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Our Benefactors
A few years back, Steve and Dave arrived at the National Boat Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The combined giant Johnson & Evenrude companies, now called OMC, had just gone out of business and the show managers decided that tiny Adirondack Guideboat should take over the Johnson Evenrude space. Dave gestured at the half-acre of space they had been given and said, "If we can't make a go of this company, then we just don't deserve it." |
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| The boys have been lucky. Their boats have received incredible media. They have wonderful customers and good fortune beyond measure. | |
| This page is, let's say, a thank you page. Here are the people who helped us. That's what they intended to do and that's what they did. Partly it was because they liked us, partly it was because they admired our boats. | |
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As any of you who
have grown a company know, it can't all be luck and it can't be all
friends. Steve and Dave and their employees work
hard. They have picked demanding boats to build, difficult boats to sell.
When times get confusing, a grounding perspective has always been.... the
boats.
How do they look? How do they perform?. How are they on the water? |
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| They were wonderful boats in 1850, wonderful in 1950 and they will be wonderful in 2050 and beyond. | |
| Sometimes it has seemed the world was conspiring to help us. World-class writers, business people, manufacturing consultants and media personalities routinely walk through the door (or pick up the phone or send an e-mail) and say, "How can I help?" | |
| Below are some of the bits of good fortune we have been lucky to receive | |
| This is the up-link truck from New England Cable News Network. They shot video all day, edited tape in the truck, aimed the dish at a satellite and bounced their signal from our parking lot to the rest of New England. | |
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| The fellow in the middle of the next photo is John Griviskis of Ship ShapeTV. His boating and boat-repair program is broadcast to millions. John approached us at the National Boat Show about doing a segment on our boats. As he spoke with us folks lined up, waiting their turn to meet John and shake his hand. | |
| John is like Norm Abrams on This Old House. ....only John's specialty is building and repairing boats. On a trip to Florida Steve stopped in a John's shop and taught him how to build our boats. Then John flew himself and his crew flew to Vermont to watch and videotape our molding and other manufacturing processes. In the few months since the program has aired, countless people at shows tilt their heads a certain way, trying to remember where they've seen these boats. Sometimes the memory escapes them and we'll suggest, "ShipShapeTV?" | |
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And then, all of a sudden, their faces will brighten, "Yes, that's it, that's exactly where it was." |
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| Among our benefactors none has been more important than Vermont Public Television. They have aired four segments on our boats. Each of these segments has won an award. The one with Willem Lange was nominated for an Emmy. | |
| The photo below shows Jill Halstead, a producer from Vermont Public Television, along with her videographer and soundman shooting their latest segment on our boats. This segment focuses on Jim Peden and his wife Susan, who obligingly brought their boat to Monkton Pond for the taping. As it happened, a fair sized Northern Pike managed to find himself on Jim's hook while the cameras were rolling. While we've generally designed our website ourselves ....Jim has looked over our shoulders and said, "Are you sure you want to do it that way?"... ... and kept us from making some nasty mistakes. | |
| Thank you, Jim. | |
| And, by the way, Jim and Susan are sitting in a token of our appreciation. | |
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| Here are some catalogues and magazines which have featured our boats. If you'd like to do something similar, don't be shy. | |
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Burlington VT Chamber of Commerce |
Vermont Manufacturer's Directory |
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| Packbasket Catalog | Lewis Creek Clothing |
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| We'd like to thank: Willem Lange, Darren Bush, Jim Blair, Jim Leinfelder, Bob Sullivan, Mike Duffy, Vince Mazzone, Chico Lager, Cathy Johnston, Pete Hornbeck, Ike Woljin, Eric Chittenden, Diane Derrick, Anne O'brien, Tony Cassidy, Rob Maholick, Jim Peden, John Berry, Howard Dean, Thomas Stinson, Dennis Caprio, Brooks Townes, Charlie Dooley, Leslie Mayette, Cliff Gromer, Scott Croft, Leslie Wright, David & Susan Pearson, John & Lisa Miller, Tom Peters, Bob Allen, Al Freihofer, Brian Rooney, Kenny Clarke, Gary Burgeron, Elaine Lawrence, Tom Schroeder, Tom Meade, Helen Jankowski, Justin Martin, Randy Martin, Ian Martin, Randy Stewart, Mike Graves, Giles Hoyler, Al Hutchens, Raven Billings, Skip Fraczek, Kaci Cronkhite, Bob Hicks, Paul Neil, David Stookey, Scott Rubenstein, John Hansen, Cass Tillman, Hallie Bond, Geoff Kerr, Ernie & Kim Laprairie, Vicki Sandiford, Warren Berry and Martha Stewart. | |
| But most of all.....we are constantly aware of the debt we have to the old guides. First guides built their own boats; then it was specialized boatbuilders who built the boats and sold them to guides and then to the general public. To this day we are constantly discovering new aspects of these wonderful boats. Steve will look at a Warren Cole boat (the first guideboat he ever rowed, which has recently come back into his possession) and marvel at how the thickness of the ribs tapers, thinner ribs near the bow and stern, broader ribs near the middle of the boat where more strength is needed. And all this tapering happens in the space of, oh, 1/16th of an inch. | |
| Or Dave will put people out in gale-force winds on Puget Sound with absolute confidence that they would return unharmed and dry. All attributable to the cunning and care of the old guides and the boats they built. | |
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