2004 Seattle Boat Show and C-Brat Convention

TyBoo · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:51 pm Post subject:

Your mission, RF, should you decide to accept, is to make us proud. As always, if you or any of your team are killed or captured, the Nerd will disavow any knowledge of your existence. This post will self-destruct in 5 seconds.

TyBoo · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:14 pm Post subject:

And all that is left of my mission, since I have so effectively eschewed the hard part of arranging the logistics and procuring funding, is to write that letter to C-Dory. Since there was no begging involved, the rest was easy.

The letter went out in the mail this morning. I said thanks and invited them to our site, but used a lot more words. Because I spoke in part on behalf of all of us, the text of the letter is shared below. I sent it straight to the top, and I hope I spelled his name right.

December 1, 2003

Michael S. Barber
415 Alternate Highway 101
Warrenton, OR 97146

Mr. Scott Reynolds
C-Dory, Inc.
25028 Pacific Highway So.
Kent, WA. 98032

Dear Mr. Reynolds:

My name is Mike, and we met briefly at the Seattle Boat Show last January. A gentleman in Alaska, Greg Davidson, and I were responsible for initiating the C-Brat group of C-Dory owners. The C-Brats have evolved from their fanciful beginnings to the largest organized group of C-Dory owners in the world and the best bunch of people to be found upon the waters anywhere. There are for certain three C-Dory 22’ Cruiser orders being processed at your factory right now that are going to members of our forum, and their purchase is unquestionably a result of the buyers’ association with the group. It would not surprise me if other boats you are building today will also end up with current or future members. Our specialty is people, you see, and we have found that the people who are attracted to your product are for the most part all of the same ilk and enjoy the same pace of life. They have similar enough personalities and demeanor that one knows when meeting someone who owns a C-Dory that the person will be a likeable sort.

This letter is addressed to you, but it is meant for your entire organization, and my purpose in writing is twofold.

First, it is my understanding that one of our friends has spoken with you about contributing to what we call the Seattle Boat Show C-Brat Convention. I further believe that the response he received was tremendously positive. On behalf of all our group’s members, I express our gratitude for the upcoming consideration as well as the previous gestures on your company’s part. At the first convention, as we jokingly call it, we were treated quite well by Ricardo and others at your company. It was held at the Hilton just down the road a ways from you, and it looks like we will be able to use that facility again this time. We also have noticed and appreciated the other gestures, both friendly and significant, over the past year or so. It was a great experience meeting the members of your team in the cold and fog of Sequim Bay a short while back. The hats, mugs and key rings are used and displayed prominently on all the boats that were there. We also were very moved by the attempts of one of your associates to find us at Blakely Island this past July! The association between our group and your company has purposely been, and will always be, one of mutual respect with no obligation nor commitment, commercial or otherwise. You build the boats, and we get the friends.

The second reason for writing is to introduce you to our new C-Brats Online Forum. We have given up on the constrained and heavily commercial forum site provided by MSN, and created a wholly independent site to serve as our home on the web. Bill Giese (red 22’ Cruiser just out of the mold, going to EQ) has used his remarkable computer talents to install, refine and maintain the software on leased server space. We have also registered several Internet domain names that point to the site (c-brat.com, c-brat.net, c-brat.org, c-brats.com). The link on the C-Dory, Inc. web site is pointed to one of those domains, and therefore takes your customers to our forum when they choose the first of the two listed Owner’s Group links you provide. Several of us have C-Brat logo decals on our boats, and all of us encourage people who express interest in our boats to visit us online. Dave Safford (red 22’ Cruiser in the mold or close to it, going to EQ) had a huge banner made up to display at our frequent gatherings on the water. We’re famous, I tell you! We are also a great group of people with common interests, vastly varying lives but similar lifestyles, and a comfortable sense of community when visiting either in person or through a keyboard thousands of miles apart. There are no dues or registration fees for our members, and the administrators on the site cover the cost of providing the forum, which is insignificant when measured against the personal value we receive. We have no intention of soliciting funds through any means, including paid advertisements.

We did, briefly, consider changing the name of the group, but the name C-Brats has some historical significance to our roots. Most of the time, it rather fits, as well. Some people are taken aback for a moment when they first read or hear the name, but if they give us enough time, we make them proud to be one of us. A yacht club we are not; and neither do we aspire to be.

You and your entire staff are greatly encouraged to visit our site, and anyone at your plant is also invited to join the group as a member and contributor of information. The forum is divided into two main sections, which we call the Pub and the Library. As you might surmise, the Library is where we discuss boat related topics in a more serious tone, and the Pub is where we have fun for the most part, but also do the serious work of organizing gatherings, cruises and the like. We do, on occasion, have questions and comments come up that could best be addressed by someone in your organization. Such issues are invariably resolved, and to my knowledge, thus far always efficiently, by C-Dory, Inc. The resolution of the concern is then, in most cases, reported on the forum. It is the rare occasion when an issue is raised by a member who came by specifically for help with the question, and then does not return to fill us in, that problems can surface. People, especially those who just visit, are left wondering what happened. It would seem to me that a group of people, who are best described as down-to-earth, all using a product manufactured by a company that the description also fits so well, should be easily able to enjoy an open relationship with the manufacturer that lends itself to promoting both the product and the joy of owning it. For your product, there is no better medium through which to effect that than our forum. It is not a matter of trust or product confidence, because we all have that; it is simply a means of portraying our trust and confidence in the light it warrants.

Besides that, you just might find yourself enjoying it! And what better place than the World Wide Web to tell me a little history of the 1996 CD25 Cruise Ship that I recently found and bought. All I know for sure is it is hull #6 and the last of the initial run.

We thank you for all you have done for the C-Brat group of C-Dory owners, and we look forward to seeing you again at the upcoming boat show.

Yours truly,

Helen O · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:27 pm Post subject:

Great letter, Mike! You have a real talent for words. Thumbs Up

Da Nag · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:47 pm Post subject:

Bravo, Mike - beautiful letter.

DaveS · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 11:45 pm Post subject:

What more can I say than "Eloquently Spoken"!

(Now where's, my box of kleenex..... Cry

)

Mighty Bite · Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:20 am Post subject:

Perfectly said Mike, skillfully eloquent!

Catman · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:11 pm Post subject:

Laconic in person, loquacious online, Taboo exhibits a rare propensity to spin compelling yarns vis-a'-vis his inanimate love: A small vessel made by the C-Dory Company in Kent, WA.
A good read, one which will entertain and amuse all who open its cover, landlubbers included.

Atlantic Monthly

Da Nag · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:34 pm Post subject:

Man, you edukated types are just too much for me.

I ain't proud - for the benefit of the rest of the dopes out there:

la·con·ic (l

-k

n

k)
adj.
Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

So...just to make sure I got this right - Beavis and Butthead are laconic, correct?

Catman · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:41 pm Post subject:

Who's Beaver and Gutthead?

Da Nag · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:48 pm Post subject:

Oh, sorry - forgot how old you are.

How about Harpo Marx?

Catman · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:58 pm Post subject:

We at the revered Monthly find your brand of humor sophomoric.

TyBoo · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 5:10 pm Post subject:

Well, I don't know about the inanimate love crap, but I do know for sure I ain't done no vis-a'-vis'n with my boat!

Catman · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:36 pm Post subject:

Of course you haven't.
Seriously, I like the letter. You are talented in many ways, Mike. Witness the Barber Chair. Often, guys who can work with machines don't delight in the written word, but you do. So does Les. And, okay, Da Nerd too.
Anyway, I always enjoy reading your stuff, and the factory surely was persuaded. Tell 'em I'd like a turkey sandwich on rye with Tim's Cascade potato chips, and some large curd cottage cheese. Oh, and a cold beer and the sports page, too.

jimandlaurie · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:58 pm Post subject:

Well,
I got in touch with the Larkspur and the Hilton lady today. Was informed that the C-Brats should be in the computer at the Larkspur now... And the get together at the Hilton is moving forward with some research being done by the Hilton, and they have the contact info for the C-Dory Factory,i.e Scott Reynolds, Ricardo Reulos,and Jill. Should hear something next week.
JIm

TyBoo · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:10 pm Post subject:

We gotta think up a title for Jim. He must take his Fed Ex job seriously, because he keeps on delivering when he's off. Maybe Radar would be a good name. (No, Jessica, that's not an insult. The name is from a TV show that was on years before you were born.) He's a key player for the CB's, but it would probably be best to not use the word "key" in his tittle.

Hey Jim - ain't you glad we're not talking about you on the neutralizing thread?

Thanks!!