolkit

yeah for sure options giving people

yeah and uh i mean thank god you know i

hear it all the time in the voting world

people are like oh i have this it's the

best

you know i'm like it's it's great

because it's for you but

you know that's a great thing about

boating there's there are so many

over the years so many different boats

different ways and then we take those

boats and there's thousands upon

thousands of different models and then

we customize

then we enhance them then we make them

our own and i think that has got to be

one of the satisfactions of being a boat

owner is to be able to take

a boat that you find a gem for you and

then take that boat

and again through time you've got to do

it through time

personalize that boat and tailor it to

the way that

one boats and so i'm always big with

clients too i'm saying i'm like

you know there's no there's no need to

compare yourself to another neighbor

another boater

you know it's what are they doing with

their boat is going to have different

requirements not all of us vote the same

way not all of us

take the same amount of time on the

water not all of us have the same budget

right you know it's all different and if

you take that into consideration there

is a lot

of not i wouldn't say control but you're

able to influence

and really change the vessel and

and you can make something that feels

personal uh as opposed to a cookie

cutter

and that's something that we do through

you know upgrades

but again the rap boat thing is another

way to differentiate your boat from

another boat

and it makes it feel like there's no

other one like it which is

i certainly feel like my vote i'm

speaking for myself here but i always

like to feel it

my catalina has there is no other boat

like it i like that feeling

it's been personalized for over 15 years

now 16 years

of enhancements that are things that i

thought i wanted

and that i found out over time so

in terms of trends like when you're

thinking about you know

um what you're doing with tactical or

any other vote actually

what are sort of the general trends that

you're seeing over the near future in

the voting world

i mean you must get a lot of different

questions from potential buyers

people are dreaming what are the things

that you foresee happening

uh maybe first in the sort of the medium

size you know like let's call it 30 to

70 30 to 80 feet

what are the things that you see in that

realm happening

from um your connection with the marine

world what are the trends that you think

are kind of up and coming yeah that's a

great question

so i think probably one of the biggest

obvious ones is is layout you know

and i'll relate it to open kitchen you

know you go back

you know 10 or 15 years to a house and

having the open kitchen

great room type layout wasn't really in

existence and

people have grown to expect that now

that you know common space common rooms

not a lot of walls or bulkheads between

things so

open layouts you know in general boat

construction

is expected now you know it's just

expected

and if you look a lot of designs coming

out from you know 25 feet

up to let's say 75 feet it's all about

windows and being open and connected

with your outdoor environment and

outside of it so

i would say layout um with open spaces

finding ways to use

uh structure to be able to have more

windows in place more visibility more

natural light

um that's been a lot of commonplace and

been pushed

the other thing is you know power

packages you know as we've all seen the

outboard trend

you know run here for the last 10 years

you know more and more big big

outboards in the back now we're getting

to a point where you know a company like

mercury just launched their new 600

series if you haven't seen that you

should look it up

but you know they're putting 600

horsepower outboards from a company

that's going to mass produce these on

the back

with the dual prop setup and some great

technology and it's going to completely

change again

how people are designing boats and you

know what you're able to do

is you're moving that traditional power

that was in the boat diesel power

and things like that that had to be

there to push a larger boat the weight

of it

and you're freeing up space and when

you're freeing up space you're giving

opportunity and options

and you're getting you know creative

designers that are coming up ways to use

the space adding extra cabins unique

layouts

pop up build-ups all sorts of stuff so

the the outboard

revolution if you want to call it that

is leading and has been leading to

unique layouts and abilities so you know

wild designs are

are here to stay and i think the the use

of open spaces and being able to connect

people

um just makes a lot of sense yeah

there's a triple package of mercury 600s

and uh you know you've got

triple 600s in the back of the boat

it's wild i mean it's it's pretty

impressive and you know

pretty wild what you can do with it all

that extra space i mean

systems and things that you're seeing

you're having more options for battery

banks you're having things like

gyro stabilizers that now have room

below the deck that didn't have it

before

there's just multiples of options of

what people can do with the usage of

space

by pushing out they're able to carry

more toys under deck you know more

unique features

um you know you're seeing tenders now

start to go under decks with technology

of

um electric outboards and you know all

sorts of things so

there's a lot of advancement in that

area i see that you know i'm sure

there's a lot that you could go into

from electrical but from a design

standpoint

um you know motoring options are really

changing

layouts i would say yeah outboards are

exciting

i have to agree it's um you know

not have that leg inboard outboard

in the water all the time is already

there something to not have to worry

about

yeah i mean not having running gear

under the boat you know just the the

safety factor the get home ability

you know if you were to strike ground

hit a log something was to happen

you know if you have more than one

outboard it's a safety factor as well

and you know just you're you're draft

under the water um you know there's so

many different

reasons it's a benefit and uh you know

maintenance and the end of the day

you've got to bolt one off and bolt one

on i mean it's it's impressive so

i think it's here to stay and seeing

things move to that level of dual prop

and 600 horsepower motors um you're

gonna see more of that you know electric

uh hybrid stuff coming in diesel

technology going into outboards

um just see more of it going that

direction so

i definitely want to talk about the

diesel outboards that you're putting in

the tactical

um but before i go there i i want to

echo a little bit what you're saying you

know for me

what i'm thinking about outboards is you

can go to anchorages

that maybe you would have never gone to

before where the water shall

even in british columbia where the water

is really deep there's a lot of

really amazing lagoons anchorages that

are

off limits to cell boaters or even power

motors that

can't lift up the engine and sometimes

you don't need a lot of water to be

floating

and if you're you know want to push the

envelope a little bit and you want to go

someplace where nobody else can kind of

come and reach you

and you want to have quiet time uh these

outboards are

amazing in terms of our ability to go to

anchorages that otherwise you know as a

sailboat owner i would have never even

dreamt of going

and now with an outboard you can do that

and you're right and then the

maintenance costs are easier and it's

the space

that's the big thing too you're

absolutely right you look at some of

those boats that have

you know those big engines you know

you're losing a

massive amount of space um on board

for those engines and then the

maintenance of those engines is really

crowded we work in those areas

definitely not a mechanic but working in

those spaces as a systems guy

you know sometimes it make it makes it

for you it's really i mean it's almost

some boats it's a nightmare scenario

where you have no space at all

you're almost hanging upside down and

you're doing work not for

10 minutes but for hours on end of

trying to maintain a system installing a

new system

so having these outboards outside and

aesthetically too now i mean you have to

i mean they're very pleasing to look at

nobody i personally i look at an

outboard engine and

they i mean the the way that they've

actually done the outside shell

they're very very pretty to look at yeah

so tell me how did you end up choosing

uh for this tactical the diesel

outboards i mean

we don't see them all too often uh but i

mean it's sort of this

holy grail of

people have been talking and wanting it

so tell me a little bit about your

journey in

choosing uh the product and what were

your hesitations

um pros and cons tell us a little bit

about how you went about

doing that for for the tactical so i can

go back to what i said

beginning of this uh this webinar

being a guinea pig well i don't like to

be the guinea pig but i was careful

because you know

diesels uh in an outboard package uh as

you know they've been around for a fair

amount of time but in a mass production

and a large horsepower

scenario it's relatively new to the

world and there's several companies out

there doing it

um we found hawks diesel outboards out

of uh

london in england to be the best fit for

what we want to do

um there's enough of them proven at this

point they're relatively new to market

company but been around for 10 plus

years in terms of design technology

investment

uh what they're doing and there's quite

a backing behind it so you know we did

our homework thoroughly and i thought

that you know

if i can carry a large amount of fuel

and in our boat we're carrying

650 us gallons of fuel of diesel

uh which is a lot for its class and the

goal was to have range

and if i can take that to the next level

and you know have a diesel outboard

that's going to be anywhere between

20 to 30 percent you know more efficient

you know we're running at low

lower rpms each one of these 300

horsepower outboards is producing close

to 500 foot-pounds of torque um

you know when we ran the numbers and

went through the tech and the

naval architecture on our project

um it was a great fit and you know we're

we're about to prove it shortly

you know we'll be one of the first

setups of a triple outboard package

um you know we could have done with

a dual package but at the same point um

you know we want to push the limits we

want to have some more speed

capabilities and things like that

and we you know there's some unique

configurations so when we looked at it

that we could be running um in theory uh

triple engines get up on a plane and

shut down the center engine

and raise the leg and be cruising more

efficient

at a certain speed and burning less fuel

um that was appealing

and then going one step farther let's

say that you were wanting to go

you know up to alaska or coastal

cruising and it wasn't about speed it

was about you know

making anywhere between six and nine

knots we can lift up the two outboard

engines and run on a single

at an appropriate rpm and massively

increase the range of this boat and turn

it into a trawler mode

so those things for us were super

appealing to do some unique stuff and

proof will be in the pudding you know

we'll prove shortly what we can do good

and bad

and we'll modify if need be but like i

said all the numbers made a lot of sense

um they're an expensive engine but at

the end of the day what we're getting

out of it

service intervals life expectancy uh

safety factor of carrying 650 us gallons

of diesel versus gasoline in the boat

really like that factor um you know it

made a lot of sense so

really optimistic about it and um you

know excited to you know get on the

water as much as i've ever been for

something and improve the package

so tell me has this been done before

where i it's the first time i hear about

it i think it's pretty neat so you're

you take off with three of course

getting onto planes the hardest

um and then are you manually disengaging

one engine

and actually then turning it off lifting

the leg for drag

and then you're having the boat

basically stay on plane which is

obviously

less hard than getting onto plane with

only two engines has that been done

before

so not that i know of but uh we're gonna

make it happen

i'm confident that we can have the

ability to do it based on all the

numbers the weight of the boat

like i said uh looking at the

tech of it we're confident we'll

make it happen

you know the the proof will be in how

efficient we are and how much fuel we're

saving

and what you know we what the cruise

speed comes down to

and so you know we'll have all those

numbers and we'll know what it's going

to look like and we'll know the optimal

ranges so

for us once again it's not always about

you know getting there the fastest

we're confident we might get there the

first of our faster votes because we can

handle

rougher water more comfortably in the

way we've set this boat up

what's the displacement of the boat for

for the listeners

about so this this boat you put in

perspective if we want to call

um you know let's call it a 40-foot uh

sea ray tierra things like that could be

anywhere between

13 to 18 000 pounds in that ballpark

this boat is somewhere between you know

24

and 28 000 pounds so um

similar sizes uh but it's a heavier boat

you know we we named the boat tank so

it's already been named tank

uh but fun name just because that was

the focus is

you know getting their efficiency that's

actually a a 30-foot model that's on the

screen they're another tactical

different than

the one we're building now but just

something else to look at just another

future potential design

you um i don't think we mentioned so

aluminum hall

and and talk a little bit about what

you're doing with the finishing inside i

think it's pretty neat what your

what your approach is on the finishing

on the inside yeah so

seeing that it's you know we have some

companies as we've talked about with

vinyl wraps and wrap boats and

history of yacht construction with our

primary company crescent yachts

um we are going to push some envelopes

so this boat is

100 zero and that sounds you know

uh you know not like a big thing but you

know most aluminum boats or metal boats

have

wood throughout in all different areas

whether it's listings whether it's

cabinetry furniture

installations parts and pieces and one

of the goals of this project was

is to go a hundred percent on the boat

to prove that we could do it

um by using man-made products things

that are water and permeable

for rot reasons you know in theory uh

this boat

you could open up the salon and we'll be

able to hit it with a hose and we might

just do a video where we

literally walk into what looks like a

completely finished uh

teak interior and hit it with a hose and

just hose it down

um you know just some unique things so

the boat's going to be entirely vinyl up

it's a full aluminum grade construction

uh military standard plus navy standard

plus in terms of the structure and the

ribbing and the makeup

unit uh and then the whole boat has a

sound deadening and anti-vibration spray

foam throughout to help the sweating and

moisture

all those things uh far beyond what you

know a lot of traditional builders would

be doing

just to kind of take us to the next

level so there's a lot of time in the

details of this boat with anti-vibration

and sound

yeah the one thing too tim i like what

you're doing there i remember

uh talking to you just before christmas

um

is sort of that because obviously

there's no engines uh inside the hall

we've got

all this area for systems you know and a

place where

everything can be really well laid out

you know that there is not

it's you're not almost stepping on

yourself a lot of boats

unfortunately the systems are the last

thing to be thought about

and they're important because that's

what gives us a lot of creature comforts

and on this one you know you open that

hatch and with

you know the lighting and everything

else it to me it's going to make it you

know a dream to service

it's a place where yeah of course you've

got a you know

you're not going to be standing room but

it's a place where you can actually

access all the different components

that give you the benefits of being on

you know

being connected to a power grid and have

all this you know inverters and again

like that all that stuff

batteries and all the combiners and

chargers all that stuff

is now easily accessible uh and would

you call that space on that boat

i don't want to come up with a name but

you probably have one what do you call

that

that's a good we'll work on a marketing

term for it because

we need one but but in theory you know

that's exactly what we did is we took a

space that was the engine bay

that is designed for the boat and we

took out what would be traditionally

you know two twin 500 horsepower diesel

engines

remove those out of that area and then

came up with the plan to use 360 degrees

of the vertical

space to install all the equipment and

free up all of the horizontal space in

the deck

so what we're able to do right now is

you know the amount of things that we

can keep below deck

and toys and equipment and storage and

unique things

it's endless for this size boat so

you know it's another video we should

probably do in the future is how much

stuff we can cram under deck and keep

pulling out and pulling out is

it'll be ridiculous so it was definitely

a focus of the design is to

to do that and the serviceability you

know being able to get down there easily

and see visually and service everything

in a well-lit area

it's definitely part of what's fun

yeah what uh what do you think the range

is at cruising speeds on that boat do

you have a sense of what that's going to

be um

at losing speeds we have some ideas but

you know those are hesitant

numbers that i like to put you know not

a lot of weight to until we actually

prove it

you know in theory this is going to be

anywhere between uh 500 to 700 nautical

mile

range boat um there's a bunch of room in

there and you know going into trawler

mode we could be well over a thousand

nautical miles on this boat

so um you know we'll look and see what

it is but i mean we're pushing a big

unit

um you know we've got 900 horsepower

diesel

over you know just around 1500 foot

pounds of torque out of the back of this

boat on oversized props

and um you know it is called tank for

reason as part of the ride quality so

you know the end of the day um you know

are you going to find more efficient

boats yes but is it going to be very

efficient and very comfortable and very

quiet and have a very good

ride quality to it absolutely because

that's where we're putting our time and

money and energy yeah

yeah it's a hard way to put your finger

on and you know you know

any car can get you down the road but if

you've ever driven in a well-built

vehicle and you know there's just a

difference in a level of comfort and

that's really what we're pushing for is

that

a general comfort feeling and safety on

the water

yeah so for the listeners out here in

british columbia here we have

a lot of because of the narrow passages

in between all the islands

and the inlets we have a situation that

we get a lot of currents around here

related to the tides and wind over tide

around here is you can get some crazy

steep shot at

chop it can be humbling

um you know the waves are almost

vertical

in certain places in around vancouver

island

and you know having speed is one thing

and it's one thing that you have a boat

when it's relatively flat

and that's of course always pleasant and

feels like a walk in the park

but it's being able to handle the

conditions

that mother nature throws at us with

wind over current

it can uh you know i it

it can get pretty rough out here

obviously it's not the outside it's not

crazy seas but you're going to have a c

that can be pretty steep

and uncomfortable have you done the same

thing on this one for the seats what's

what's going on at the helm on this boat

on the

on the tactical i know it's a good

question so

there is quite a few companies building

some really excellent pneumatic seating

these days it's becoming a little more

affordable

um we're using a company that's also

from from british columbia called

shockwave

marine seating so we're using on this

boat

uh their s5 units that you know some of

the viewers probably

seen in different pads and things like

that really nice compact little unit

with their corbin custom seats over top

so you know it's not the highest level

of um pneumatic you know shock absorbing

seating but it's something that will

take it to the next level in this boat

and in the first one that we did we went

over the top

and we did full you know navy grade uh

100 crazy 20 000 type seats

you know per seat set up over the top

and it was awesome but that goes back to

the whole thing about maybe a little

excessive and

so we've looked at what what makes sense

and this is kind of finding that value

proposition of in between where

we're really happy with the results and

the value makes a lot of sense for the

product

so you are you uh can we talk a little

bit about the nav system that you chose

for that boat

um yeah so talk to us a little bit about

your decisions how did you go about

choosing the navigation package for this

boat for the listeners out there how did

you decide for that 40-footer what you

were gonna go with

so i like where garmin's gone with a lot

of their stuff over the years

and you know when they first got into

the marine industry

i think a lot of people just went uh

they're you know they're a car

you know situation they're you know

they're not gonna make it

and they made some big waves pretty

quick in the industry and where they've

got to

so what i like is it's very intuitive

and you know if you went back five years

ago

uh you know there'd be a lot of captains

and owners that would turn their nose up

to

some of the garmin stuff and they would

have to be stuck on certain brands and

things like that and

i won't go into that whole debate

because that's just a whole separate

topic

um but i really i decided i wanted

something that was user-friendly and

capable

and you know whether it's myself at the

helm or whether it is

you know a customer or a newer voter

you know comfort and being able to make

um you know quick decisions based on

information that's in front of you

so the largest screens possible for good

visibility because when it's hairy out

or like you mentioned rough in the water

being able to make smart choices the

more comfortable you are and how easy it

is to use a system

is just how much better your voting

experience is and for me

the garmin package was a very good value

for what you've got for a user interface

without having to go to a whole school

learning how to use the system

what kind of radar did you end up

choosing on that boat did you guys end

up doing a radome or an open array yeah

so we ended up going with the radome

we've

we've used the open array before um for

our needs

on this goal and this product uh

you know radon made sense value-wise

cost-wise

um it was one of those ones that uh

it was more about functionality and

value than it was about

you know having something that was maybe

you know overkill or bigger visual or

more impressive so

i i think we went a little more

economical but i'm really happy with

what we're going to be capable of doing

with just the radon

did you end up with the phantom line uh

for the radar do you know

the reason that is a great question

someone that works at our company

knows that answer yeah i think you ended

up with the phantom line by the way

that's the recommendation

speaking with your team that's i think

where you ended which is

pretty uh i mean garmin makes great

radars there's no doubt

uh yep that's what we used right there

yeah exactly phantom radar honestly i

i i had sold a lot of those radars

before i tried it on my own boat

and uh i can't believe how

the crazy thing about them is the

automatic acquisition of targets

so they're actually identifying targets

that are coming near you or away from

you and they're color coding them

differently

and this is without even a user so you

can literally now start using your radar

without having to be a pro about radar

you can actually turn it on

do a radar overlay or have it on one

screen

and then you can literally have because

there's certain places in british

columbia again where

there's a lot of different little

islands and islets and you don't even

know

you know it's hard to memorize

everything when you're going fast

and to know that an object is moving and

it's not stationary

and to have to see that target be color

coded differently depending if it's

moving away from you or closer to you

is really a good way especially at speed

to discern

objects of interest versus objects

that you know they're going away from

you there's not really a problem

you know there you're you know and i

think that radar packs a lot of punch

and i tried it on my own boat and i had

the original one i had a

18 and i think it was an hd plus and i

upgraded to the phantom i was like

wow i was like okay i get it now

okay and the price difference is nominal

too which is great uh it's all about

confidence on the water and those are

just factors that give you more

confidence and

you know the more confidence you have

with cruising whether it's with your

family or with friends and things

going on with distractions just enhances

your experience in the water

and you know you're going boating

because you want to relax you want to

unwind

and if you're nerving and upset and

cautious about everything going on

because you don't have good information

and you don't have reliable systems

then it's going to be a negative effect

on your weekends away so once again

having some of those products just makes

it you know

hang on worth it so another thing too

that i think is worth talking and you

mentioned this about the open concept

but

tell us a little bit and i think it's

i've seen this um on other boats as well

but

tell us about the the way that how are

the aft deck

and the main the salon and the galley

separate how does one access the other

can you tell us a little bit about

now we're talking more interior sort of

layout but tell us a little bit about

how you went about designing the

interior layout of this boat

yeah you know that's a it's a great

thing i mean i i believe that

um you know good food good drinks you

know

good friends make for good times and and

when you're there

when you get to that location where

we're going to be whether you're on

anchor

you're tied to a dock um and you're

wanting to entertain

you know being in one common space you

know you know you don't want to have

whoever's doing the cooking

separating from everyone else you don't

want to have you know a disjointed boat

you don't want to have upper levels and

lower levels where

the primary time you spend other than

sleeping is in these main areas so

the focus was is to to make you know a

40ish foot

boat feel bigger and how we did that is

by

um an opening bulkhead so the

traditional bulkhead

uh where you would go into the cabin is

set up on

a full opening window with an opening

door that opens up the space and right

to that area

um you know you have your working space

of your galley you have your sink your

cooktop your prep area uh you know all

your refrigeration equipment everything

right there

so that you know what whoever is cooking

whatever is going out just like having a

kitchen party you're right there

and the key is just having everybody

right there hanging out together what do

you do when you're voting

you're cooking you're eating you're

having a good time and that's what it's

all about so

the focus of this boat was around all

those sorts of things of just

entertaining and hanging out

yeah and so you're you're actually i

love it too i mean i

i remember seeing the seeing the

original number one

and even with number two i mean i think

the layout

that open concept is a game changer

you're absolutely right growing up in a

french canadian family where all the

parties happen in the kitchen

and the living room was almost empty and

everybody was standing room sitting on

counters around

you know there's something there's some

the magic happens in the kitchen or

around the kitchen

and to have the galley be not like you

say tucked away too far

is especially when the weather is nice

um

that is that's a great great picture

there so that's looking through

the aft bulkhead so there's no mullions

or anything between there

the first boat was a powered window so

the window went down the door opened

and that space is completely open in the

next model we're building right now we

we changed the city layout and where

you'd be looking at the outside of that

city that's now

part of the galley and other side so

it's a little bit different setup so it

relates a little bit more to the indoor

outdoor better

um and it probably takes that open

concept kind of to the next level

yeah and you're right it's a great way

to you know when you start putting walls

everywhere i remember visiting an

apartment in vancouver

i think it was a three bedroom two

bathroom and a den

and like 900 square feet every room felt

like a closet

and the whole thing felt like a dungeon

and i i know it met all the boxes

you know you could bring raise a family

there but the challenge was every single

space was your own

but it was tiny and i think with an open

concept

yeah you might not have you know

dedicated spaces for certain things but

the reality is we generally when you're

voting especially on a boat of this size

you're choosing

who's on board i mean these are for

certainly for myself when i'm voting

i'm with loved ones these are people

that i care about these are people i

want to spend time with

you know i i'm not going there to have

my own space when i have guests on board

the boat

i'm going there to live you know it's

it's a party that almost never ends

really

it's uh it's a weekend that you know

you're making memories

from morning to night and then it just

repeats and so be having that common

space is a great way to just

yeah create the memories um and nobody

feels isolated because everybody wants

to be in it i think when we're voting

you know you don't want to be on your

own and i've seen boats where the galley

is literally tucked away

down below multiple steps no windows

yeah that's i mean that's harder i mean

of course i understand that some voters

have to have that but if you're given a

choice of not having it

certainly some of us are going to

appreciate that open concept yeah

tell me a little bit about the tv we had

spoken about that what did you end up

doing

with the tv setup because i thought that

was pretty neat when we were

dreaming on the back deck of that boat

just before christmas

tell me where you landed on that maybe

just one thing before that i'll mention

you know if you don't have a setup where

you know you can't have an open concept

you got an existing boat you have the

galley below

you're disconnected a great easy way to

be able to bring that up is

you know buy a better barbecue buy a

better green barbecue

and design some meal plans that really

are focused around barbecuing

all your meal plans bring some of your

prep station outside

buy a cool cutting board that fits for

your boat bring your body to the back

deck you know bring bring it out there

don't focus on a stove down below and uh

like i said for

several hundred bucks you can upgrade

your barbecue change your meal plan you

can change the whole feeling of how

you're boating that weekend

yeah that's a good point yeah well

uh the tv yeah you know a little opulent

over the top

so you know maximizing the size you know

we have a city inside where on a

you know cold rainy day or whatever it

may be you want to sit there with a

couple you know pillows and cuddle up

with some kids or hang out with a loved

one

flip it down watch a movie but on the

other side we can open the

back book head window split that tv uh

180 degrees

and we've got you know a 47 inch tv

right on the back deck of the boat which

is completely oversized for a 40-foot

boat in that space

and then we've got it set up with hdmi

and different outputs where we can plug

in

uh an air drone we have on the boat an

underwater submarine that's going to be

on there

and just you know have some fun things

to do let's just take the next level

let's get creative hey you're bored well

let's send over the sub and go check out

the bottom of the ocean yeah the kids i

mean kids have got to love that who

doesn't want to be jacques cousteau

we went with the track vision uh

satellite system on this boat

and uh your company helped us sort that

out and you know we could be back there

and you know one of my dreams an

opulence would be

you know cruising trolling for salmon

while watching you know a seahawks game

on sunday

you know or nhl you know hockey game or

something in the back deck or

maybe even watching a golf match that

doesn't take you too much off your

fishing game but

you know that to me was over the top and

probably one of the biggest splurges

on this design just something fun yeah

it's

the great thing about voting like this

especially when you get to dream and

build

is it's it's almost like to me i

describe it as

i remember visiting all these amazing

castles in europe um

and all these beautiful homes that you

know were museums

i think we're doing that in some way

with voting it's

it's where now people are dreaming about

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

about this sort of

you know the way that my psychologist

told me it's

you can you can imagine perfection and

you're chasing it you know because it's

there's boundaries it's not it's not

like land you

there are distinctions of that boat and

you can keep

finding ways of improving it making it

sort of resonate with what boating

you're doing and

when you're on board i'm smiling just

thinking about it

you just feel like it's almost like a

you know it's like

the way that i imagine my world would be

more often than it is

especially on the water i've never been

on the water and said oh you know what i

wish i was somewhere else

it's it's always the place i'd rather be

yeah well you said it before about loved

ones and who you go boating with then

you know you can have as much fun on a

17-foot you know fishing boat

if you count on 150 foot yacht and you

can make memories that last just as long

if not longer and better

so it's who you go it's the mindset it's

about getting on the water

getting those special spots whether

that's out on a you know a fishing hole

you've got or whether it's

special anchorage that you're gonna drop

a kayak in the water you know just

get on the water get on the water and

you will have a better life because of

it

exactly so i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna wrap

it up i think we're almost at one hour

at this point i wanna thank you tim for

joining me on our podcast i'm really

excited

about you sharing your passion about not

only voting but actually

making voting dreams come true for other

voters as well

and uh with that i'm going to say a big

shout out to everyone for watching

if you've got further questions or

comments please post them down below

uh you know where you can find us and if

you need to be in contact

with tim from one or many of his

companies let us know

and we'll also put a link down on the

section on the website so you can also

find

many of the companies that tim is sort

of leading the way with

all right awesome thanks tim for joining

us thank you it's a fun chat thanks a

lot for doing it

thank you

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