{"id":59185,"date":"2022-10-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=59185"},"modified":"2023-05-08T11:00:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:00:01","slug":"tell-tales-schooled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/tell-tales-schooled\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from the Best"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Steve <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n “Bob is old-school, and it\u2019s hard to dream of another boat without his help.”<\/span>\n Steve Haefele<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d been dreaming of a new ride and asked my pal Bob for his opinion. Bob had kept dreamers\u2019 dreams alive\u2014including a few of my own\u2014in his boatyard for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDream or nightmare?\u201d I asked about this new ride. \u201cCoyle,\u201d he said, \u201cwith just a bit of hands-on rehab, she\u2019ll be factory-fresh. You can do it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob is an eternal optimist. For 40 years, he managed his crew of craftsmen like a headmaster, and treated his customers and their dependents (boats) with the finesse of a family counselor. While the customer is always right and the boat is always perfect, when Bob called with an update, boat owners listened. This was about their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had suffered less-attentive headmasters. I\u2019d survived a botched cockpit-ectomy to install mufflers (backward). I\u2019d been charged 12 hours of labor to replace a 60-cent seal because the technician (we called them mechanics back then) was not aware of the access hatch the builder had provided. Another technician spent a day weaving a 40-foot transducer cable through the boat before coming up a foot short at the helm. Yet another plunged a drill bit into the boat\u2019s expensive, albeit primitive, brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve financial sustainability, I secured a spot in a cluttered corner of Bob\u2019s boatyard to \u201cexperience reality,\u201d as he called it. \u201cIf I could design \u2019em, I could fix \u2019em,\u201d I told Bob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dug into my leatherette owner\u2019s bag and found a decent service manual for the diesel engines and generator. I uncharacteristically cracked the boat\u2019s manual. As I expected, it read like a children\u2019s encyclopedia, each paragraph beginning with \u201cwarning.\u201d In the bag\u2019s bilge, I found a collection of brochures for the dozens of components that builders screw onto boats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More from Jay Coyle:<\/strong> Tell Tales<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike cars and major appliances, boats don\u2019t have inclusive shop manuals. I eventually learned how the variety of mechanical and electrical components fit into my boat\u2019s design matrix; maze is perhaps a more appropriate description. The marine industry has made great strides with plug-and-play system components, but factory-trained technicians can still be driven to insanity by an unfamiliar boat\u2019s eccentricities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re investing in a new boat, it is wise to have a discussion about the builder\u2019s service capability and your options for warranty service beyond its reach. If you\u2019re beyond warranty, then try to find a boatyard that has experience with your boat or the particular repair. It\u2019s also wise to consider the service options for major components such as engines, generators and stabilizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob is old-school, and it\u2019s hard to dream of another boat without his help. When my dated anchor windlass melted down in the Dry Tortugas, I limped home and asked Bob if he had anyone who might recall how to repair it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll put my best man on it,\u201d he\u2019d promised. When I stopped by the yard the next day, I found Bob in the machine shop repairing the winch himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t build \u2019em like that anymore\u2014winches or headmasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Headmaster Bob has some old-school words of advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Jay Coyle","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Whether you're ordering a new boat or repairing an existing one, it's important to thoroughly understand your boat and the services that will help it.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2027,569,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}