Strangers on the Docks

Where clients come from? Is a question commonly asked by aspiring/perspiring yacht designers. While I would like to say that clients are drawn to us by our outstanding promotional programs, I am forced to admit that fate more often than not brings an architect and client together. Chance encounters on the docks have led to great things for me in the past. Here are a few standouts.

California Scheming

Stuart, 1985. About 15 years ago, I was really upset with an outfit in California marketing one of our designs as the “Fexas 42.” It was using my name without permission, and other clients were upset that this upstart outfit could call its boat “Fexas” and they could not. I wrote letters, but to no avail. The next step was to get “liars for hire” (lawyers) involved and sue the bastards.

So, I was hanging around a boat at the Miami Boat Show one day when I was approached by a good-looking, square-headed surfer dude. He said his name was Dick Peterson and he was the guy selling the Fexas 42 on the West Coast. I tried hard to dislike the guy. I really did. However, his golly-gee-whiz attitude and sincerity overwhelmed me, just as it has hundreds of clients to whom he has since sold boats.  How could I sue this nice guy who was so enthusiastic about one of our designs?

We walked and talked. Soon afterwards Mikelson Yachts was born, and the Fexas 42 became the Mikelson 42. End of problem. Beginning of a long relationship. That encounter on the docks has resulted in 12 new designs and a bunch of good West Coast friends. 

The Hong Kong Connection

Fort Lauderdale, 1978. I was at the show with the prototype for the 44-foot Midnight Lace when I bumped into a couple of guys cruising the docks. They asked if I was the guy that designed the Lace. We start talking. “They” were Don Canavan and Dave Jackson from Rex Yacht Sales who then represented Cheoy Lee on the East Coast. At that time, the only powerboats Cheoy Lee built were trawlers. Canavan and Jackson told me that Cheoy Lee was interested in getting into modern, high-speed stuff. I invited them for a run on the Lace after the show was over.

From that chance encounter has grown a long and close relationship between Cheoy Lee and our office. The 48-foot Cheoy Lee Sportfish (our first design for the builder) was introduced in 1980. Since then we have done 31 designs for Cheoy Lee and are presently working on new ones.

Handshake Designs

Genoa, Brignole Station, late 1980’s (here, a train platform replaces a dock, but what the hell). Amongst all the boisterous Italian waiting for the train, speaking loudly, and gesticulating energetically, stood two couples speaking quietly in English. We were all returning to our hotel from Genoa Boat Show. We started talking pleasantries, boats, “were are you from?”, and all that good stuff, then parted ways. 

Two ships passing in the night. But a few years later, I got a call from one of the couples about a custom motoryacht launched in 1997. Presently a second 70-foot custom motoryacht is under construction for the same owners. Then a few years later, the other couple called concerning an unusual custom day boat (which was launched last year). These two couples turned out to be four of the nicest clients we have ever worked with. Two out of the three boats were design on a handshake, no contracts. Contracts are only good as the bums (or gentlemen) who sign them, anyhow.

A New Midnight Lace

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, 2000. Jack Chen is an ace Taiwanese boatbuilder whit whom I have worked for 20 years. Over that time  his  company,  Blueawater  Yachts,  has  built  Mikelsons in 42-, 48-, 50-, 56-, 58-, 64-, and 70-foot lengths. I made arrangements to meet Chen on the first day of the show just to say hello and catch up on things. When we parted ways Thursday afternoon, I did not plan on seeing him again even though he was staying at the show for a few days (at boat shows, unless one makes plans to meet at a specific time and place, the chances are slim to none you will meet).

By Friday afternoon, I was ready to go home. I was bushed after walking about 500 miles in bad boat shoes. By the end of the day, my damn socks had stretched such that every step I took pushed them down into my shoes, so I was walking funny on cotton/poly sock balls under my heels. It was a warm, sweaty day and my Right Guard had let me down. The line for the taxis was at least a half hour long, forcing a long hike to my car. I was saying my goodbyes at the Cheoy Lee display when Chen happened by. The first words out of his mouth were, “So what project should we do a joint venture on?” We had never discussed this before. As it turned out I was saving the best of the show for last.

The southeast quadrant of the boat show is where the classic cruisers were assembled: Hinckleys, Freedoms, Huckinses, San Juans, and Eastbays, among others. These simple cruising boats (which I wrote about that month) were one of the show’s highlights for me (180-footers not withstanding), so I told Chen to follow me as we stepped into the crowd heading in the general direction we wanted to go (nobody walks from point to point at boat shows, you are swept along by the people like a chip of wood in a stream).

We looked at all the boats, and I told Chen, “This is the kind of boat we should do together.” Chen offered that he could do something like we were looking at but less expensively and better. There and then it was decided that we would do a new Midnight Lace express cruisers about 50-feet long. Everything – monetary considerations, specs, accommodations – was nailed down in a couple of hours. About a month later we sent Chen the final hull lines, and construction started (hey, it’s easy when the “client” is the architect and the builder). If I had not bumped into Chen that Friday afternoon, this boat would never have happened.

Chance encounters on docks (or train platforms). While advertising, careful planning, and stalking of potential clients help, kismet usually plays the biggest part in hooking up with clients. 

(Reprinted with permission of Regina Fexas.)

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