Sunday Spotlight: Sea Hag

This post should be listed in the "on time" side of the ledger. It was started at 6pm and my intention was to finish it directly. I had to stop for dinner then a series of distractions and some cold medicine..... Anyway its 2:20 in the am, lets see how it goes.

Sea Hag is a 36' Calvin Beal that was finished in 2003. The boat is primarily used for catching lobster and lives in Rye NH. Based on reader feedback that are all the boat details that you are going to get. If you'd like to learn more about Sea Hag, please leave the following comment "I've got to know more about that boat". Keep checking back in the comments section for more and more details as they are requested. The rest of this will be an interesting story about the relationship between the owner of Sea Hag and Clark Island Boat Works. The facts might be exaggerated and/or changed to make for a better story.

Scheduling the completion of a project can be very difficult. Things will happen to delay a launch: other repairs take longer than expected, underestimating how long things will take, and unannounced vacations can all make a boat take longer than anticipated. I think in the case of the Sea Hag we just underestimated how long the project was going to take. The owner was looking to have the boat completed in April, like most lobster boats, and it had become obvious that we weren't going to have the boat done until much later. As you are reading this you might be asking yourself "why would he be talking about a boat that was late?" or you might be asking "is he trying to make my decision to pick another boatshop easier?" or you might be asking "why is the kid blogging at 2:20 am?"

Anyway, June of 2003, the owner of Sea Hag and 2-3 of his pals make the trip north to check progress on the boat and to help in any way they can. Back in 2003 there was no internet so the owner had no idea what he was going to be seeing until he arrived at the shop. The owner was not at all pleased with the amount of work that had been completed, and knowing that the boat launch was still weeks away he became irritated. He quickly progressed through the 4 levels of irritation.....

1. Mumble to yourself.
2. Kick dirt on shop floor.
3. Stare at boat while shaking head.
4. Mention something to the boss.

At the time I was just a worker and luckily didn't have to deal with the customers. That was my dad's job. And truthfully I didn't hear the conversation between the two, but my dad says it went like this.

"when is the boat going to be done?"
"as soon as possible, we're working as fast as we can."
"yeah well you said it was going to be done by blahblahblah and it clearly isn't going to be."
"the boat will be done when its done."
"discouraging comments, grumble grumble, blahblahblah....."
"look, we are trying to finish your boat. now you can either see if there is anything you can do to help or maybe you should just get in your car and head back to Rye."

Awkward silence throughout the shop for the next couple of hours, then complete attitude change by the owner. No more comments about the boat, he was actually in a good mood. We worked the rest of the day then the owner, his 2-3 friends, and myself went golfing. This has nothing to do with the post but I killed those guys on the golf course. The owner was a pleasure to work with for the rest of the project. The boat was finished in early August and the owner was extremely happy with the boat. And although it was late, he was extremely happy with Clark Island Boat Works.

Every year I go to Rye and help out with yearly maintenance: repair hauling side, phillyclad the deck, touch up the gelcoat.....And every year I get great Red Sox tickets. The owner of Sea Hag is one of my favorite customers, his boat lead directly to another project "Fish Tales", and from what I hear he will praise Clark Island Boat Works to anyone that will listen. Sorry we were late with your boat, thanks for your continued support.

I can't tell if this post is good or not, it might get deleted in the morning. Normally I wouldn't talk about a late project but I guess the moral of the story would be...........complaining doesn't help. (we're working as fast as we can)

How about that great photo at the beginning of the post. That's the best pic I have of this boat, if you have a better picture of Sea Hag please email it to me. 11 down, less than 20 to go.