ProBoat Radio

This year’s offering begins, “Imagine if you will, a time, a place, where men gathered together to lay glass cloth in a mold, slather it with resin, and – the greatest surprise of all – they actually made a living doing it. This noble band of brothers carried on the traditions begun centuries before. Many of them cannot even imagine any other life. And there’s a very good reason for that. This isn’t any ordinary boatyard. The men here will never leave. And they’ll never grow up. “ Maybe it’s an ordinary boat yard after all. You can be the judge. The Help Wanted sign is always posted at . . . wait for it . . . the Boatyard Zone.

Cindy Purcell of Huckins Yacht Corporation joins us to talk about the company's new 45’ sportfisherman, currently under construction in Jacksonville, Florida. Purcell has been personally involved in all aspects of the design process and will remain hands-on throughout the project, as the company celebrates its 85th year. She'll tell us why, from the builder's stand point, she likes this trend toward smaller boats with greater fuel efficiency. And we'll talk about what she thinks the future holds for the yachting industry, too.

Surveying the America’s Cup and Other Outlandish Tales One of the questions coming out of San Francisco Bay this year is, “What’s going to happen to those $16 million boats after it’s all over?” And that got us wondering: What will happen? Will some surveyor get the call to hustle on over and write up the paperwork for a pre-purchase survey? That could be fun. For this show, we’ll talk about what takes place when a surveyor is faced with preparing a C&V or damage claim for a vessel that just doesn’t fit into our normal parameters. How do you set insurance values and repair costs for rare or unusual craft? And it’s not all high-end either. At what point do you look at something that barely floats and say, “I’m sorry, but I really can’t call that a boat, at least not until you remove the raccoons.” Got a favorite one-of-a-kind or one-of-a-dozen story?  Send it in: radio@proboat.com [radio@proboat.com]

In this week's ProBoat Radio WEST show, your host Ann Avary interviews John Webber from Outback Power. Based in Arlington, Washington, this company  offers a line of marine-application mobile Inverters that are renowned for leading-edge reliability and durability with extremely high-power density. OutBack also has a family of sealed inverters designed to work in the harsh environments encountered by marine vessels. Join us for the details.

Zoltek's VP of Engineering & Technology Bill Regan joins us to discuss some of the carbon-fiber products that his company will be showcasing at IBEX 2013 in Louisville.   Based in St. Louis, the company has received accolades for its low-cost carbon fiber sheet molding compound (SMC) product for automotive applications, and for its work in the wind-energy industry.    At IBEX, attendees can find out more about what carbon fiber has to offer to builders.