When one takes on a project like restoring a boat as big as Harmony, there will be many areas of expertise that will either have to be learned or farmed out to experts. Well, I am not afraid of learning something new, but there is a limit to the time I have.
So, without much consideration, I decided to outsource the electrical work to someone who actually knew what s/he were doing. Beyond that I wanted some expert counsel on what choices to make with respect to equipment, ways to do things, and a host of alternative energy sources (i.e. solar and wind).
This seemed like a no brainer of an activity. Beth and I went to the Newport Boat Show in September 2011 and the Boston Boat show in February 2012 to find our marine electrical expert. Sadly, there are not that many of these so-called experts that have booths at boat shows.
However, through the boat shows and our trusted boat yard, Barden's Boat Yard, we found two promising sources of help. Both electricians were located very near Harmony which was great. However, after numerous emails and phone calls over several months, we received no response from either individual. Perhaps business was so good they don't have to respond to potential customers.
Anyway, I reached out to an old friend, John Proctor, from Lawson Yachts to hopefully give me some help. John, gave me the name of Greg Flederman, The Boat Doctor. I called Greg, and he answered on the 2nd ring. Hot Damn!
Greg, The Boat Doctor, was just what the nurse ordered! He is a ABYC Master Technician, and I wanted Harmony to rigorously adherent to the ABYC code. He agreed to meet with me on Harmony to get an idea of the project. We shook hands and I finally had the counsel and electrician I needed. More on this later.
Lesson learned? Well, just because one has a fairly extensive project not every service company may be interested in it no matter what the economic conditions suggest. Keep asking around, and you'll finally find a frog that turns into that prince!
Fair Winds and Following Seas!
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