Salty Podcast 19 | ⛵🛠️ Sailboat Outfitting/Repairs: Expert Advice from Yacht Rigger in St. Petersburg, FL 🌴⚓

Get insider tips and professional insights on sailboat outfitting in an exclusive interview with Steve Lloyd, founder of Yacht Rigger in St. Petersburg, FL. Discover everything from repairs to full-scale projects, ensuring your sailboat is ready to set sail with top-notch craftsmanship and expertise.  Audio from video Livestream Apr 24, 2024:  https://tinyurl.com/SaltyPodcast19

#saltyabandon #sailing #podcast #sailboat #yachtrigger #outfitting #upgrades #rigging #solarpanels #lithium #batteries #customarches #steelframes #fabrication #marine #electronics #HVAC #refrigeration

sailing, podcast, sailboat, yacht rigger, outfitting, upgrades, rigging, solar panels, steel frames, arches, fabrication, marine electronics, HVAC, refrigeration

Transcript

Good evening, everybody.

00:11
This is Captain Tinsley, Salty Abandon, with another Salty Podcast.

00:15
This is actually episode number 19, so we're moving right along.

00:19
So it's always a good day to talk about sailing and Salty Podcast.

00:24
And tonight we have three very special guests that I have experience with.

00:28
And without further ado, we're going to go ahead and bring them out one at a time.

00:34
Hey, guys.

00:36
Hello.

00:37
So these are the three owners, just the three owners of Yacht Rigger.

00:43
And that's correct.

00:45
And so we have Steven, Andre and Brian.

00:48
Thank you guys for coming out.

00:50
Pleasure.

00:51
Thank you for having us.

00:53
Let's start with you, Steven.

00:55
So you are the founder, isn't that right?

00:58
That's right, yep.

01:00
So back in 2014, I moved to St.

01:04
Pete and started the Outrigger here kind of early 2015.

01:09
That's the the very short, I guess, origin version.

01:13
And then met Brian in, yeah, early '16, I feel like it was.

01:20
Correct.

01:20
Yeah, the the spring.

01:23
And yeah, then Brian came on board and joined forces.

01:28
And we went from one minivan to two minivans, driving around the county, surfacing boats, doing rigging work and fabrication, and kind of limited to that.

01:39
And then eventually in 2018, we became land-based and actually set up a shop, which is actually shipping containers, built out of shipping containers in the boatyard.

01:50
And thenEnded up meeting Andre in 2019, right Andre?

01:55
Is that right?

01:56
Yeah, and we actually worked on Andre's boat that he's sitting on right now and uh re-rigged that boat and uh fast forward Five years now.

02:06
It's crazy.

02:08
We ended up uh Joining forces.

02:11
Well, we we helped Andre With Gulf nautical exactly.

02:16
That's how you met him tinsley.

02:17
That's right but helped Andre, uh or orPartnered with Andre really to create Golf Nautical and then eventually merged two years ago on April Fool's Day.

02:30
So it's well, so your dad, your dad was the first one that I met because just just to give a little bit of history, the way I got your number was on women who sail.

02:41
So you guys had done some some presentations to some of the women's sailing groups.

02:47
And so I posted a picture of a broken chain plate.

02:50
I didn't know that it was a big deal.

02:52
I was kind of naive.

02:54
And I posted it in the the Women Who Sell Facebook group and they said, OK, not cheap and not a quick fix, but here's who you can call.

03:07
And it was the yacht rigger and there was a few people already gave already told me what was wrong and sang your praises.

03:15
And I met your dad first.

03:16
He's the one that came out to the boat.

03:19
I was staying at John's Pass and what he told me, and I already knew that you guys were great because of what they were saying.

03:26
And he pretty much, you know, concurred on what they were saying.

03:29
So it wasn't going to be a quick fix.

03:31
And you guys, I brought my boat to your house.

03:35
Yes, it's funny.

03:37
I remember where I was sitting.

03:39
I have this thing with my memory where I know where I was when I heard things.

03:41
But I remember where I was sitting when my dad told me about your boat and he had a conversation with you and I was sitting on the dock behind my house and he told me about, you know, this situation with an island packet.

03:54
Yeah, it was an island packet 27.

03:56
And he said, yeah, I spoke to this lady and she's on her way down from the Gulf and she's got a broken chain plate.

04:00
And yeah, and we ended up.

04:02
Uh having you come for the chain plate fix and yeah well first we went to Marine max first we went there.

04:10
Yep.

04:10
Uh Well, I don't know what came first.

04:12
I guess that Marine max came for because we had to haul it out.

04:16
Right.

04:16
That's it.

04:17
That's it.

04:17
Yeah.

04:18
Yep.

04:18
Um, but yeah, I guess he took it to your house.

04:22
Your dad took it to to your house to do some other things because we were doing some other things.

04:27
Yes.

04:28
I think do we replace the rigging too?

04:29
I can't remember if we did new rigging.

04:32
Chain plates.

04:33
I mean, this is a couple boats ago, right?

04:35
And it's just 2017 It was 2017.

04:38
Yeah.

04:39
YeahYeah, so that's this is early yacht rigger era Yeah, back in the day and I shouldn't yeah, I shouldn't skip over the fact that my dad was very and still is very deeply involved in the business He you know, he's gave up some people gave up his ownership shares, but he still works in the business full-time Okay, I was gonna ask you about that.

04:57
I just loveTo go cruising for almost two years and disappeared with us, enjoyed the Bahamas.

05:03
And then, you know, he just missed us so much that he he had to come back.

05:08
And now now he runs the distribution side of the business that we've grown into.

05:14
Yeah, he told me that y'all were so busy that he had to come back and help out.

05:21
Yep.

05:22
Yeah, pretty much that.

05:22
And he missed his grandkids.

05:24
I mean, let's, let's be honest, there's there's a combination of things there.

05:27
well Did you Did you work in the Caribbean at first or was it always in Florida?

05:32
Did you do so?

05:34
Yeah, I worked in the Caribbean for five years.

05:36
So I sailed from Cape Town, South Africa, where I was born and raised, across to the Caribbean.

05:42
And then we were in the Southern Caribbean for a while.

05:44
I was very fortunate.

05:45
My parents gave me that experience when I was a teenager.

05:48
And then we ended up in St.

05:51
Martin, and that's where I did my apprenticeship.

05:52
And so from roughly 2001 to 2005, I worked on boatsBig boats for a while, but during that time I really full time from 2002 to 2005, I was in St.

06:03
Martin.

06:04
And then you showed your dad how to how to do the rigging or?

06:08
Yeah, that's what he said.

06:10
Yeah, he's he's got a background in in retail and retail management and his fire for a long time.

06:18
And yeah, so he didn't, he knew how to sail, but he didn't know what rigging was, which is the case actually for a lot of sailors.

06:23
They don't know what rigging is until.

06:26
They have to replace their rigging.

06:27
Until the chain plate becomes real.

06:28
Rogues, yeah.

06:29
Exactly, exactlyAnd so yeah, he got here in 2015, and I was like, hey, I'm going to start this business.

06:35
It'll be fun.

06:35
You know, come on for the ride.

06:37
And so he did.

06:38
And we, yeah, just got things rolling up until he went cruising back in the year that was now, 2021, right after COVID, I think.

06:49
Well, it's quite impressive how much, how big you have gotten.

06:53
And so why don't we go to Brian next since he was the next one to come on board.

06:58
And now, Brian, I think you did some fabrication for my boat, didn't you?

07:03
I did.

07:04
I did.

07:04
So I don't remember everything I build, but I definitely remember you and I definitely remember your boat.

07:11
And I remember you being pleasant to deal with.

07:14
And I believe we did a wind jet and some solar.

07:18
Yeah, we created a whole thing for the solar and for the radar and all that stuff and for Andre to do his thing.

07:31
But I know.

07:33
And so I was looking at on on Facebook and on the if you could tell us just a little bit about what you do, you do a lot of arches, a lot of steel frames.

07:43
I do.

07:44
So I started out life as a custom metal fabricator before I joined into the marine market.

07:49
And so I was already building stuff and making things and then got into the marine market.

07:55
I was always making things for my own boats on the inside and never really joined the two until about 20 years ago.

08:00
And then I was a spar builder.

08:02
So I built the spars and rigging parts at a place called JSI that was around for a very long time.

08:09
And then when theykind of dissolved and kind of went their own ways and kind of moved out.

08:16
They They shut down and a lot of the talent and people went everywhere.

08:20
Um Around that time, I started doing private work, like contractor work on boats, and that's when I met Steven.

08:28
So then we we joined together and-- You should tell the specific story.

08:33
Remember the first, the very first time you did an onsite job where I was like, Hey, I need to cut this mast four feet shorter and I needAnd you were like, oh yeah, I can do that.

08:43
Like he definitely came in.

08:45
I was working as a contractor at a different place, welding and fabricating.

08:48
He came in there and he started asking some questions and they came and got me and they said this guy's asking some really high level questions.

08:54
Can you come out and talk to him?

08:55
And I said sure.

08:57
And it was he was asking for some pretty high level stuff to happen about cutting down masks, re welding the masthead on, you know, major surgery on a boat.

09:05
Wow.

09:06
I said sure, no problem.

09:07
And just.

09:08
Like off the cuff said it was no issue and I had done many of that and started talking about the details of it.

09:15
Without getting too far into the weeds, he he recognized that I knew what we were discussing in abstract when we were there.

09:22
So then I came out and helped him do some stuff on some boats and install some things and.

09:29
You know, not everybody works together quickly, easily, efficiently.

09:33
And when you're at the top of your field and you do things fast and efficient, um I'm trying to say that's nicely possible, it's not always common to have somebody keep up.

09:44
And Steven and I were having a nice casual conversation about what we were gonna do on the weekend while doing very complicated things.

09:51
And so at the end of the day, he he pulled me aside and said, you know, have you ever really had anybody work with you like this, 'cause it's not common for me.

09:58
And I said, Steven said that, Steven said that to me.

10:02
It's not common that somebody he works with me like this.

10:04
And what do you think about that?

10:06
And I said, yeah, it's not common for me either.

10:08
And he said, I think we should partner up.

10:10
And it was a very special thing to hear from him.

10:12
And I agreed wholeheartedly and we went down to the lawyer's office and partnered up.

10:18
Wow.

10:19
Yeah, it was pretty cool.

10:20
So some of the things-- Something Brian glossed over for a second was that not only was he in metal fabrication, but he was a mast builder for a very significant number of years before I met him.

10:31
And I didn't fully grasp that when I first was talking to him, because I thought he was just the metal guy that did stuff and helped out in the shop.

10:39
And then after, obviously, like Brian said, working with him, I'm like, oh, this guy actually understands masts and reading.

10:47
And metal.

10:48
Yeah, yeahLike how I got the job in the 1st place at the spar builder going back 20 years ago, it was I walked in to get a sale fixed.

10:56
And while I was there, I looked around at some of the other departments and recognized they had a metal shop.

11:01
And I came in and I looked at him, a mast they were building and I asked him, I was like, wow, that's a really big catamaran master building.

11:08
And he was like, how do you know it's a catamaran?

11:10
I'm like, uh, swept back spreaders, tapered top, rocker on the bottom.

11:13
It's got to be a multi hall, not Academy.

11:15
And he was like, oh really?

11:16
So then it was, well, what do you do about how do you build this metal?

11:19
How do you do that?

11:20
And he started recognizing that I knew how to weld and fabricate and machine.

11:25
And so they offered me a job and it it was fortuitous because it was a.

11:32
Downgrade and paid from what I was used to making to go to the marine market But it was much more fun and I enjoyed all of the things I built and then eventually I was able to make my living a little better as being a contractor but yeah, having having the working knowledge of how the boat goes together and I studied hull and naval architecture and I kind of get the boat on as a wholeAnd so when I'm building something or fabricating something for a boat, I try to take the entire boat into account, and I'm not just attaching something to it, but I'm attaching something to a organic thing that moves through a fluid motion.

12:10
And it has to, I have to make sure that the weights are right, the the balance of the boat is right.

12:16
Like, I'm not just, I'm not just making a bracket for a light, is the shot.

12:21
And it's gonna look good.

12:23
ohh It has to be pleasing or I can't do it.

12:25
Well, of course.

12:26
Well, Stephen you really good at picking talent, aren't you?

12:29
Yeah, they somehow they fell up fall in my lap I can't say yeah, and I was gonna interject for a second but say as anyone watching this if you're dealing with a professional or contractor on your books it's something we've managed to bring together here andIs and it's why it's such a pleasure like for the three of us to work together is it's very rare to find someone who is a specialist in a given industry especially.

12:57
I think it's more common to find riggers who are sailors like that's not that unusual, but to find someone who's a really good metal fabricator.

13:04
and there's also a sailor and someone that's a really good marine electrician, but there's also a sailor, that's the anomaly there.

13:10
Like I'm not the anomaly.

13:11
Like these two guys are like rare breeds.

13:13
Like there's not very many guys that understand cruising and boating and also understand their trades, like Brian Andre.

13:19
I mean, it's it's really, I've been fortunate to meet them and and have them cross my path and be willing to kind of jump into this this crazy thing that we have going on.

13:31
But it is.

13:31
It is very rare to find someone who knows metal and and fabrication, but also in the sailing.

13:37
And well, I didn't.

13:37
I knew Andre and you were sailors, but I didn't know.

13:40
I wasn't sure about Brian, but that's good to hear.

13:43
Oh, I think if we were all getting the race, Brian would probably win.

13:45
So necessarily live on a boat because I I like my little house up in Dunedin in the woods.

13:53
But I it looks very nice.

13:56
I might actually live on a boat one day, but I've always, I've always had the thinking that.

14:01
When I When i make that move to hop on a boat, I'm probably going to leave and sail for a little while.

14:06
So what I-- Me too.

14:07
What I concentrate on when I'm day sailing or weekend sailing is high-performance boats.

14:13
So I I like to push things to the edge, or at least I used to.

14:18
And I'm getting a little older now, if you will.

14:20
But you know I sail things with rotating masts and and multiple hulls.

14:26
Well, I I I didn't know that you could shorten a mast.

14:29
I just go back to that.

14:32
Is that recommended?

14:33
Yeah, yeah, we shorten a lot more than whatever.

14:37
So it all starts from aluminum in the 1st place and you know that's it doesn't make it, you know, not perform as well.

14:44
Oh, it absolutely is like sailing around with a reef in it.

14:46
But if you live on the other side of a short bridge, you're OK with that.

14:49
Well, yeah, there's a there's a couple bridges up here that I can no longer go under.

14:53
I could for my 27, but.

14:56
They're 50.

14:56
Mine's 48, but it's just a little too close to for comfort.

14:59
But that's something that you wouldn't notice too much is, you know, if you shorten the mast by a very small percentage point, there's a strong chance you would never really notice the difference except in very light air.

15:11
But I mean, a lot of the boats, the majority of the boats that we shorten the masts on are cruising catamarans.

15:16
And for like mine, for example, Andre is like, I don't notice a huge difference between saying one reef inversus zero, except for in very light air.

15:26
But when I'm in very light air, I can throw a reef in my main and still find my code zero and really have almost zero performance drop.

15:33
So yeah, there is-- unless you're a very high performance boat, a very high performance sailor on a cruising boat, you're not going to notice a-- Or a heavy island packet.

15:45
Right, Right exactly.

15:47
You would maybe shorten your mast and and upgrade your cruising head sail.

15:52
Yeah, like make up and be able to somewhere else.

15:56
Exactly.

15:56
Yeah.

15:57
YeahAll right, well, let's talk to Andre.

16:01
Well, like Steven said, we met in 2019 because I hired Steven and the outrigger to to rerig this boat.

16:08
I had just purchased it and the first thing I wanted to do is replace the rigging because it was 12 years old and I had some bad experiences in a previous boat with rigging that was old.

16:15
So I hired them to.

16:17
To redo the rig.

16:19
And then I guess after that we became friends.

16:21
My kids are the same age as Steven's kids.

16:24
We hung out and then we actually formed Golf Nautical before it was actually even an electrical company.

16:30
We were importing OC tenders from New Zealand and that kind of became a bit of a hobby for me because by trade I'm not.

16:41
an electrician, I actually have what I call a night job.

16:44
I fly a Boeing 787 for Air Canada.

16:48
And at the time that I was working on your boat, Tinsley, I was actually on a leave of absence.

16:52
I was off for four years during the COVID time.

16:55
And so I met Stephen, started Gulf Medical with, I think we started it with tenders, and then I dabbled a little bit in air conditioning.

17:06
So I've always been working on my own boat, learned from others since 2007.

17:12
And in 2010 or no 2000, I guess 2020 I did my ABYC certification for marine electrical and then I made it official.

17:23
I figured I'd make my hobby or or my my knowledge official and did the certification in in 2020 and then we worked alongside each other as a matter of fact.

17:37
It was a very big decision for me to take a leave of absence from flying, because that's a very secure job.

17:42
But with COVID, I did not want to go commuting to Canada, because I'm based in Canada, if you haven't noticed, but with the accent by now.

17:49
And Steven's like, nope, you can do it.

17:52
He says, I'm going to bury you in Oregon.

17:53
I said, yeah, but it's a big wrist.

17:55
And And sure enough, like within within weeks of-- Oh, ohh man.

18:00
Yep.

18:02
I remember Brian and I were so excited.

18:03
I was like, hey man, I'm pretty sure Andre wants to like just do this this electrical thing like full time while while we wait for COVID to, you know, settle.

18:12
And we were like, yes, I remember when Andre said if I got my ABYC, do you think you guys would, you know, like send me some work?

18:19
And we both laughed so hard.

18:21
We were like, we will bury you to the point that you will never see light again.

18:24
Yeah, make it stop.

18:25
I mean, because at this point you guys had seen what I had done on my boat and my other boat.

18:32
You knew what what I was.

18:33
We had enough conversations to realize that, yeah, it's it's rare to find someone who understands electrical as well as you do.

18:42
And also someone who understands boats as well as you.

18:45
That combination is super rare.

18:48
And so it's not only like know like, hey, how the electrons move is is cool, but then like, how can we apply them to cruising and sailing is an entirely like unique skill set.

18:58
So Andre, when you were putting in my,And when you had made all those installations on my boat, it's hard to believe that that was your side gig or your side hustle because I mean just, I mean all the recommendations that you made, you really upsold me and I'm happy that you did.

19:16
But the video that I did after you installed everything, it's on YouTube and the amount of technical jargon and the understanding that you have is just amazing.

19:28
And so I have to go back and listen to it.

19:31
I had to listen to it a few times to even kind of understand what you were talking about.

19:35
But I'll go back and listen to it every so often.

19:37
I'm really glad I recorded it.

19:39
Good, good, that's good.

19:40
Yeah, I I don't watch too many movies.

19:44
The things that really get me going is the technical stuff and learning new things.

19:48
I I learned how to fix my parents' car before I had my driver's license.

19:53
I'm a tinkerer, I learn how to do things, I'm very curious, I wanted to understand how things work.

19:58
And if they don't work, I want to be able to fix them.

20:00
So that's how I've been my whole life.

20:02
And And here we are, I guess.

20:07
OK, well, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about the electronics that you have on the website.

20:14
Do you remember the type of batteries you you installed?

20:17
Because I can't.

20:19
Lithionics.

20:20
Lithionics.

20:21
Do you still deal with those?

20:22
Absolutely.

20:23
It's It's the same batteries that I have on my boat.

20:26
We do deal with them.

20:28
They are probably, they are the Rolls Royce of the battery manufacturers out there.

20:32
They're right here in Clearwater.

20:35
They are the price point today is very hard to sell because there's so many brands that have come on the market.

20:44
Lithium prices have gone down, but lithium X has maintained their prices.

20:48
I think it's about a just to interject there.

20:50
I mean, what is it, Andre?

20:51
It's come down almost in two years, close to 50%.

20:54
Whoa.

20:56
I remember what I paid.

20:57
You generally adopted Tinsley.

20:58
But at the same time, you did adopt a very, very high-end, high-quality, you know, premium battery.

21:04
That is.

21:05
Yeah.

21:06
I'm happy with it.

21:08
Yeah.

21:08
YeahYou made a good decision.

21:10
Yeah.

21:10
YeahAnd it's it's only actually until maybe a year to a year and a half ago that other like Victron came out with a product.

21:18
Yeah, I noticed that was on the website.

21:20
Yeah.

21:21
So.

21:21
So their energy density didn't used to be as high as it is today.

21:25
And back when we did your boat, that was the the smallest form factor for the amount of amp hours that I could fit because I was looking at the space and I was like, hey, Tinsley, like if we I can do this, I can't remember what other battery selection I had for you, but I think it was between kilovolt and lithium at the time.

21:40
Yeah.

21:41
And we can literally double the amount of capacity with these batteries.

21:46
Unfortunately, that came at a price.

21:47
But you know, I think in this case it was definitely worth it to have the 630 amp hours that we have on your boat.

21:53
Well, my thought was that was that was a couple of really good years in real estate.

21:59
I was like, while I'm making the money, let's let's outfit this thing.

22:03
So when I retire, it's all set.

22:07
I think you'd be hard pressed to find another similar model boy with that many amp hours in lithium.

22:13
I don't know that that I I highly doubt that it exists to be honest.

22:17
Well, I've been trying to take care of it because Andre said if you if you don't let it run down too much, they last longer.

22:24
Now, there have been a few times where it ran down, but I I do my best to to try to prevent that.

22:29
They're pretty accepting of abuse in in all reality, yeah, yeahOkay.

22:34
I noticed that you had the Rainmakers on on your website.

22:38
Rainman.

22:40
Oh, Rainman, okay.

22:41
Everyone says Rainmaker, don't feel bad.

22:44
Okay.

22:45
So can you tell a little bit about that, the Rainmans?

22:49
So we've been a Rain Man dealer since I think it's 2015, so a long time, pushing a decade at this point.

22:57
And so not only do we have a long track record with these guys, we've we've been using their equipment for a long time and they came out with some pretty cool updates in 2018 where they modernized their equipment.

23:07
But it's it's just a really good value product and and a large part of what we do at the Outrigger is we as people wholive on boats and cruise and spend some time with cruisers, we try and find something that not only represents a high quality product, but also represents value.

23:25
So there's plenty of good work with water makers out there.

23:28
We love the combination that Rayman has in that it's very high quality.

23:33
It has high production rates.

23:35
It's affordable.

23:37
There's a lot of redundancy built in.

23:39
They have a lot of cross systems.

23:40
So no matter which Rayman system you own, the parts cross correlate most of the time.

23:45
And it's just generally a a very high quality product.

23:48
So it's been something that we've sold for a very long time and we offer a lot of support for We have a team dedicated in fact to just handling rainman sales and rainman um, uh spare parts if anyone needs them, uh maintenance kits stuff like that and So do you sell the portable kinds and the the kind that you installWe do.

24:11
And so we sell the the portable and now the installation type is is called a modular system that can be installed kind of wherever on the boat.

24:19
And then there's a new system actually as of a few months ago called the cased system.

24:23
And so in the past the the modular system actually used to be called the naked system, which is no longer called that.

24:28
But the modular system had an auto flush and control panel module that you could add to it.

24:35
But now the case system comes with an aluminum metal.

24:39
Well aluminum housing that the entire system is mounted to with an auto flush module and control panel pre plumbed into so it's a very Well modular I guess is the word but very simple insulation type system where if you have the space you can just drop this rectangle of Components into the boat and hook up the electrical plumbing to it and you've done so we saw all three all three versions the portable system remains the most popular butAll three systems work using the exact same components.

25:10
And so like when we have a vessel that comes to us that wants an installation type system done, we we recommend and install the modular type system.

25:20
And we actually have a really good YouTube video out as of 10 days ago that Danny, our lead tech on the systems, explains the nuts and bolts of what the install looks like.

25:32
Just it's it's is that on the website or it's the YouTube channel or On the Facebook page it's on the Facebook and on the YouTube channel our YouTube channel is actually called the on deck channel because we partnered with a producer Ryan who makes a lot of all that.

25:48
Yeah.

25:49
Yeah and so It's going to be on our Rain Man page on the website though soon, but for us It's just been the track record, you know Raymond's a company that stands behind their product.

25:59
It's been consistent for a very very long timeAnd it's just it's just reliable and it works.

26:05
Can you tell what they what do they start at, the the portable ones?

26:10
Sure.

26:10
So it's funny because I've done enough boat shows and I kind of have these prices stuck in my head.

26:16
So the the most popular unit is the high-output portable unit that produces 36 to 37 gallons an hour.

26:23
And it's the kind of system you can have running if you have a generator or a large inverter on your boat, you can literally have it running in less than 10 minutes from the time you unbox it.

26:32
And that system retails, including taxes for about $5,500.

26:37
And then the slightly, the smaller system that has a single membrane that produces 18 gallons an hour, still nothing to sneeze at, that system is-- Good for a single person.

26:48
Yeah, exactly.

26:49
Approximately $600 cheaper, so about 4,900.

26:52
Okay.

26:53
It's not half the price, half the production.

26:55
So we still kind of, that's why the high output system is the most popular.

26:59
Because it means your run time is lower.

27:01
So as a single person you run your water maker every you know, two or three days for 45 minutes and you've made 30 gallons of water or if you want to take long showers you run every day for an hour So Brian, what what did you just say?

27:15
Oh, I said or or very uh I was making a joke about it being a very efficient couple.

27:21
So you said for a single person, oh a very efficient couple One great example we have is there's a coupleWho went out cruising to the Bahamas.

27:31
We did a big reset on their boat.

27:33
They're on a Genoa 37, uh, Steve and golly, his wife, their name right now.

27:39
But they went out to Bahamas for I think 3 1/2 years and we calculated that with their Rayman portable system and a Honda generator, they made 34 to 37,000 gallons of water.

27:50
in the years they were out there cruising.

27:52
Wow.

27:52
And besides pre-filters, which are about $6, $7 a piece, that you replace depending on-- you know but besides pre-filters, they replaced one $75 high output-- one $75 high pressure hose in three and a half years on the Rayman system.

28:07
It's just a perfect example of how well that system works.

28:12
So OK, so I have experience with this with you guys, which is all very good.

28:18
So when someone comes in, where do you start with them?

28:21
They say, OK, we have this boat, we don't really know what we want to do to it, but what do you where do you go from there?

28:30
I think the first question is usually what do you want to do with the boat?

28:34
And then we try and reverse engineer that to fit their needs.

28:37
So my job is, yeah, I do have a quick comment on that.

28:44
We firmly believe that we started as the yacht rigger and the first thing we do is make sure the mast stays up and vertical.

28:49
So we get on the boat for a rigging inspection and then we stay on for everything else you want to do.

28:54
Right.

28:55
And it starts with keeping the boat together.

28:59
Exactly.

29:00
ExactlySo yeah, I mean, usually the conversation starts with, as Brian said, like, hey, is your boat safe to sail?

29:05
And that means, is your rigging in good shape?

29:08
And because you bought a sailboat, right?

29:09
You didn't buy a motorboat.

29:11
So is your rigging in good shape?

29:12
Can you do your furlers work?

29:14
And is your running rigging in good shape?

29:16
Is your mask going to fall down?

29:18
Is something going to break and scare you?

29:19
You know, that kind of thing.

29:21
And then we move on to thethe creature comforts and upgrades.

29:25
Once it's safe to sail, do you need some solar panels?

29:28
If you need solar panels, where are you going to put them?

29:31
And how are you going to mount them?

29:32
And if that conversation starts up, Andre and I both kind of say, hey, that's that's Brian's world.

29:39
Brian's good.

29:40
Brian's not good.

29:41
He's amazing at making things fit onto a boat in a way that that is aesthetically pleasing, but also functional.

29:47
And then when people also ask me, how much power do I need?

29:51
you know I can get myself in trouble because I'm a much better rigor than an electrician.

29:55
So I tend to defer to Andre or our electrical team and just say, Hey, you know you guys take it from here.

30:01
What does this person actually need?

30:02
How much battery capacity do you need and how much solar and what systems are you running?

30:08
But it's it's really a reverse engineering process.

30:12
in terms of finding out if you're going to just be using your boat for a weekend of Salem and coming back to the dock every 48 hours, it's a very different use case than a person that says, hey, no, I want to be able to go to the Dry Totugas and then the Bahamas and come back three months from now.

30:27
It's a completely different animal.

30:30
Yeah.

30:31
And Andre, I mean, I wasn't thinking lithium, but then I was thinking-- then we started talking and I was thinking onePanel and one lithium and then we went to two panels and two lithiums.

30:46
Now what made you suggest that?

30:50
So the effort to put one solar panel up is almost the same as two solar panels up and then you're just basically adding the cost of the panel.

30:59
There is a little bit more cost associated with it and same thing with the battery.

31:03
If you add 1 battery versus 2 battery now there are extremes for every.

31:09
Situation.

31:10
But typically we try to maximize solar and maximize battery up to a certain extent because there's a balance between the battery size or the battery bank and the amount of energy that you could put back in.

31:21
So the batteries are like a tank.

31:22
So if you can't fill the tanks in a rapid amount of time, then there's no point in having such a large tank on a boat.

31:29
So typically it's a balance of how much you can charge the battery bank and the size of the battery bank.

31:34
But in your case, I felt that you would probably take advantage.

31:38
Of the extra solar, definitely the extra solar and of course the extra battery.

31:42
So if you have like a cloudy day, you've got that little extra storage to kind of keep you going through.

31:49
Now, how much does the wind generator really help?

31:53
If you're in the trade winds, it helps a lot.

31:54
If you're in Saint Pete and a fickle wind that we have here, it's more of a noise maker.

32:00
Well, actually yours is actually not that bad, but most of them are actually windmakers.

32:04
Yeah, noise makers.

32:07
What's been your experience, Cesley?

32:09
I mean, how do you feel about your wind generator?

32:10
Do you like it?

32:12
I'm or do you hate it?

32:14
I no, I do.

32:15
I do like it.

32:16
I I just don't know enough about it to know how much it helps and but I'm, I'm, I'm glad it's there.

32:24
Yeah.

32:24
What were you gonna say, Andre?

32:25
It's interesting because so when I had my monohull, I had a wind generator and at that time it was a great piece of equipment because my my needs, my consumption.

32:35
Was fairly low.

32:36
I ran a fridge.

32:37
It drew 66 amps.

32:39
That's a lot.

32:41
Well, yeah, right.

32:42
But it's actually, it's decent.

32:44
So if there was a 15 knot wind overnight, it would keep my fridge running.

32:48
But now on this boat, I have three fridges, I have Starlink, I have a TV, I have three kids doing whatever they want to do.

32:56
And that energy budget is completely out the window.

32:59
So at that time when I have a monohull, the wind generator could.

33:03
Was OK, but now it's just such a minute amount in in the whole energy bucket that it's not even worth it for me.

33:10
The solar panels do do more, especially here.

33:13
I figure it's a good thing cause I also have Starlink now and that's that's pulling, right?

33:18
I don't know how much that pulls, but it's it pulls something, right?

33:22
It actually doesn't pull anything.

33:23
It's 150 watts.

33:24
Yeah, the 150 watts.

33:27
So does the generator keep up with that?

33:31
I mean, it might.

33:33
And again, it just really depends on on where you are in the Caribbean.

33:36
Definitely it's going to help because there's always the trade winds.

33:39
So you'll get consistent probably I would say 4 to 7 amps at 12 volts in the Caribbean, which basically would run your fridge 24/7.

33:50
So OK.

33:52
But again, it just depends on the size and and the energy budget.

33:56
Like you have a pretty lean system on board, like it's, you know, lean to mean, you know, one refrigerator, you got a smaller inverter that you know, you use once in a while and we don't have, you know, we don't power air conditioning with yours.

34:10
Right, rightNo, I did, I did bring a a small generator just in case I want to do that.

34:15
But usually I'm OK with just sweating it out.

34:20
You know, it's got to be tough, try to be a sailor, you know, but so, so do are you, do you have, you have everything powered up on your boat to to run three fridges?

34:34
Yeah, three fridges.

34:35
I even run the air conditioner overnight because there's been some new developments in modern A/C, DC powered A/C systems or variable speed that are a little bit more efficient, you know, not night and day, but.

34:48
In good conditions, I can cool my cabins at night only on solar and I can do that for about three nights in a row and then I have to start the engine.

34:57
So we have high up alternators with regulators.

35:00
So yeah, there's all kinds of all kinds of power solutions on this boat where we just started.

35:08
We're going to have our own line of DC generators, so instead of an A/C powered generator.

35:13
So things have changed.

35:15
The way that we engineer the electrical systems now is you charge your batteries and then the batteries are powerful enough.

35:21
The inverters are powerful enough to run all of your electrical leans on board for as long as you have battery power.

35:27
And the only purpose of running a generator is to charge the batteries.

35:31
Whereas in the past you couldn't do that with AGM batteries.

35:34
You had to run the genset to be able to run your air conditioner to run your induction cooktop.

35:39
So the genset ran pretty much all the time because most people wanted to have those appliances.

35:43
you know on bigger boats.

35:44
But now you can use the generator as solely a charging source, and it makes a little bit more sense to do that with with DC power.

35:53
So I've I've got the prototype on my boat.

35:56
We just sold the first one to one of our customers.

35:59
And it's a very basic system.

36:02
It's basically a diesel engine, an alternator, and a Zeus regulator, things that can be repaired as opposed to a very complex electrical system or electrical components, likeFisher Panda makes one as well as polar generators, but they have some fairly complex electronics that um can be head scratching and a little frustrating at times.

36:21
So we created this just for it to be simple and easy to repair out in the field.

36:26
For example, if the Zeus fails, we send you another Zeus alternator can be repaired by most alternator shops around the world, and the diesel generator is just a diesel engine, so.

36:37
So you guys can can make just about anything happen as far as power goes or or Brian he can go It's finally.

36:46
Yes, but And you got you guys can cover it all.

36:50
I know you touching on what Andre said We try avoid the suicide.

36:57
Yeah.

36:57
Yeah Are you do you understand?

36:59
Are you familiar with like what typical diesel generator does in that it it creates AC current that's availableon the boat for you to use.

37:07
So sometimes I just have to dumb things down because Andre talks up here and he's at this crazy high level and I'm you know, I'm somewhere down here.

37:15
I've learned from him.

37:17
So I'm I'm climbing up.

37:18
But But the the typical generator on a boat creates an AC current.

37:23
Right.

37:23
I can plug my shore power into my into my into my little portable generator and that's AC power.

37:30
And so all that's doing is taking that AC power and using your battery charger on boardto charge your battery.

37:36
So the generator doesn't charge your batteries.

37:38
The The generator powers the battery charger that charges your batteries.

37:42
And so the benefits of having the DC generators, we're effectively cutting out that middleman of the battery charger, because your battery charger has a has a limited capacity.

37:51
It can only charge so fast.

37:53
So you may have a 10 kilowatt or 8 kilowatt or 13 kilowatt generator on board, or a Honda generator that's 2.2 kilowatts.

38:02
Butit can only provide current to a battery charger that then charges the bank.

38:07
Whereas the DC generator that Andre's talking about is a straight DC massive battery charger that is, what, Andre, twice to four times the capacity of your average charging system on board?

38:21
Yeah.

38:22
So the one that I have on mind is 5,500 watts, and it's actually equivalent to an AC generator.

38:28
Basically, we match the power head, the energy generating end,to what the equivalent would be for an AC generator.

38:35
So, you know, 10 kilowatts, 12 kilowatts.

38:38
But when you were running your generator before, your battery charger was capable of charging at, say, 120 amps, right?

38:44
That's right, so-- And so now you're charging at about 400 amps.

38:49
Yes.

38:50
Is that right?

38:50
Or more, close to 500-- Or more.

38:53
Yeah.

38:53
Okay.

38:53
So does that make sense to me?

38:55
So before Andre's was, even though he was running a big generator, his battery charger could only charge at 120 amps, which means120 amp hours per hour could go into his battery bank now with a DC generator you can charge it close to 500 amps per hour so The DC generator, I got to ask a stupid question is run by what?

39:19
Diesel, okay It's the same it's the same engine that runs your diesel generator or any diesel generator.

39:26
Okay, but we might have Andre's figured out how to modify the power head andSo if you don't have if you don't have one already on board, I mean, well, if you don't have one built in, you can get a, can you get a, a, a mobile one or or you know, a hand kit.

39:45
Well, not a mobile, but it would have to be installed.

39:48
Yeah, we would install that.

39:50
OK.

39:51
No, but I'm wondering where it's not like a Honda.

39:54
It's a built in.

39:55
And honestly, this is only if you have really high needs, so.

39:59
You got a family of five living on board and that's you, right?

40:03
Is it five?

40:04
Yeah, that's right.

40:05
Yeah.

40:07
So and you know, this was, this was not possible 5-6.

40:14
Well, it was possible five years ago, but and oh, here's the family.

40:22
Things have changed in the in the electrical design of of boats and.

40:27
And now we have the ability very fast.

40:30
Exactly.

40:31
The energy that the lithium batteries are able to deliver is nothing compared to what AGM S could do.

40:38
And now we can power powerful inverters and cook on an induction cooker.

40:43
Wait, wait, say say that again.

40:45
The energy that lithium batteries.

40:47
Say that one more time.

40:48
So the for the equivalent sized battery bank of an AGM versus lithium, the lithium battery, the internal resistance of.

40:57
The actually I'm going to.

40:59
So the the lithium battery bank is capable of delivering energy a lot faster and a lot more efficiently than A GM.

41:09
OK, I thought you said the reverse.

41:11
OK, so all right, that makes sense.

41:13
And and it charges a lot faster too.

41:15
Like an A GM battery bank, you would be charging from 50% and you can only discharge an A GM bank 50%, whereas you can discharge lithium up to 20% even more.

41:26
25, was it 25?

41:28
That's 20%, yeah.

41:30
But did not.

41:30
But you you recommended not to do that on a regular basis, right?

41:35
You you can, you can like the differences might might be like 1000 to 2000 cycles, but you're already like 20 times the amount of cycles that you would have on an A GM bank.

41:45
So you can utilize the entire, you know, down to 20 percent, 80% of the battery bank and go all the way up top.

41:53
But if you look at the specifications of lithium.

41:56
They have kind of a chart where the lower you go, the longer the long terms of cycles, but it's not, it's not that great.

42:05
I've I've never forgot that you told me that.

42:07
So I try not to get it down.

42:11
Full disclosure intensely in all our, you know, hardcore testing on boats, I've definitely taken my batteries down to.

42:17
2% a couple times and it's fine.

42:19
So Yep, Yep, it has been done.

42:23
I know Andre's done the same.

42:25
I worry about 60%.

42:27
I'm like, Oh no, no, don't even stress anywhere down to 20%.

42:33
You're fine.

42:33
Yeah.

42:34
As a matter of fact, lithium batteries like their favorite place in the state of charge is 50%.

42:40
They love to be at 50%.

42:42
If you could leave a battery at 50%.

42:45
Well, my alarm goes off at 50%.

42:50
I guess you said it that way.

42:52
Or did you set it that way?

42:55
In the middle of the night, I'll be like, you can actually look at that lower.

43:00
You can lower it quite a bit because you're utilizing 50, well, like 40% of the capacity.

43:09
So you have a lot more.

43:10
It doesn't do that very often.

43:11
Yeah, well, it was a panic.

43:15
Alright, so let's see um So, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you guys do It's probably a lot that we haven't talked yeah So we like to we like to alter boats to have more energy capacity have more energy Ability to put the in the capacity and we also like to make them go faster or be more comfortableSo I would say that that pretty much sums it up because that's you know hot water, water generation, all of your electronic creature comforts, how to change or alter the boat or how it sails.

43:59
So like it's pretty widespread.

44:02
I think one new maybe addition that's like relatively new and and we're pretty excited about and we've been doing it for a while now, but it is the high output alternators.

44:13
So high output, high capacity alternators.

44:15
This is really Andre's department.

44:17
But it's-- Is it Victron?

44:20
No, it's not.

44:23
Oh, ohh the alternators.

44:25
Ohh Yeah, so the preferred-- I like Andre to take the wheel on this one, really.

44:29
But where we come from.

44:31
Well, Zeus regulation with hyper alternators.

44:33
Yeah.

44:35
So I was involved in with Arco Marine on the Advisory Board, basically a committee with industry professionals to develop this new regulator, which is the Arco Zeus.

44:46
And it won the Ibex award for innovation last year, which was pretty exciting.

44:53
What's that?

44:53
What does the Zeus do?

44:55
Oh, it's, yeah, good point.

44:57
It's it's a.

45:02
Alternator regulators.

45:03
So you have a high up alternator.

45:04
So a standard alternator like what you-- actually, I think you've changed your alternator now, but let's just say that you had your-- The Valmar.

45:11
That's the Valmar.

45:12
Yeah.

45:12
So the stock alternators are probably like, you know, 35 to 55 to some of them are 120 amps.

45:18
And their efficiency rating is usually roughly around 50%.

45:22
And if you throw a high up alternator, what we consider a high up alternator is usually at 12 volt.

45:29
We've done 170s.

45:30
We've done 250s, there's even some 360s, but typically we do 250 amp alternators and that means that you can charge your battery bank very, very fast.

45:41
It bogs down the engine because that size of alternator is a little bit too big for the size of the engine normally found on small sailboats.

45:48
But the Arco Zeus is the regulator.

45:51
It what's it is what it controls the output of the alternator.

45:55
Well, there is a small regulator in there, but.

45:59
I just installed and you helped you helped me when I was in QS and you walked the electrician through it and it was I got a new part and you have to help me out here.

46:11
It was a charger that goes from the alternator to the batteries because it was a a problem like they weren't charging as much when I was running the engine.

46:21
Yeah, your your factory alternator was really small and it was really tired.

46:26
It was a 35 amp alternator.

46:28
And we I put a 18 amp B2B, which is a battery to battery charger, which delivers the energy from the starter battery, which your own.

46:35
I had upgraded the Balmar to the 100 or whatever.

46:39
That's right.

46:39
That's right.

46:40
A couple years ago.

46:41
That's right.

46:41
But it still was not.

46:44
It's because it's because we still had that battery to battery charger.

46:47
And what was happening, we were using the Balmar to charge the starter battery.

46:51
The starter battery was really happy.

46:52
But now that smaller battery to battery charger that we installed for the other alternator.

46:57
was still there and it was still trickling power to the to the batteries.

47:02
Now the reason we went with that alternator on yours is you didn't have a serpentine belt, which is a wide belt to handle the additional load of the higher output.

47:10
Um So 200 amps and above, you need a serpentine belt, and below 100 amps you can get away with a B belt.

47:18
So what did I install?

47:20
What did I install last?

47:22
So you installed a Balmar100 amp alternator with the MC618 voltage regulator.

47:29
OK that there was that the piece that that was new was what you just the last part you just said I think the cause I already had the Balmar but they were still quite not doing the job though and the you walked the electrician through because they had all the you know all the the Victrons and the and the the lithium batteries and.

47:52
You had to tell him what he wasn't quite sure what to do.

47:54
And so luckily Andre came to the rescue.

47:59
We hooked it up and programmed it to the lithium.

48:02
And then what we did is we reversed that battery to battery charger to the starter battery.

48:07
So now your starter has its own personal charger and stays topped off all the time with that battery charger.

48:13
That makes sense.

48:14
OK, yeah.

48:16
I barely understood what he just said, but you know, he knows what he's talking about.

48:21
But it's it's much better now.

48:23
I'm I'm you know, when I'm at anchor, it's it's um, you know, the batteries are staying charged up more.

48:29
So, all right.

48:30
What else?

48:30
What else?

48:31
What else?

48:32
It's something else, you know, people may not realize that we do.

48:35
And it's because we really don't.

48:37
This isn't something that we necessarily communicate too much outward to the public, but we are now.

48:42
We're going to do that now.

48:44
Yeah, right.

48:46
We are the US and Caribbean distributor for a line of rigging products called Blue Wave.

48:52
It's a Danish family business.

48:54
And so they make rigging components, all the rigging that you see on your boat, the fittings are assuaged to the end of the wire and and a fair bit more, your lifeline components, all that stuff.

49:03
It's a 92 year old Danish family company that hasWe've been very fortunate that they have given us exclusive distribution rights to the United States.

49:14
And so it's been a welcome addition to our line because we already do a lot of rigging.

49:18
And so not only do we have a significantly larger inventory than we carried in the past, but we also now are able to supply rigging components to riggers around the country.

49:28
And so it's been it's been a a fun ride and we we are very grateful because we get to communicate with and and chat with a lot of riggersLiterally from Texas to California to Maine.

49:40
How do you know?

49:42
How do you know Zurn rigging?

49:46
Through actually some of our office team races with some of the guys that rigged at Zurn rigging ah Yeah Very small world.

49:59
Yeah, so you're you you also you distribute to the Caribbean Yes, yeahThat's pretty sweet.

50:08
And not only rigging parts, actually, we sell electrical packages for cruisers who want to do DIY installs.

50:13
So we send pallets and big boxes of components out to people who are cruising down the islands and they want to get a, you know, large package of, you know, what we do is over here, we kind of assemble everything together because you need to use a freight forwarder if you're in the Caribbean most of the time.

50:29
And so we will assemble all of those products into one pallet, so the the Victron components, the solar panels,The hardware, the wire, the lugs, all that good stuff that gets put into one large pallet and then it gets shipped to a freight forwarder, typically in Miami, sometimes in Texas.

50:45
And then it goes off down to wherever that cruiser is in the islands.

50:48
We have a question.

50:51
What is the average lifespan of in mass burlar?

50:54
There you go.

50:57
Thanks, Rico.

50:58
Is it the entire system or the parts inside?

51:00
Because you can keep them going for a long time if you're replacing the parts that might wear out.

51:03
So it's just like it's kind of a loaded question of how long will the car last?

51:08
Well, if you're doing regular oil changes and whatnot.

51:10
Go ahead, Stephen.

51:12
No, exactly what you just said.

51:13
It's a maintenance thing.

51:15
You know, all these systems have ball bearings in them, and at times the ball bearings, all the races need to be worked on.

51:22
But a lot of it comes down to preventive maintenance.

51:24
If you have never sprayed out with fresh water, you're in that spurling system and its components.

51:30
It's probably not gonna last as long as the guy that does that, you know, every six months to a year.

51:34
So a good fresh water rinse once in a while does wonders, you know, get the salt out of there, get the corrosion out.

51:39
So I need to spray it all up and down.

51:42
Well, down, especially in the bottom end where the the moving components are and then also the very upper end if you drop your sail once in a while.

51:49
and flush out that that halyard swivel, the the component that pulls the sail up.

51:53
Fresh water is your friend on a sailboat.

51:56
And then depending on which brand of system you have, some require grease as a lubricant, some require a just a clean- Ball bearing conditioner.

52:05
Ball bearing conditioner, exactly.

52:09
So it depends a little on the brand, but preventive maintenance absolutely is your friend.

52:12
We see plenty of systems out there that are 20 to 25 years old and are stillfully operational because they've been well maintained.

52:20
And then we also see systems that are 15 years old and have been abused and not maintained at all, and they need some work.

52:27
So like Brian, that that analogy of maintaining a car is a really good one on this I think.

52:34
Well, so are you still at-- is it Salt Creek?

52:37
Is that what-- you're still there.

52:39
And you have slips now.

52:42
Oh, yeah, yeah that's a new development since you were last around.

52:47
We have slips for nine monohulls, or really 10 monohulls, and or we have them modified so that four catamarans can fit in there, or we you know put two monohulls into a catamaran slip.

53:00
I don't even remember that much space there.

53:02
Wow.

53:02
We had to modify the seawall and get it dredged.

53:06
Yeah, it's been great.

53:07
Oh, OK.

53:08
OkAnd you have space for people to do DIY?

53:14
Yes, soAnd we we limit that to a certain degree just 'cause we need to keep our teams busy, but we have spots on the hard that can be DIY and we have some spots in the water that we that we utilize for DIY.

53:27
And so it depends again on your use case.

53:29
And so, yeah, we have plenty of people that come in and do do a lot of work in their own boats.

53:33
I would like to add that the the DIY when he said we'd like to limit it.

53:37
So there's a very big difference between a customer that comes and says, I need you to haul out my boat, put it over in the corner.

53:42
I'm going to work on it until it's finished as opposed to, do you mind if I do this portion of the job while you're doing the other portion of the job?

53:49
So if they're going to get the boat, get it in our possession and they want to like, you know, drill a hole and mount something to the bulkhead while it's sitting there, that's not.

53:57
The same as someone that says, hey, I have this boat and I'm going to do my own work for the next month because that ties up a slip that's a working slip and we can't do that.

54:05
OK.

54:06
But we do try to be very understanding with the fact that when you own your own boat, you want to do some things on your own boat.

54:12
And if you're a handy guy and or woman or whatever, then yeah, go for it.

54:16
It's your boat, right.

54:17
So there's a backlog in the yard and they.

54:21
Yeah, right, then go for it.

54:23
So it they they've hired you to do something, but they want to do something in addition to is it at the same time?

54:30
OK, while it's out of the water.

54:31
OK.

54:32
And and you also do some consulting for people who want to.

54:40
Absolutely.

54:41
Yes.

54:41
Yeah, for sure.

54:42
Andre, there's the brother of that.

54:46
enough time for that.

54:47
Yeah It's not It's not a huge part of what we do, but if you're lucky enough to catch particularly Andre at a time where he has a little bit of bandwidth and he can help you design the system and install it, then yeah, that's absolutely something that that we do make happen.

55:05
And then Brian deals with clients who have fabrication projects, and he consults with them and builds what they need, and then they self-install it.

55:11
And the same with rigging.

55:13
We have people who want to re-rig their own boat, and we'll gladly talk you through.

55:17
We have you know a lot of guys on staff who can help with that kind of thing.

55:21
If you're a DIYer, we can provide you with the components, but also educate you to a certain degree.

55:29
Yeah, with that in mind, I didn't even think about it when you asked it, but a lot of people that are either working with a rigger somewhere else or doing it their own self will send me a drawing of an idea or they'll send me some photographs and then I will from those photographs ask them to take some more pictures with some more measurements and then we will make and design a part here and then ship it out for installation somewhere else.

55:51
So that that does happen quite a bit like likeLike a steel frame or an orange, we've gone as mild to wild as making an entire solar system to where someone else is a very capable installer and we made it to where it could be broken down into smaller pieces to be shipped and then someone else put it together do anything but.

56:16
More commonly would be, you know, brackets or masthead cranes or things to allow the sailboat to do more sailing things that it might not necessarily have been designed for in the first place.

56:28
If you're working with a capable rigger and they're up the mast and they're trying to get something done but they don't have a local fabricator that knows what they need, you know, if you go to a local welder, you're gonna get agricultural parts.

56:38
You're gonna get things that look like they should be bolted onto a tractor, not to a boat.

56:41
So when you go to a marine fabricator, you get things that look like they should be on a boat.

56:45
And so-- OK.

56:46
Yeah, when you brought that up.

56:48
Yeah.

56:49
OK, here's the the most important question of the evening.

56:54
When was the last time y'all went to Pelican Bay?

56:56
HmmFive weeks ago.

57:00
No way.

57:01
Yeah, nice.

57:02
Five weeks?

57:02
How about you, Andre?

57:04
I'm trying to remember.

57:07
I was there last year, twice.

57:10
Nice.

57:11
I love it.

57:12
I'm booked.

57:12
I can't say I went on my own boat, but I did have a friend who purchased a catamaran that was down in that region, and I helped him deliver it back up the coast.

57:20
So I think it was five or six weeks ago, we we went from the Port Charlotte area over to Pelican and then spent the night there and you know made our way back up.

57:29
Is the park open again?

57:32
It wasn't up in Russia.

57:35
Yeah.

57:36
Yeah, I don't know.

57:37
Yeah, I think it is.

57:39
Mike Peltzer was just there and I think it is.

57:41
Oh, yeah, he was.

57:41
You're right.

57:42
Yeah.

57:42
And he took the the mangrove tunnel.

57:44
So, yeah, I think it's still open.

57:47
Yeah, that was Ground Zero for Ian, was it?

57:52
OK, Yeah, it went straight over there about the story Cabbage Key.

57:56
And yeah, that's still up there.

57:58
I'm kind of looking forward to going back now.

58:00
Yeah.

58:01
I think y'all should get back there as soon as you can.

58:03
That would be great.

58:04
OK.

58:05
Well, I guess that's it.

58:06
We've been.

58:06
We've been on for an hour.

58:07
Cindy, what are your next?

58:08
We haven't asked you a thing here.

58:09
What is your next cruising plan when you get back on the boat?

58:11
What's the next?

58:13
Yeah, I'm waiting for a a part for my refrigerator.

58:17
My refrigerator went out.

58:18
I had a bunch of stuff that went out at the end of my trip, right at the end.

58:21
That never happens on a that never happens on a boat.

58:25
Our boat never break.

58:26
Yeah.

58:26
YeahAnd they said it was a 1998.

58:29
Bridge.

58:30
So you know, can't get too mad at that, but I'm waiting on one more part and then I had my whole hull of completely cause I had when I got back there was that storm, was it late December, early January, that big storm that blew, it came through here and then I think it went through there and it was like 70 knot winds.

58:48
So I damaged my boat when I got back from a six month long trip in my own slip.

58:55
So at least you were close to a repair facility, you know?

58:58
Yeah.

58:59
So I took it in and I got the whole thing.

59:02
I got every imperfection removed, cost a fortune, but it is perfect.

59:07
I saw some other people's boat that I got hull and be.

59:11
And so I was like, I want mine perfect and you got to pay for it, right?

59:14
You know, for it to be.

59:16
So I got.

59:17
So I'm not sure I'm going to be able to go this year.

59:20
This will be the first year I don't go anywhere if I don't go anywhere.

59:23
Since 2016, just because the market's a little slow for real estate and you know, it takes money.

59:30
You know, real estate pays for the pays for the sailing.

59:34
But my hope is that I will be able to go and and I plan to go head South and I'll go right by you guys.

59:42
So awesome.

59:42
We'll stop in.

59:45
Yeah.

59:45
I appreciate it guys.

59:47
This was awesome.

59:49
I'm so glad that you guys decided to come on here.

59:51
Thank you so much.

59:52
And I will be hopefully you'll get some business from this.

59:56
I know you probably don't need it, but you guys are so friendly.

60:02
I appreciate it.

60:02
So professional.

60:03
Thank you guys.

60:04
And the way I like to end these, I'm going to get queued up here is say salty abandon out.