T&T: Service Designed

[Albin43SDtr]

'Lo All,

When we were looking for a powerboat to replace the old sailboat, we 
looked at many boats, including a Carver 40 something. I looked at 
the engines and found that there was no way I could even begin to get 
to the back side of either engine. Nor was there any way of working 
over the top, as the permanently installed cabin floor was about 3-4" 
above the engine. The dealer said he had a small guy to take care of 
that......

Echoes what Gil said:

>I can recall a mass production "fast" trawler manufacturer's dealer 
>asking why I wanted to look below the decks, only the service guy 
>needs to worry about that area he said.  To that I said, at sea and 
>most other times, that guy is me.  There are some well thought our 
>boats out there that realize these systems need to be serviced and 
>others that are all about above deck features and curb appeal.


In another lifetime (enlisted), I was the unfortunate recipient of 
some USAF equipment that should have stayed in the lab, but was 
fielded anyway. No tech data, no nothing at the remote site I was 
stationed at. I was supposed to be trained to operate it and was told 
to do so. Long story; short version: I swore then that if I ever had 
a chance, maintainability would be somewhere at the top of the list. 
Fortunately, much later, in another lifetime (commissioned officer), 
I did get into R&D and had the opportunity to drive maintainability 
on many projects, large and small. It was interesting to note the 
resistance to changes necessary to promote maintainability in the 
military systems I was working on, but, since I was usually somewhere 
in the maintenance/design chain, I had considerable leverage to drive 
changes. After the changes were made, and management found how much 
less it cost to maintain the system, they endorsed those specific 
changes wholeheartedly. Still, the same people in other scenarios 
resisted the idea of good built-in maintainability. <sigh>


Take care and be safe.

Wayne
M/V Celestial
Albin43 Sundeck