August Operating Notes

• Come see us at the September boat shows! Gateway I will be attending two boat shows in September; Seattle Boats Afloat Show, Sept. 12th through the 16th on the south end of Lake Union; and the Anacortes Fall Show, Sept. 28 through the 30th. Bring a friend and show off your boat! The next show following those will be the Seattle Boat Show in January at Century Link Field (Jan 25 – Feb 3). Aspen and Gateway are co-marketing these shows – look for a much larger Aspen/Gateway presence at the Seattle shows!

• 36’ Aspen – Progress is good in raising the funds necessary to get moving on development of this exciting new boat. We have commitments for the necessary funds to get the full-scale wood mockup built – that will be critical in getting the development right, spurring presales, and helping to raise the remainder of the funding necessary to tool up. We have verbal commitments for roughly half the larger tool funding required, and should have that in place by the first of October. If you or someone you know is interested in being involved, Larry Graf and I will be holding another investor meeting either in late August or early September. I think that if you look at the way more traditional “investment” money is being treated, you’ll find this could be an attractive way to put at least one of your nest eggs to work in a basket where a real, made in America, quality product is built!

• New Ropes – In addition to the new 40’ mooring rope, we have added 200’ of floating triple-strand nylon rope that can act as a stern line for the boat (while at anchor), and can also work to secure the dinghy. There are two 100’ ropes, if you need the full 200’ length you’ll need to tie them together.

• New Chart Plotter “Vision” Charts - This extends the map coverage from the south end of Puget Sound up to the northern tip of Vancouver Island. It also provides satellite imagery, photos of marinas, as well as many other functions that the data base did not previously have. On your next outing be sure to have us go over the changes with you, it’s quite an improvement!

• Excessive Use of Force! On a recent charter with teenagers aboard, several items were broken or marred from excessive use of force. Using too much force that leads to breakage/damage is usually the result of impatience. As owners, and as the Captain of your vessel, each of us is responsible to prevent damage. One way to do this is to include it in your briefing to younger people – “If something doesn’t give the desired result easily, investigate why – do not force it!” Sure stuff happens, it’s a boat after all! And not everything on a boat is made of solid steel (heavy) – we try to purchase the best products available, but sometimes they break – if they are made of plastic, then care must be taken. On a charter, all items broken or damaged are replaced using funds from the charterer’s damage deposit, while owners on board while damage occurs are simply invoiced. Most pure charter companies are hesitant to use deposit money as they want their charter customers to return, so they often pass on these costs as maintenance costs to the boat owners – or they don’t get fixed at all. Rest assured that our desired culture and reputation is to provide boats that are new or like new and any damage will get repaired at the expense of those who are using it at the time. A quality reputation is superior to repeat business, especially if the repeat business is abusive to the boat.

• Time! It takes a tremendous amount of work to clean and maintain the boat – there is at least 4 to 6 hours of work that follows every use. If two people work it, then we can cut the time almost in half, and that’s what we do if the turn to the next day is tight. If the boat does turn the next day to another customer, then you can see how important it is to get the boat back with enough daylight left for us to get that work accomplished – and it is now getting dark earlier as we get closer to fall. On charters we have set 1:00 PM as the time that charter customers must return the boat to the slip. For owners, that time is going to be 2:00 PM for return on your last day of use unless coordinated otherwise. Obviously that will depend on the schedule, and it is highly likely that keeping it out later will be okay. If you are using Open Time, then it may be possible to keep it out late, but I would like for the standard to be that our owners ask about it and that we set a time that works for everyone. We have a great group of owners, for that we are all thankful! But once a time is set, then it is important that time be honored as we hire employees and it is costly to have them just standing around. Boating is funny, time wise, in that getting ready or getting back always seems to take longer than we think. And to us, “getting back” means that we can get on the boat and help you on your way, then take care of the boat. But if you have to clear customs, or run over and put fuel in the boat, pump out the holding tank, or whatever (stuff we’d gladly do ourselves and actually are faster at it), then it eats into the time we have to get the boat ready, so please account for these things when timing your return. We know that everyone does their best. All we ask is that we coordinate a time, and then stick to it or notify us with enough time to adjust. We don’t want a program where the owners do the cleaning (like everywhere else), and we don’t want to have to start charging for standby time, that’s not our goal, obviously. Thanks for your understanding.

• Light Bulbs. On Gateway I there are two types of lights – Incandescent, and LED. The swivel lights above the dinette, the ceiling light in the restroom, the light just to the right of the Television, the reading lights near the pillows, and the hand-hold-like swivel lights are all LEDs, the rest are incandescent. The LEDs use far less energy, put out far less heat, and last far longer. If possible, please use the LED lights as much as possible. The incandescent red/white bulbs are very short lived, I just changed four of them on the boat’s last turn. To make them last longer, favor the LEDs, turn the “Lights” circuit breaker off on the DC panel if not needed, and please make sure to turn the engine compartment light off. There are freshly stocked spares located in the small items kit in the spare/oils compartment, or preferably, just notify us of burned out bulbs and we’ll replace them.

• Customs Worksheet.  Customs Worksheets are stocked in a plastic sleeve near the end of the Gateway Manual (located in the glove box). This form will help you organize all the information required before going through customs both ways. Lost in the Fog? As I type and glance out the window, it is what we call in the flying world, “Zero, Zero,” meaning no visibility either horizontally or vertically. Fall is definitely fog season, although it can occur any time of year over the water, even in the middle of summer like today. This is exactly why the boat has GPS and Radar installed on it, it behooves us all to know how to use it, and how to interpret what it’s telling us. If you’re interested in learning a little more about it, let me know and we can arrange a session to go into it as deeply as you like. It’s best to be on the boat, of course, so perhaps we can arrange a day when the boat’s not scheduled, or combine it with the beginning of your next trip.