Rovings
from Professional BoatBuilder magazine No. 143
Compiled by Dan Spurr
Classic Runabouts From Switzerland
Located in Kilchberg, a quiet village a few kilometers from the center of Zürich, Switzerland, Boesch Motorboats is the last in the world to produce serial mahogany runabouts. On the road that closely runs along Lake Zürich, at the water’s edge stand a few wooden buildings from a bygone age. The white Boesch signature across one facade contrasts with the bright red of the building’s wood siding. In the 1970s Klaus Boesch, an engineer and naval architect, succeeded Walter Boesch, who had succeeded Jakob, who founded the company in 1920. Now, Klaus’s son Markus is the fourth generation to head the business. Even in this country, where stability is a national treasure, it is rare to find examples of such continuity. Each generation has contributed to technical progress and innovation, assuring that every Boesch is a boat of its time.
Reading Oil Analysis Reports
In Professional BoatBuilder No. 143 our technical editor, Steve D’Antonio, published “Lessons from the Oil Sump,” a comprehensive story about the usefulness of a regular oil analysis program in maintaining engine, transmission, and hydraulic systems. D’Antonio’s text detailed the range of mechanical ailments a laboratory analysis can reveal, from undue engine wear, to contamination with dirt or fluids and the formation of harmful varnish and sludge. He explained how to implement such a program for boats in your care.
Space limitations in the print edition prevented us from reproducing examples of full oil analysis lab reports. D’Antonio has provided some from one of his favorite labs, and those reports are published here. In addition, this online appendix to the story includes links to the laboratory’s website, with further directions on how to read the report and how to take samples. The quality and volume of information contained in these actual reports are a reminder that at $25 to $30 per test sample, this is some of the most affordable diagnostic information you can provide to service yard customers.
Going Up
Building the buildings at Front Street Shipyard.
If there were a contest to determine what commercial builder in this country could erect the most infrastructure for a major boatyard in the least amount of time, I’d probably put my money on an outfit called Maine Coast Construction, based in Camden.
Reinventing the Respirator
In 2005, when George Buckley stepped down as head of Lake Forest, Illinois–based Brunswick Corporation—the world’s largest recreational-powerboat manufacturer, whose multiple brands were then achieving record sales—he didn’t disappear into retirement. On the contrary, Buckley became chairman, president, and CEO of an even larger company: 3M, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. About four years along in that job, Buckley issued a “challenge” to 3M’s Occupational Health & Environmental Safety division (recently renamed Personal Safety division), asking personnel there to come up with an innovative but inexpensive disposable respirator. Results were expected as quickly as possible, thereby adding the pressure of a tight schedule to the R&D effort.
A Visit With George Cuthbertson
George Cuthbertson was a founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian yacht designers, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts in Ontario, Canada. The year before, his 40′ (12.2m) Red Jacket, said to be the first boat ever built with a balsa core, won the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit. Its racing success helped propel C&C Yachts to astonishing growth and a domination of the North American sailing market. For detailed histories of C&C Yachts and Red Jacket, see Professional BoatBuilder No. 92, “C&C—Then, C&C—Now,” and PBB No. 115, “Red Jacket Revisited.”
