The wheels of change rotate slowly around here these days. Shoestring Shipyard is only a part time hobby for me as most of you already know. I have not been paying much attention to “the Shoestring” in recent months and was happy to keep the status quo.
Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in Shoestring Shipyard designs, and sales of plans and books have been increasing. This has captured my attention, provided renewed interest, and has motivated me to put some time and effort into the business.
I’m presently working on a new book that will become the official Shoestring Shipyard boat building manual, but much more than just a manual. The new book will incorporate various formulas and instructions for determining weight, buoyancy, horsepower requirements, and so forth – such that the reader might wish to experiment with his/her own basic skiff designs. The book will also cover strengths and properties of various building materials, lists of building material sources, and other such helpful information. Building instructions will cover all presently available Shoestring Shipyard boat designs, so one book covers them all, plus I will also include reduced prints of all the plan drawings too. As a bonus, the Shoestring Shipyard Shop Jigs Manual will also be included within this one book.
We used to publish our books under Shoestring Publishing but there is another publisher with a similar name, and it became quite confusing for customers of both entities. We have therefore started a new publishing company called Downeast Thunder Publications. All new books will be copyrighted under the new company and a web site will be created just before we are ready to go to print with the first book title.
It also made sense to us to change our publishing company name from “Shoestring” as the new publishing company will be offering book titles on farming, alternative energy, cooking, power sports, and other genres. Many titles will be released in eBook format first, before the paperback print versions. There are no plans to offer any books in hardcover as of now, unless we hear from enough of you with such a request.
You will see many of the new changes take place in 2012 and I’m excited with our new plans. I’m already thinking about fresh, new, boat designs – specifically for our Shoestring Shipyard market.
My other passion these days is farming. We have developed our property here in Maine into a small hobby farm, but we are considering an expansion into a commercial farm. My wife has posted our Maine adventure about our farm and life in Maine on our farm web site (in a blog format), and she updates it quite often (she is a professional web developer – www.bennettwebcompany.com ). The site URL is www.downeastthunderfarm.com and you are invited to visit us on the web there anytime.
The poor economy, new state and federal regulations, rising taxes, rising commercial insurance rates (with higher premiums and less coverage, combined with more liability), and higher operating overhead necessitates my attention and consideration of making changes in Shoestring Shipyard policies and operational guidelines.
Shoestring Shipyard is not a full time occupation for me. It’s more of a hobby or sideline that I enjoy. It’s certainly not how I make my living. The business has been (mostly) self supporting with enough money made to pay for the overhead that includes advertising, web site hosting & maintenance, printing and reprographics charges for renewing plans and books inventory, insurance, taxes, and so forth.
In recent months, I’ve seen my costs easily surpass the amount of money taken in by quite a significant margin. The choices at hand involve shutting down Shoestring Shipyard entirely, or making some very radical and somewhat harsh changes in order to continue providing folks with easy-to-build boat designs.
The poor economy needs no explanation. Everyone has been affected by it in one way or another, and it’s something we all just have to tough out until it gets better. Tighter government regulations and increased insurance costs are something not readily witnessed by customers on the surface, and thus bears some explanation as to what has transpired: A few years back, many of my peers and fellow members of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) pushed for professional recognition through the licensing of ship design engineers as P.E.’s which had not been a requirement up to that point. This means that the professional licensing would elevate the status of such engineers and all engineering drawings would have to be reviewed, approved, and stamped by the licensed engineer. Many of us were grandfathered (providing we had an accredited engineering degree) from the requirement of having to take the “engineer-in-training” exam, but all were required to study for and take the actual P.E exam to be licensed as a ship design engineer. This license is quite broad and covers both marine engineers and naval architects, however it is too broad. Originally intended to cover engineers involved in the design of large, steel, ocean going ships, the licensing requirements as written also inadvertently encompassed all designers of any type of vessel – including small wooden boats.
The law went through and now all designers must be professionally licensed, or submit their designs to a fellow engineer who is licensed to have them approved and stamped. This does not come cheap!
Having a professional engineering license shifts any and all liability onto the design engineer for any omissions or errors that may cause a flaw in the design of the vessel. Thus, the insurance companies used this as an excuse (greater risk) to vastly increase insurance premiums, increase the deductibles, and reduce the actual coverage of insurance known as Omissions & Errors Liability coverage with premiums that are now akin to malpractice insurance for physicians. Furthermore, the federal government (US Coast Guard) tightened their regulations for designers and boat builders in the pleasure boat market. Much more stringent testing of hulls, flotation, inspections by USCG inspectors, etc. has become law. Stability and trim testing and data are required and load capacity, horsepower ratings, and other info is required to be imprinted on an aluminum placard and permanently fastened to the hull in a designated location. Commercial work boats are generally not affected or required to go through the same inspections as pleasure boats, so this eases the burden a bit on boat builders.
The cost of living has increased, along with government taxes, the cost of ink, and paper as well, so it’s easy to understand why my printing and reprographics expenses have gone up over the years.
I need to decrease my prices due to the sluggish economy, but as you can see – my costs are higher than my income – forget about the concept of generating even the slightest of profit margins. What can I possibly do?
First of all, I can drop my insurance coverage. The only way to do this is to only publish books and drawings that are intended for personal enjoyment, study, and perusal by the customer, and make it specifically clear that such designs were drawn to be commercial work boats and are not intended to be actually built. The plans will be referred to as “cartoons” and the manuals will be referred to as “comic books.” This idea is not original by any stretch of the imagination. I got it from the late Phil Bolger, a brilliant naval architect and small boat designer with something around 700 boat designs to his credit. He always referred to his drawings as cartoons when published in the original Small Craft Journal every month.
There will no longer be any tech support (which was always free via email). Since the designs and books are no longer intended to be actually built, providing tech support for someone building such small craft would say otherwise. In addition, there will no longer be a detailed bill of materials for each design for the same reason, however I can include what I think a basic or general list of materials might be required if the boat was ever intended to be built in the real world – it’s all wording.
By doing all of this, there will be a significant savings but I still have to go further in order to reduce prices. I’m thinking about combining the present individual manuals into just one book. I may also redraw all of my designs (including all of the older hand-drawn plans) in CAD and sized to fit a standard sized 8-1/2” x 11” sheet of paper. In doing so, I can combine boats of a series into a book of plans. You would no longer have any large scale drawings or full size templates for knees or breasthooks, etc., but enough information will be contained in the book if someone actually wants to duplicate the part in wood full sized. For instance, the plans for the series of Frugal Skiffs (8’, 10’, 12’, and 14’) would all be contained in one book. The Pilgrim’s Pride 16 and Humble Peasant 22 would both be contained in one book as both hulls go together in similar fashion. The Sagamore Tender, Narraguagus Skiff, Bootstrap Dinghy, Sea Bug Dinghy, and possibly Simple Simon would make up another book.
Such books will be available in printed form, but they will also be available for download in pdf format at a reduced price. This further decreases my overhead costs.
By making such changes, it’s also possible that I may be able to make several other designs of mine available that have never been offered through Shoestring Shipyard. I once designed a houseboat for my cardiologist, an ice fishing shanty, some sloops for weekending and Open Ocean, etc. These designs are more advanced and not intended for the backyard boat builder, and that’s why they’ve never been seen on the Shoestring web site – but – with such changes, I can offer these other designs (cartoons) to provide more variety.
It will take quite some time to make such changes. It won’t happen very fast. Keep in mind that I make my living by doing other things and not through Shoestring Shipyard, so I’ll work on this as time allows (mostly in the evenings). In the meantime, you can still purchase large scale drawings (cartoons) and manuals (comic books) with the only changes being with the stipulation that such boats are not intended to be built – they are intended for you to study and peruse for your personal enjoyment. I’ll strive to maintain the current pricing as long as I can (I haven’t increased prices in many years) until I can make all of the changes outlined above.
That’s all for now.
Tags: cartoons, change, comic books, DIY, drawings, lower prices, New direction, plans, Wood Boats
Posted by admin on Jul 12, 2009 in
New Business
- Downeast Thunder Logo
Downeast Thunder is now open for business at 56 Shop Hill Road in Milbridge, Maine. We specialize in single & twin cylinder, big bore four stroke engines; from maintenence & repair services to custom design & fabrication. Motorcycles are our primary focus, however we also provide similar services for 4-wheel ATV’s and all kinds of power equipment. Hours are from 9:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday through Friday, and 9:00am to 3:00pm on Saturdays. Appointments are recommended. Call 207-598-6266 Check out our web site on line for more information. We are now authorized dealers for Spectro Oils, High Lifter ATV products, K&L Tools & Supply, Automatic Distributors, and we are now an official Ural (Russian motorcycle) parts and service center – authorized to make warranty repairs.
Tags: accessories, atv's, custom fabrication, motorcycles, New Business, parts, power equipment, repair, sales, service, Ural motorcycles
Posted by admin on Dec 31, 2008 in
Life in Downeast Maine I travel about the country frequently and people are always asking me about the area of Maine I live in, known as Downeast Maine. Downeast Maine is the Northeastern coastline of Maine. Most people in our neck of the woods consider the “Downeast” portion of Maine to be Hancock and Washington Counties. Read more…
Tags: Maine, Life, Downeast, Downeast Maine, Quality of Life, Vacation
Shoestring Shipyard – Top Ten Frequently Asked Questions (in no particular order):
1) What is the top speed of the boat design I’m considering?
2) What is the weight of the hull?
3) How much will the boat hold?
4) Can I use building materials other than specified and what will it cost?
5) How long will it take me to build the boat?
6) What is the freeboard of the boat?
7) How will the boat handle in various sea conditions – will it pound?
What are the performance specifications?
9) Can I use an outboard larger than specified?
10) Can this boat capsize?
I receive inquiries every week that usually include most if not all the above questions; regardless of the design the person is interested in building. My answer is in essay form because my response involves most of the above topics. That is to say that to explain one is to explain all as they are all integral to each other for the most part (one explanation covers all so to speak). Read more…
Tags: Answers, Boat Building, Construction, Information, Questions, Wood Boats, Wooden Boats