I was met at the factory by Glen Chaplin, Sabre's Customer Relations Representative. The plant operates on four 10 hour shifts per week. Since I was there on a Friday, it was closed, but Glen turned on the lights and walked me through the entire operation. He has been with the company for his entire career and knows every detail of boat construction.
I loved it all, but as a woodworker I liked the massive wood shop the best. The beautiful cherrywood interiors of Sabre Yachts continue to be one of their strongest selling points. Glen told me that they have master woodworkers that have been at Sabre for more than 30 years. I wandered among the partially finished boat furniture and Glen showed me construction details that make these boats so durable.
The massive molds for the hulls of the Sabre 38 and 42 were being prepped for a new boat. I saw a deck mold that was full with a new deck curing over the weekend. Around the corner, several boats were in final assembly and we walked through them (very carefully).
They don't make the 36 Express (like Invictus) anymore. They also don't make any sailboats anymore. I asked if they stored the molds and Glen said, "No, it's just too expensive to store them and they don't last forever anyway."
At the end of the tour, I met the CEO, Daniel Zilka who invited me and Linda to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner with him, learning about his life and the history of Sabre. Many companies like Sabre went out of business in the early nineties with the imposition of a luxury tax on boats. He managed to turn the corner and grow the company into one of the strongest brands in the industry. (By the way, the company employs 350 workers at two factories.)
Another reason we needed a car was to visit one of Linda's elderly relatives. We drove to Aunt Sally's home in Freeport. Over lunch, she regaled us with stories about her family, including their nautical roots. One ancestor was a survivor of the first recorded shipwreck in New England in 1635. We had motored by the site of the wreck (Thacher Island) on Thursday!
We had a great time seeing her Maine home which overlooks a river that flows into Casco Bay. While we were there enjoying a sunny, warm day a cold fog blew down the river without warning. The climate here is ever changing.
And, of course, you can't go to Freeport without making a stop at L.L. Bean. We left Olive in the car while we made a quick shopping trip.
When we got back to the boat, we got out our log book and finished some of our record keeping. We have logged 1,656.6 miles, using 1,007 gallons of diesel fuel and stopping at 36 different marinas. Over our evening cocktail, we reminisced about what our favorite stops had been. We've seen so much that we are already having trouble remembering the names of some places. We agreed that at times it has felt like we were in a foreign country.
If you've been reading this blog from the start, you know this trip was a life dream of mine. I'm so fortunate that it worked out for me to realize that dream. So many things came together at the right time. I'm fortunate to have retired and still be healthy enough to make a rigorous trip like this. I am lucky that the timing worked with respect to our childrens' lives. I got lucky about the cheapest diesel prices in decades. And I'm very fortunate to have a mate that wanted to help me fulfill my dream. As she said when we arrived here in Portland, "As a distance runner, I get it...this is your marathon."
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Congratulations to all three of you!!!
ReplyDeleteAn incredible journey! I've thoroughly enjoyed the blog. Well done and thanks for sharing.
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