Met a Man Who Worked for Tartan Today

[zopi]

We're on a trip to TX to see my family, and stopped through Rockingham to meet a longtime internet friend of my wife's..He's a really nice old guy, and is hoping for a heart transplant..he probably will not live long..anyway, he and I were talking about my boat, and he knew a bit about my Tanzer..and asked if I had ever looked over a Tartan...second boat I looked at was a Tartan 27, so he began telling me about his job at the Tartan factory in NC...he worked in purchasing and receiving, and a part of his job was to do the final look see at each boat and to add the receipt packages (winch handles, accessories, etc)
on each new boat before it left the plant...he probably walked on almost every boat that was built in NC at least once...unfortunately he doesn't have pictures from that time...but it sure was neat to listen to him talk...

[Ishmael]

I just bought a new mast & boom and some other things for my O'Day Daysailer 3 from a guy who worked for O'Day for the last 18 years of its existence. By the end, he had worked his way up to the head of procurement - getting all the parts from sub-contactors etc.. After O'Day folded he kept getting calls from anxious O'Day owners looking for parts, so he started his business (www.drmarine.com) to supply those parts. I made the short trip to his shop in Assonet, MA to pick up my stuff, and found his business is set up in a huge old barn next to his house in a residential area. When I arrived, he was just finishing cutting/assembling my cuddy cabin hatch boards. Every nook & cranny of this giant barn was loaded with boat parts and original O'Day templates etc.. He's been in operation for about 20 years, now - quite an operation.