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Guest
Guest
Well actually I had avery pleasant day in Corby or Oundle or wherever it was. It was quite an interesting tour, and very sunny
We were taken to the new Nene Valley place where they do Squaddies and the first few phantom 50s. The moulding shop was rather tidy I mean very clean and bright and force-ventilated and no gobby bits of resin and mat anywhere. Even they admitted it was dodgy a few years back, they have come a long way. Basic process is primitive of course, lots of bods with b+q rollers. All done by hand, gelcoat brushed not sprayed etc. But much careful process engineering in sight
The first Squad 74 hull was in there laid up, still curing in mould (or more like, let's leave it in cuz we have no friggin place to put it if we take it out). It had 5 vertical oval shape windows in the side of the hull each side bit like that big azimut 70
Shock horror they just decided they will no longer make blue hulls. They say it's too hard. All phantoms now white, they seemed not quite sure on the smalller targas they thought competitive pressure might cause them still to offer blue. I complained like hell to the sales bod, CEO and Manuf director, I said cannot possibly buy a non-blue fairline but they didn't seem too bother cuz their order book stretches a long way. Come the next recession and I'll order blue (except er I wont have any dosh in a recession dang).
Apparently each boat now comes with a custom DTPed owners manual with instructions and digi pics of that particular boat and the nav gear fitted to it. I asked if one could have it as a pdf but they looked blank and said they can supply a gps if that would help
Matt you hit the mark, the Squad 52 is about to be canned when the last few are finished. Also yes all the handtools were 240 they haven't heard of 110 yet. Several workers had vandergraf generator hairdos so I spose self administered ECT was a common occurence.
All the workers are in teams kind of like Volvo Kalmar but simpler. The bonus system is one for all all for one, within the team. So if the team pulls together and works fast they all get a bonus, the same bonus. And if someone in the team screws up and slows the job they all lose their bonuses that week. One guy I spoke to had apparently scratched the gloss cherry side board as he walked thru with his circular saw and it all had to be replaced by the team. He had his arm in a sling 5 front teeth missing crutches and gashes to both eyes. He said he got mugged by 4 blokes in balaclavas walking home from the pub in the dark anyway I'm sure there's no connection at all there.
Overall it was kind of like your garage. Bigger but the same idea, lots of jigsaws and sanders plugged in and lying around, ghetto blaster with paint spills but still working ok, everything done by hand. The workforce seemed genuinely nice guys, I strayed away from the tour guide often and they were happy to stop and talk about what they were doing, very interested in the product.
No girls in thongs. Or Edinburgh Woolen Mill suits. Almost no girls at all in fact.
They showed their new promo vid, they just commissioned it and will be running it on cable business TV then shipped it to the worldwide dealer network. They said it is just back from the editors, cost a bomb, has interview with the CEO saying things like "world class" etc. Thing is, it was full of navy phantoms and targas..... doh!
I said their website was crap needed update they agreed, working on it. Apparently it gets 45000 hits/day in the 4 summer months and they send out 700 brochures a month
Last point, don't go near that place without a geodesy (aka Morph). The A roads are great but its littered with Truvelo cameras (measure speed by your tyres hitting strips in the road then photo the front of your car with infra red, normal radar detectors cannot warn you about them). I passed about 6 and would have 18 points 500 quid fine and a 12 month ban in the mail if not for Geodesy
Anyway they gave me a jolly nice decanter and whisky glasses (er... with a fairline logo) and roast beef yorkshire pudding lunch and some new velcro to reattach our falling down headlining so they were jolly nice even though we didn't order a boat. I took a few U cert digi pics of the interesting bits but I cant post them on here due to pornography regulations
We were taken to the new Nene Valley place where they do Squaddies and the first few phantom 50s. The moulding shop was rather tidy I mean very clean and bright and force-ventilated and no gobby bits of resin and mat anywhere. Even they admitted it was dodgy a few years back, they have come a long way. Basic process is primitive of course, lots of bods with b+q rollers. All done by hand, gelcoat brushed not sprayed etc. But much careful process engineering in sight
The first Squad 74 hull was in there laid up, still curing in mould (or more like, let's leave it in cuz we have no friggin place to put it if we take it out). It had 5 vertical oval shape windows in the side of the hull each side bit like that big azimut 70
Shock horror they just decided they will no longer make blue hulls. They say it's too hard. All phantoms now white, they seemed not quite sure on the smalller targas they thought competitive pressure might cause them still to offer blue. I complained like hell to the sales bod, CEO and Manuf director, I said cannot possibly buy a non-blue fairline but they didn't seem too bother cuz their order book stretches a long way. Come the next recession and I'll order blue (except er I wont have any dosh in a recession dang).
Apparently each boat now comes with a custom DTPed owners manual with instructions and digi pics of that particular boat and the nav gear fitted to it. I asked if one could have it as a pdf but they looked blank and said they can supply a gps if that would help
Matt you hit the mark, the Squad 52 is about to be canned when the last few are finished. Also yes all the handtools were 240 they haven't heard of 110 yet. Several workers had vandergraf generator hairdos so I spose self administered ECT was a common occurence.
All the workers are in teams kind of like Volvo Kalmar but simpler. The bonus system is one for all all for one, within the team. So if the team pulls together and works fast they all get a bonus, the same bonus. And if someone in the team screws up and slows the job they all lose their bonuses that week. One guy I spoke to had apparently scratched the gloss cherry side board as he walked thru with his circular saw and it all had to be replaced by the team. He had his arm in a sling 5 front teeth missing crutches and gashes to both eyes. He said he got mugged by 4 blokes in balaclavas walking home from the pub in the dark anyway I'm sure there's no connection at all there.
Overall it was kind of like your garage. Bigger but the same idea, lots of jigsaws and sanders plugged in and lying around, ghetto blaster with paint spills but still working ok, everything done by hand. The workforce seemed genuinely nice guys, I strayed away from the tour guide often and they were happy to stop and talk about what they were doing, very interested in the product.
No girls in thongs. Or Edinburgh Woolen Mill suits. Almost no girls at all in fact.
They showed their new promo vid, they just commissioned it and will be running it on cable business TV then shipped it to the worldwide dealer network. They said it is just back from the editors, cost a bomb, has interview with the CEO saying things like "world class" etc. Thing is, it was full of navy phantoms and targas..... doh!
I said their website was crap needed update they agreed, working on it. Apparently it gets 45000 hits/day in the 4 summer months and they send out 700 brochures a month
Last point, don't go near that place without a geodesy (aka Morph). The A roads are great but its littered with Truvelo cameras (measure speed by your tyres hitting strips in the road then photo the front of your car with infra red, normal radar detectors cannot warn you about them). I passed about 6 and would have 18 points 500 quid fine and a 12 month ban in the mail if not for Geodesy
Anyway they gave me a jolly nice decanter and whisky glasses (er... with a fairline logo) and roast beef yorkshire pudding lunch and some new velcro to reattach our falling down headlining so they were jolly nice even though we didn't order a boat. I took a few U cert digi pics of the interesting bits but I cant post them on here due to pornography regulations