Title:
Maine Boat Builders Hope for Smoother Seas After the
Recession
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
The state of Maine has a long boat-building
tradition. Ralph Stanley has spent most of his
eighty years designing and buildings boats in the
town of Southwest Harbor, Maine.
RALPH STANLEY: "Takes a lot of skill to work with
wood, to build a boat out of wood. Those skills are
something that have been acquired over thousands of
years and passed on to people. And, if somebody
doesnt keep on building out of wood, it will be
lost."
Stanley is retired from boat-building. But he
worries that many builders are using materials like
fiberglass to make copies of the boats hull, or body
of a boat.
RALPH STANLEY: "Fiberglass came along and I thought
about going into fiberglass. But if I did, I would
have to have a mold and I could never change that
mold. And every boat Ive built I see something I
would like to change on the next one."
Stanleys son Richard also builds boats. Richard
Stanley says wood is able to take up the full energy
of shocks. He says fiberglass is thicker and beats
back the shocks.
Kerri Russell is head of Maine-Built Boats. The
group provides support for the states boat building
industry. She says many boat-builders have good
reasons for using use fiberglass.
Russell worked for a company that makes boats with
fiberglass. She says it strengthened the hulls,
weighed less than wood, and required fewer repairs.
CUYLER MORRIS: "This boat sails away for three
hundred eighty-five thousand dollars."
Cuyler Morris is head of Morris Yachts, an
award-winning builder of sail boats. Those boats
sell for up to one million four hundred thousand
dollars.
Morris says his company is always looking for the
best materials and using them with the best design.
He says usefulness is an important quality. Morris
father started the company thirty-eight years ago.
Morris Yachts now uses electrically-operated parts
instead of hand-powered ones.
CUYLER MORRIS: "There are all sorts of things that
have made boating easier, like this little jiffy
sail cover here."
A machine-powered sail cover protects the sail until
it is needed.
Morris says the device is better than hand-powered
winches. A winch is the name of a device used to
open and close the sail. Kerri Russell says many
boats are equipped with new technology because
boat-builders want to increase sales among busy
families.
Russell says technology is helpful for people who
might not have time for traditional boats.
Cuyler Morris says something is special about boats
built in Maine. He says Maine is all about quality
-- whether you want a small wooden rowboat or a
super sailing yacht. People just do it the right
way.
The recession has deeply affected Maines boat
industry. But Morris is hopeful about the future.
CUYLER MORRIS: "Seventy-two percent of the world is
covered with water. People are always going to boat.
There is always going to be a demand for boats built
in Maine because of quality, so Im really
optimistic."
The future is less clear for builders of wooden
boats. Ralph Stanley now spends a lot of his time
playing a fiddle made from the wood he long used to
build boats. I'm Shirley Griffith.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
