Mini-Rant
Library of
Charles Neville associates....
Min-Rant
080
PassageMaker
- May / June 2010
Marketing
to the Gullible
I spend a lot of time talking to people about boats. Many are very knowledgeable. Some are not. Trust me the title of this rant has nothing to do with either. No matter their experience or lack, people come with ideas or concepts that they would like to incorporate into a boat. The freshness of their thoughts and the unique combination of their requirements are among the things that make great boats happen. Don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean that you can make any combination work the way they imagine, or that you'd want to do it. Many times ideas are in conflict in a way they don't see. Sometimes experience makes that obvious and other times it becomes clear as you move forward.
Still that's part of the job and when you educate someone and can design a beautiful boat to boot you've latched on to the gold ring. Still, convincing folks what can be done is sometimes difficult. So why do I have my knickers in a knot this time? Surprisingly, it was the pictures of a "boat" that a friend of mine sent to me. Granted it was significantly bigger than most people I know would even want. But beyond that it was just silly. For starters the boat was about two-thirds as wide as it was long and NOT a catamaran. Even the acre of solar panels can't dress it up as the "green boat" it claimed to be. I would have assumed it was a gag photo but the beautiful 3-d images give every impression that someone's intentions are very real. At the very least this "visionary image" was clearly trolling for some very real, and serious money.
I've done the "too good to be true" speech before. But sometimes I'm still caught off guard. I guess the need to repeat the old bromide increases, as does the believability of glossy hi-tech images.
