Is It Not A Knot? Or Not Knot? We Are Launching An Investigation And Sale!
Yesterdays story on the Tarp Find Prototype Cobra erupted into a back and forth about an insulting comment made regarding the quality of wood and craftsmanship of the work being done on the Cobra. The reason why it became somewhat contentious. Is the tone that the comment was made. Not that it may have been a Knot, or is a knot.
Also near the end of the day, some of the regulars from the lake chimed in. I know that the comment struck a nerve of sorts. And was not fare since how it was worded. “That wouldn’t fly in my shop” tone is important.
You can of course can go back and read the back and forth. BUT, here is the point. I applaud and thank the good folks that send us their work. They put it out there for the comments and arguing. And that is amazing. This boat as have others, has been done out in the open, like making sausage. The little details are part of it, but also the courage to allow that exposure to happen is amazing, and we are grateful. We always encourage others to show their work, after all, it’s one of the corner stones of why Woody Boater is here.
We also applaud people that make comments and use their real names. As painful as this may seem, it does make this community better. But, as I said before, tone is everything. If its a knot, or not a Knot, is really not the issue with social media. TONE!
After 40 years in business, I have learned the hard way, that tone is more important than facts. Facts are facts. But tone is emotion. Here is a possible way to have made a comment when you notice something. After all, you may be wrong.
1. A private email. Call, etc. I get tons of them, and adjust accordingly. If you notice, if a comment is made about my error, I leave the error, because its part of the issue and at this point cant adjust the error as respect to the comment. But a private email or text. Allows me to fix it. So in reality, a comment about an error is designed by the reader to embarrass the writer. Not help.
2. If a comment is made. Like the one made. It could have gone like this. “I see in the photo what appears to be a knot in a frame. Is that a stain? Is there a knot on the other side of the frame? I realize its in a strange place to notice? I realize this is a photo, but you may want to look into that? This allows the reader to look helpful instead of jealous or spiteful, and the writer, and participant to have a way to check, instead of a battle.
3. I make lite of battles, but they take a personal tole. They can create feuds that do not end. They make the entire community look like children. And for the people involved, stress! This should be fun. No one wants to do business with children. Note that in an argument, both parties look like loosers. For the record, Seth never made a comment, or got involved. In fact we laughed over it, it sure looks like a knot. And part of the issue was confusion regarding the stem. Classic Boating is a stress release, not a stress maker.
As to the knot, or not a knot. Or why a knot. We are getting new photos and will deliver that news as soon as the investigation is over. STAY TUNED. The Cobra Prototype Story is heating up.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Without your participation it would not be the same.
By the way, we have WHAT KNOT? Shirts on Sale? Ya. I went there. Who knew this would happen in a million years. gotta make lemons.. Well you know..
Buy three save $10
Matt
I’m knot starting nuthin!
Now, now, children you have to learn to play nice in the sandbox.
Well stated Matt. We will never know what you go through by putting your heart and soul out there.
I keep a low profile and yes hide behind an on-line name. Women from my past life type thing…
Four that want to own me
Two that want to stone me
One says she’s a friend of mine
take it easy
I still say: A Knot by any other name would look as SWEET!
Just for the record I do use my real name, Troy. I use the “in ANE” which is a pun that stands for Atlantic NorthEast, but with the font Matt has chosen it looks like ME which is also appropriate since I live in Maine. When I am traveling I sometimes use things like Troy in VA, Troy in TX, or wherever I may be.
(Image may be subject to copyright)
Man Troy, I don’t remember any of the 7 women I’m hiding from looking that good.
Keep hiding in the Bilge, they will never find you there.
Also for the record: I really don’t have a herum of women, just my one hottie, Sandi, and we are coming up on our 32nd anniversary in July.
(This picture has no copyrights, but please don’t use it as your own.)
Are there treats involved? I can sniff out a knot. Well pretzel knots at least.
Hey, I’m amazed any great shop had a spot open to get going on it this time of year. Hope nobody got bumped. Matt you proved hands down the shop was right when you showed the factory drawings. That should have gotten a HOLY CRAP THEIR RIGHT!! With Katz working on so many you have to believe they know their poop. Seeing how it was in Canada, I can’t wait to see it with it’s fenders/bumpers out. Cheers everyone.
By-the-Way, i’m the greatest boat builder ever, only built one boat, but the greatest and without nary a not… 🙂
Like it or knot …. I am Going Boating…today!
John in Va.
Ya gotta love Troy….everyone is all Kung Foo Fightin’ and this or that and what knot, and then he will post and…
SQUIRREL !
This is supposed to be a fun place to come and enjoy boat stories. Based on that the negative comments about the Cobra have no place here.
That being said I do understand the frustration with the continuous coverage and plugs of one sponsor and also the defense of a reputation of Chris Craft and what standards should or could be applied during the restoration of a wooden boat. I did one so I am also an expert now.
So we can all learn something from this on both sides about not crossing the imaginary line of demarcation.
Now let me go and sand my hull in peace and get back in the water where I belong.
So that was my comment that you speak about and I would change nothing about it. I’m just going to air it out and then I will be done. Seth does pretty good work, he’s not the best in the business but I would say in the top ten. There is a small community of us that work together in restoring high quality restoration and have been doing it for a long time. We communicate back and forth using each others knowledge and strengths in the business. This helps us all get it right most of the time because we all understand it’s about the boats and delivering a quality restoration for the customer. Its a hard business and we let our passion and our work speak for it self. Its unfortunate that Seth and the guys from Kat’z choose not to be a part of that circle because we all could learn a lot from each other. The problem that I have with Seth personally is that he bad mouths my work like in Florida to my customer and the owner of the boat. He was wrong by the way, and then I had to here it from some of my past customers which he or you spoke to and some of those customers I have won top awards with boats that I restored for them. He did not come to me and ask where I found my information and this has happen on a few occasions so I do take it personal. Matt you post for him like he’s the king of restoration and then that leaves the rest of us with great stories that you wont post because we don’t advertise with you. Just recently a restorer worked really hard on a story about 3 25′ rare Gar Woods that are all being restored by 3 different high quality restorers around the country and it was never posted. The only reason we can come up with is that we don’t advertise with you. So because we don’t pay you wont post, but you will post stories about Ebay stuff or bacon. Most of the restoration stories you post is about your stuff, Kat’z Marine or every once in a while someone that is doing it for themselves which don’t get me wrong it’s great to see the guys doing it for themselves. They usually call restorers in the business to give them information which we supply for free and happy to do so. Your right when you say it should be about classic boating but I feel it shouldn’t just be about who pays you to advertise because when you started it this it wasn’t. It was about all of us as a community who loved wood boats but unfortunately this site has closed some of us out. With that I’m out as well.
Its getting personal now. So I will chime in. I have known Seth as a friend for over 10 years. He says great things about others. Very supportive of the entire hobby and if you look in all the publications, supports all of us. I don’t see that from any of the negative folks here. NONE!
Taking shots like this isnt just not fair, its just wrong.and it makes everyone doing look small. Can we focus on the Knot or the Not Knot. You may be surprised how this turns out. The sad part of all this, is I like Mike, and Jim G ads a ton to this site. I support countless companies that are NOT sponsors. Always glad to do stories. As to the Gar Woods? I have no clue what Mike is talking about. Why wouldnt I want to do a story like that? How many dam sausage days can one guy do?
Guilty
I used the name dim yeastsrday because I thought it would add to my humorous post
I think I posted as dim 3 times in the past to be funny
I m not dim. (Dimwit maybe)
I miss dim what happened to him
Is Briant dim?
Matt,
I for one am thoroughly enjoying watching the story of this historic boat unwind… with or without the distractions that are probably unavoidable. Please keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to the next chapter in this story.
-Michael
I’m knot offended. That appears to be for the millennial generation. If you don’t know who I am already or if you do, I don’t think it would matter one way or the other regarding my comments. If you knew the character on “The Tonight Show” you realize why I use the reference. Sometimes we need the comedy relief to cut the tension –
I don’t post with my real name, but last I knew the “about” section tells you how to decode my highly cryptic monicker and hints at why I use it to remain anonymous on this site.
As for the naught a not, I don’t know if it is or isn’t or if it was would it have been a structural issue or if it will be an indication that the wood is knot mahogany or if it means the wood is knot high quality. I just enjoy the opportunity to make silly puns and to abuse the English language here at Woodyboaterville in ways that are not appreciated in a professional environment.
Wow, I read yesterday’s blog early and missed all the drama. It’s going to take me a while before I can catch up enough to even read today’s story.
All this negativity is unbelievable to me. I have been around this hobby for a long time (way before the internet took over my spare time) and I for one appreciate Woodyboater for what it is. It provides some good in my life every morning in my favorite hobby. I will remind everyone reading this post that this forum is owned by one person and it’s his sandbox and if you don’t like whats being published each day or think there is favoritism to certain people maybe you need to take your toys and move them to your own sandbox. Airing dirty laundry here is not the place to do this in my humble opinion. Go Troy, Some of us love your pictures
This 100x! Thank you Ronald!
Let’s not frustrate Matt. He does a great job reporting on everything. I personally enjoy WB, The cobra story is very cool. Starting from the blue tarp. This is sounding like a Jr. High School lunch table conversation. We need to relax and enjoy. Im going boating!
Hey Mike K – I am not Dim. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I am just a wood boat owner, 1930 Zoomer which we picked up back in 2006. I frequently post bits here and more often than not I get personally attacked. Such is the nature of the internet.
Matt runs an absolutely great site but it is unfortunate that not all folks feel included, for whatever reasons.
With this skirmish between Katz and Green, I for one am going to find a silver lining somewhere. Clearly they both have a wealth of knowledge and are passionate about what they do. Clearly folks have a favourite. And they will not all agree. Great. I will no doubt learn much from both parties as they argue.
Sorry briant
Trying to be funny on the wrong day
Dim was a cat the used to post under aliases so matt names him dim
Didn’t mean to offend you
Mike
Oh no offense taken. A cat? Ha ha.
Ok, all caught up. If y’all would follow me to the virtual WoodyBoater Bar I’d like to buy everyone a few rounds. Troy can you supply a barmaid? Cheers.
Rick:
They are working hard! Thanks I needed a brew!
I’ve been tuned out for the past couple weeks and just caught upon the last two days.
I say that if Mike Green doesn’t win the “Biggest Balls” award this year than the fix is in…..
Absolutely!
Hey, that’s enough! Now you have crossed the line and really offended me! I was going to make a comment on what a joke this whole discussion is as if Chris Crap had some high standards of quality or something.
Face it, fellows, it was a production boat. They used whatever they picked up, knots or no knots. Anybody who’s been through one of their boats knows it. They cut corners at every turn.
I had to take out my rudder and they used steel buts and bolts to clamp the steering arm to the bronze rudder post, a steel plate screwed in with steel screws to a hunk of wood from one engine stringer to the other. The safety collar (bronze) had a steel set screw in it. Brilliant!
No matter where you look, it is shoddy materials and shoddy workmanship. They didn’t get the nickname “Chris Crap” for nothing.
But now, you have crossed the line and said Mike Green’s going to challenge me for the Biggest Balls of the Year award!
Forget about it! He’s KNOT.
No one is perfect. We must try to do better everyday. There is always room for improvement, but we do the best we can. It is good to have forgiveness in your woodyboater heart.
What Knot? What kind of wood do you think this is? The new work looks very solid to me.
Shit’s getting too serious these days.
Maybe it’s time for a story about my monkey?
Matt – three good things happened yesterday when I stopped at
Katz’s to see the “spiff up”progress on my “Best Buddy” ( 20′
Continental): “Buddy” looks outstanding and will go in the water next week, “Wecatchem” stopped me in my tracks and is drop
dead gorgeous, and I intentionally avoided looking at the Cobra
again.
Don if that is how you see it, I am sorry. We have removed sponsors at great cost because of bad business practice. If the sponsor is here, we trust them. 100% This as zero to do with a pay to play accusation. We have several sponsors here I give free banners to because I trust them and they are too small to warrant an expense. I have given trial banners to folks to see how it works, and if it pays off, then they become sponsors. We are very honest about what to expect and earn the relationship. No one is sold on a sponsorship. This is the sort of behind the scenes stuff we do to help.
Further to my previous comment about Chris Crap “crapmanship,” I happened to be disassembling the keel section and pirating the fasteners off a 1957 or 58 22 foot Sea Skiff that someone gave me from a boat that had been left out and then a tree fell on it. 🙁
Well what do you know? In my boat, and most of this one, the keel is bolted on to the keelson with long bronze carriage bolts. But in the middle of this one, some moron in Salisbury used a regular steel bolt, with a brass nut and brass washers. I guess he figured it would knot get wet. Brilliant! You can see what is left of it. Real quality control.
Face it, fellahs, it is what it was — a production boat built by 2nd or 3rd rate laborers. A Huckins, a Matthews, a Norseman, a Riva a Trumpy and especially a Rybovich it most certainly is knot!
Mama always said “If you can’t say something nice, then keep your mouth shut “ 😉