 Wood does have a romance to it. So as it moves past you, it's dynamic. It changes color. It changes sheen. It changes how the light reflects off of it So it's kind of like ever-moving That's something that took hundreds of years to be produced in nature and it's one of those things that kind of tugs at my heart While I love wooden boats I think the part that's most interesting to me is trying to do something at a level better than anybody else Our mission is that we design and build the world's finest wooden boats My name is Ben Van Damme and we're at Van Damme Custom Boats The level of quality that we produce here is it's a pursuit of an obsession Perfect is a function of how closely you look at something We need the areas that you don't see in the boat to look just as good as the areas you do see Everything we build is one of a kind and we build them to be passed down generation to generation And then there's these beautiful curves of wood and it's breathtaking at every stage It's as close to perfect as we could possibly get I think the most exciting part of the boat is a start all the anticipation all the planning all the thought People walk through the door with a dream. So we try to make that happen for them in the process of that we start with a clean sheet of paper and After listening to what the client wants then we start working We'll fully design the boat in 3d in the computer We'll know every little bit before it ever comes out here Once we've got that stuff all kind of dialed in and a roll into the shop and then from there You know again depending on complexity it could be another seven eight months or it could be a year and a half You know I we're always looking for the defect. So when you're right in the middle of it you're always oh, that's not right. This isn't right and It's hard not to see what's wrong with it Even though to everybody else they might think it's perfect and again That's the beauty of having the design department here You know Michelle can if we've got something that isn't quite lining up on the boat we can go in there and see okay This is what it looks like down to you know four decimal points And then we can bring that back out in the shop So it's gotta be it's gotta be a height thing here We've got a paint and varnish crew in this back room and we've got a metal shop Jess has Graduated into the metal, but he's an artist with the metal Traditional built boats had a lot of issues with water finding its way to the wood so the process that we use called cold molding basically taken thin layers of wood and Bluing them together so there's not voids and in a simple sense It's just building up layers of wood with thinner layers building up into a thicker layer. That's how we get the strength That's also how we get the durability longevity. These handcrafted boats are just really beautiful pieces to look at They're like a piece of artwork For me boat building is a way of life It was something I was born into You know the shop was a playground and as I grew up, you know He obviously taught me more and more to the point where we're doing this together now when I started the business It was very headstrong. It was my way or the highway and for Steve He had to be like that to to build this business up He had to put his head to the grindstone and that was it Steve is slowly transitioning some of his roles to Ben and Steve is slowly stepping back together. We built it into a business and It's hard just to let go of that and pass that on but just the nature of Transitioning a business from one person to the next Especially when your family is fraught with a million things that can get in your way and can ruin a relationship And I feel really fortunate that we haven't allowed that to happen But certainly we've had our battles over Things that we wanted to do differently number one You have a father and son who are both very strong People with different ideas, but Steve has just gradually let go Ben has patient been patient with me. So we've been working it out and for me I don't think it would have mattered if you were building houses or boats or cars or whatever But that act of building some buildings and I think that's what morphed into me Yeah started wanting to sail around the world, you know, I think in my youth I had dreams of sailing around the world and Thought the way that I could sail around the world would be to build a boat to sail around the world We fell in love and he kind of learned to love boat building rather than doing the sailing trip I think if I was going to leave my kids Something it would be I'd want to have a business that was stable and that could go through that transition Which quite honestly is exactly what my dad has set up for me. I mean we've got a business That's stable that can handle it if I make some mistakes, which I'm inevitably going to so I guess I'd like to leave what he left me There's a lot of things that are lost if people stop building things the way we're building things If everything comes easy You can have a lot of things in a real short period of time and not appreciate them and throw them in the trash when you're done With them, but if it takes a you know a serious amount of time and effort you appreciate them more and you keep them And you pass them down to your kids If this goes away, I think it's the loss of craft There's a place for the quick and dirty and cheap, but there's also a place for these artistic creations We do live in a disposable Society where people want something right now and then throw it away when they're done with it But there's people out there that appreciate the effort that it takes to Produce something of the highest quality that's crafted with your hands or your spirit and again That's a testament to how we build them and we build them for a lifetime for multiple lifetimes 2017 will be our 40th year before eight years ago. I started the business You know, maybe it's time in my life to get back on a boat a little bit more In fact within the last couple months Ben and I acquired a boat that we built 25 years ago It'd be awesome to have my granddaughter on there. What a heritage for them, too You know as they grow up and say jeez grandpa built this back in whatever year it was I don't think he'll ever leave this place He may not work as many hours as he has but I don't see him going anywhere I think he will forever be interested in what we're doing and want to help and I will certainly lean on him for it