|
Our Benefactors |
|
| Steve and Dave were once standing in the vast empty space they had been given at the National Boat Show by the National Marine Manufacturer's Association. Dave gestured at the huge space and said, "If we can't make a go of this company, then we just don't deserve it." | |
| 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. These 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. | |
| As any of you who have grown a company know, it can't all be luck and it can't be all friends, helpers and well-wishers. 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. | |
| They were wonderful boats in 1850, wonderful in 1950 and they will be wonderful in 2050 and beyond. | |
| Sometimes it has seemed as if 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?" | |
| The photo below is the up-link truck from New England Cable News Network. They shot video all day, edited the tape inside the truck, aimed the dish at the satellite and bounced their signal from our parking lot to the rest of New England. | |
|
|
|
| The fellow in the middle of the next photo is John Griviskis. John hosts a cable program named ShipShapeTV, probably the best-known boating program in the world. He 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, it turns out, is rather like Norm Abrams on This Old House. ....only John's specialty is building and repairing boats. Steve went to Florida and taught John how to build our type of boat....and then John 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, "ShipShape TV?" | |
|
And then, all of a sudden, their faces will brighten, "Yes, that's it, that's exactly where it was." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Among our benefactors none has been more important than Vermont Public Television. They have aired three segments on our boats.....with another one on the editing board, scheduled to air in the Spring. 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, while they were shooting their latest segment on our boats. This segment will focus on fishing and the lovely young couple in the boat, Jim Peden and his wife Susan, obligingly brought their boat along 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. | |
| ps....Jim and Susan are sitting in a token of our appreciation. | |
|
|
|
| These are some catalogues and brochures which thought they'd look better with one of our boats on the cover. (If you'd like to do something similar, don't be shy. We once made the mistake of negotiating too carefully with a Hollywood studio over the use of one of our boats in a major motion picture. Won't make that mistake again.) | |
|
Burlington VT Chamber of Commerce |
Vermont Manufacturer's Directory |
|
|
|
| Packbasket Catalog | Lewis Creek Clothing |
|
|
|
| In no particular order we'll like to thank: Willem Lange, Darren Bush, Jim Blair, Jim Leinfelder, Bob Sullivan, Mike Duffy, Vince Mazzone, Chico Lager, Cathy Johnston, Jennifer Faulk, Melisa Malone, 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, Heidi Jewett, 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 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. | |
|
|
|
