Honesty - Service - Quality

As the spinning propeller Turns

A RANT, A VENT, A NEW CHAPTER

  • July 28, 2010 04:27

As a former stockbroker, I have taken pride in my “perceived” understanding of business models. I spent years at a desk reading about companies, managements and economics. Now that I am “in the sea” of commerce directly, the lens through which I see these topics has changed. Let it be known that there are no “rosy” tones in my lens anymore. The acid wash of pure commerce cuts clearly through the hot air, myths and untruths that Wall Street actors are so adept at applying. No longer a theoretical businessman, I am now purely and simply a warrior of commerce.

With that out of my system, here I sit and write whilst compressors, grinders, blowers and workers toil at their tasks. The compressors, god bless them, never complain except for the occasional squeeling belt or clack from lack of lubrication. The grinders whirrr along so long as they have current flowing across their everwaning brushes. The workers toil so long as they have customers to help and lest not forget the sangria of the entire system, pay, mula daniro.

The very real estate that I am sitting on right now, this valuable land, owned by all, controlled by few, allows us to carry on with our daily labors.  Many(99%) of the occupants of our “great reef” have little or no comprehension of the burden’s this real estate bears upon me.  We can start with the land itself, abused and tortured since it was exposed and shaped shortly after the Kennedy dynasty ended.  Having not washed into the sea, it still “holds us up” and allows us to perform our duties but at significant costs to all involved.  These costs both direct and latent acrete over time to points of  incalculable measure.  The operator’s and customer’s combined greed, environmental disrespect and plain ignorance have added to these costs.

Slowly over time, many “sharecroppers” have attempted to mold things in their own vision with little or no capital with no great affect at all. Buildings were erected, torn down and subsequantly rebuilt. Piers, docks and cranes were lovingly planned and installed with minimal budgets and yet if you add up all the costs for improvements that were capitalized on these tiny family owned balance sheets, the totals would be in the millions of current US dollars. All of this, to “eek” out a living on the waterfront. To serve the customer better.

Ah yes, the customer. The single most important part of  this equation. Boat yards are funny places when it comes to observing the customer/proprietor relationship. This relationship is unique in that I know of no other business model that gives the customer so much flexibility ie; the ability to stand “in the work area, “under” heavy loads, and “on” yard equipment. I don’t know many restaurant owners who allow their patrons to ” cook” their own dinner in the kitchen, Worse yet, hire their own chef to prepare their meals in the proprietors kitchen! If I went to my local Jiffy Lube and asked the manager if I could change my own oil with the oil I brought along, he would ask me what the hell I was smoking!

So I vent!    Looking out my window to survey et al, I see strange cooks in my kitchen and customers lugging their own oil under the rack. But who am I to complain you ask? True, so true. After all, I am the caretaker and I can change the rules.  The model needs changing, but the changes I am contemplating will surely disrupt the space time continuom as it pertains to age old traditions at the water’s edge. 

So change is in the air along with wood, paint dust and the sound of commerce plugging along ever so slowly here on these not so virgin grounds.

Signing off!

MASTERHYPNOTICPARTSCAPTAIN

  • July 16, 2010 06:09

Almost two years ago, exhausted, stressed out and looking for solutions, I found out about a gentleman who might have the answer. Randy, an aquaintance from PBYC, discussed hypnotherapy with me. My initial thought was the image of Randy standing over me with a conical hat emblazoned with a star and a crescent moon telling me to stare into his crystal ball.

Well, little did I  know his true intentions were to subconsciously program me to hire him once the second yard was online. “You will hire me in January Andy, now listen carefully, you are walking down a staircase into a dark basement, but remember you will hire me in January”.

During our consultations, I took advantage of our time to actually  just sleep while he attempted to place me in an altered state. He had to constantly shake me out of my slumber so he could continue to program me. Our meetings were mutually beneficial as he secured a billot with Anchors Way, and I got a great nap!

Two years later, we are saying goodbye to one of the best people I have ever had the honor to work with. Now if you know me, I don’t say that …..ever and I certainly wouldn’t post it on the www.

So with that thought, we are going to notice your absence, instantly. Randy you spoiled us with your mature, thoughtful service to our little company and her many customers.

May you be blessed with a hapless voyage north(but we do know better) and a wonderful new chapter in Oregon.

Fairwell good fellow! 

TO RANDY’S FRIENDS AND CUSTOMERS, PIZZA AT AWMC HQ ON 7/16/10 AT 1230 COME AS YOU ARE!

Small Businesses and Banks

  • July 2, 2010 23:51

7/2/2010

Unless you have stressed about making a payroll you cannot with any true empathy understand just how truly difficult times are right now.

As a former Morgan Stanley stockbroker turned small business entrepreneur, I can assure you that I know from where I speak.  When I began my journey into small business 5 years ago, I had an awareness of how good things were, and only a vague idea of how bad things could get.

I operate two small shipyards in Ventura County and employ a small crew of skilled and dedicated souls.  Our facilities require massive amounts of capital to retain, operate and maintain.  Through sheer will, improvisation and plain old gut instincts, we have managed to “stick it out” through an incredible business cycle with only our customers to thank.

Our bank contacts have not only changed, but have “run for the hills” in recent quarters. I am of the opinion that the only businesses banks will loan money to right now are the businesses who don’t need money at all.  It was my understanding of a bank that it was an institution that receives deposits and lends money period. How can a bank exist if it makes no loans? True, bad loans are worse than no loans, but somewhere between a bad loan and a good loan is where we are talking about. Ceteris Paribus, there are no good loans based on current banking parameters.

I understand our “quick acting” congress is working on a law to assist local banks and small businesses.  Excuse me for sounding jaded, but I would bet that the new legislation will be ill equipped to help people on the frontlines like myself.

So here we are, three years into a nightmarish business cycle with no help, unless you are a Wall St. bank, a government  employee with a strong union or a recent lottery winner.  To all the entrepeneurs out there, hang in there, make your own rules, love your vendors and love your customers more.

Andy Killion

OPERATION LRP UPDATE

  • July 1, 2010 06:33

 

Well we were very busy today. Along with normal boatyard ops, we started the day at 0630 moving doc’s trailer, and A frame, Dave’s race boat and many other items. Avery and Jeff arrived at 0645 prepared for heavy metal movements at height. Harry arrived with his red monster crane at 0915 and we were all done by 1100!! That is why we hired the pro’s.

Now, needle guns and paint!! Talk with you soon.

AWMC

END OF AN ERA

  • June 25, 2010 03:41

They say you cannot miss someone until they are gone. Well I already miss my dad as he has finally left for the ancient seabeds to our east and north. My dad, “Mike” has been amongt us since our inception in 2005. You may have met him and you wouldn’t be able to forget him if you had the pleasure of spending a few minutes talking with him. He always had an opinion regarding the state of our nation. God help you once you started a verbal tangent with him as he “had the time” to fully discuss any issue you desired.

His daily presence at “the picnic” table was always a welcome site for me. He was my nightwatchman. Unfortunately, everytime anything went down after hours at the yard, I would ask him ” what the hell happened?” His normal response was” I didn’t hear or see anything….what happened?” God bless him. He never made enemies, just friends.

He’s not dead. He is just moving on for now. Pops, I am gonna miss you. If you want to talk with him, ask me for directions and if you have the stomach and the gas, you will find him as he is literally at the “end of the line”.

 

FREEDOM OF SILENCE

  • June 9, 2010 13:04

Raced to the poles, was last to vote at my poling place. Performed my civic duties as a citizen of this great republic. Popped my ballot into the electronic reader and the digital readout showed an updated number “79″ I asked the little lady wearing all red(some kind of political code) if that meant only 79 fellow citizens visited the poling place today. She said “yup”. Frickin lame. We deserve everything we get from our political system because the lakers, cable tv and facebookin are obviously far more important than tax measures and political ideaologies. There I said it. Makes you wonder what all of the killing and dying by our men in uniform is for. I guess they are defending among other things our right “not” to vote and our freedom “of silence”. Sad.

Instead of lead pipes, maybe our descendants can blame it on facebook, cable tv ad the NBA

Dibage (digital garbage), Archaeology and the Weather

  • June 6, 2010 07:40

They say to write is to guaranty immortality. Maybe this digital log of thought chains written by an average citizen of our great republic during such a trying time will be of interest to a digital archaeologist in some future time. The internet was conceptualized in the 1960’s by scientists wishing to create an A-bomb proof network linking brain trusts throughout our land.  Ironically it now links the lesser brain trusts ie ; anyone with a hot spot or an ethernet port too.

The problem with this is obvious. I am not the only idiot bloviating into cyberspace. I really don’t know how much “dibage”(digital garbage) we create everyday.  I am certain that our cumulative daily output of terabytes of dibage far out way the Good Book, Koran, Tora, all daily news prints, and the Encyclopedia Britanica combined times a multiple of 10. Christ, just the daily back and forth in Farmworld and Facebook  create more dibage than all the “Great Books” combined.  

With all of this discounted by the writer, my original intent was to write something good about boat projects, the marinas or the boatyards. Yes the material is there for the writer to form and shape into something interesting for the reader.  The difficulty is that the writer’s control of the written word is similar to the weather, some days are better than others.

 Happy boating and happy garbage picking!    AK AD2010,805,34S119W

SUMMER IN THE BOATYARDS

  • June 2, 2010 05:27

 

Well here we are. The sun is about to cross that celestial line that siginifies longer days and shorter nights. Unfortunately for what we  sailors call the Santa Barbara Channel or our chamber of commerce affectionately calls the Gold Coast(now pewter), summer has been a long time coming. Way too much wind and did I say we have had a windy year so far?

Anyways, with summer, brings days on the water enjoying what we love most(besides family, gardening, work and commuting) ………..BOATING!  There have been hints of summer or may I say teases of it in the last few weeks.  ’A’ warm sunny day, followed by 3-5 NUCLEAR POWERED WIND STORMS, with a nice follow up of rain in MAY?

I have also witnessed the JIMMY BUFFET powered sailboat come by our pier heads in Ventura a couple of times. Now this guy has spirit and I don’t even like JB. Shirtless and JB a blaring, he sails to and frow without a care in the world.

The first mass exodus occurred last Saturday as our local flotilla, sortied for Prisoners, Pelican and Smugglers for our weekend of Memorial. I am sure that it was a wonderful time out there, but as a person completely invested in the boating life, I strove to immerse myself in activities I brand as “NBR”. NBR is my code for NON BOAT RELATED which means anything I can do to keep my mind away from boats, paint, harbors or in plain english”ANYTHING TO KEEP MY MIND OFF THIS PLACE,GOD BLESS IT AND ITS INHABITANTS”.

NBR usually means dirt, mountains, a golf course or just my own backyard.

Customers, GOD BLESS THEM TOO, may not be able to grasp the sheer number of hats, the average boatyard owner has to wear: Safety officer, quality control officer, environmental officer, engineering officer, operations officer, information technology officer, communications officer, marketing officer, chief financial officer, landlord, tenant, etc etc etc.

So off I go into our summer, wait what was that? I think I stepped on a pop top.

School Buses, Nascar and the Stock Market

  • May 7, 2010 23:25

I asked myself today why I find it fascinating to watch the stock market only when it is correcting and then I realized that it is no different than the sick curiosity which surrounds car wrecks or many people of a certain persuasions need to attend NASCAR races.  We like to watch.

The main difference between watching a NASCAR crash and the market crashing is that we are all “on the bus” when it comes to the market. Either we own stocks or are emplyed by a company in the market. So however sick it is to watch the market tank, just remember that you are on the bus too. Hang on!

STATE OF THE NATION

  • May 1, 2010 03:23

Sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words. This little guy managed to propel a boat and 3 souls into our little universe this week. 

Kind of like our economy in a way. We are doing more with less.