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Whitehall Rowing and Sail has moved! By Harold Aune Anyone who has moved their home or business knows what that involves. Finding a suitable site, negotiating the details, setting up the infrastructure followed by a major amount of work organizing and transporting office and manufacturing equipment, setting it all back up and keeping the operation functioning throughout. But we did it and now enjoy three times the space at 905 Ellery St. a half mile west of our old location on Victoria’s upper Harbour. This was our second move in the past 25 years and as all the bits and pieces come apart and reassemble there’s naturally a lot of reflective thoughts that surface in ones mind. Marie Hutchinson and myself have seen major changes since building the first Whitehall Spirit boats back in 1985. At that time we had for several years designed and built custom yachts and floating structures for a variety of clients. The move to Classic rowing and sailing boats seemed to be a simpler and more enjoyable direction. Well business is business and the road is sometimes smooth and sometimes hilly and full of potholes. The costs of doing business as we all know is around ten times higher than in the mid eighties and we are lucky to have grown large enough, as the bankers say, to remain viable. We never would have made it if it were not for the combination of great employees and fantastic clients. Marie, myself and our staff wish to at this point send our heartfelt thanks to those who mostly sight unseen placed an order for their favorite boat. We have never had an owner complain about the quality of our boats and we are very proud of this because there are around two thousand of you out there. One of the things in our favor has been as we all have grown older together (I’m now 59) the fitness benefits of rowing easily justify getting out there for a couple of hours a week. But can honestly say I feel more fit now than I did ten years ago and the only change I have made is to start slide seat rowing regularly. I have never regretted being out on the water even in the rain! The hard-core rowers say “Rain is the rowers friend” but I’m not that hard core! As Bob Dunshee says in his article on trailering his boat, make it as easy to get out as you can. That way you will do it.  As things settle down here we plan to establish an online forum or blog so we can all connect on a more personal level and share helpful hints. In the March newsletter Bob Dunshee had given the new Torqeedo electric outboard with its 8.5 lb. Lithium manganese battery a good test but the battery would not accept a charge. Torqeedo quickly replaced battery and charger and the new one accepted a 100% charge in about 8 hours and appears to work fine. If any other quirks show up we will let you know. As the actual production date for the new Whitehall Spirit Solo 14 grows closer we have continued to receive positive feedback from the rowing community. The company doing the CNC cutting of the mold shape said it was the nicest piece they had ever worked on. Shown here is a picture of the hull mold that they cut out of a 6000 lb block of MDF form material. The interior mold is almost ready and shortly after its completed the first boats will be produced. We can hardly wait as we have been working on the Solo project for over a year. A great number of future Solo owners are also looking forward to receiving their boats. The latest brochure on the Solo 14 is available as a PDF. Just go to the order info page at www.whitehallsolo.com and download a copy. Until the end of April we are offering a free set of carbon fiber sculling oars, regularly valued at $449US per pair with each Solo 14 purchased at the current pricing which is $4995.US We have most of the Whitehall Spirit Classic models in inventory now ready to be shipped for this summer’s good weather. We look forward to hearing from you whether providing assistance in booking an order or if you already have a boat and want to tell us about your stories...  |
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