Marine Fabricator March/April 2020 - 14

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT SECTION

The new custom travel cover, canopy top,
seating/cushions and side curtains for this Budsin
electric boat were on display at the conference.

Tools, Tips and Tricks winners

T

he Tools, Tricks and Tips competition at
the 2020 Marine Fabricators Conference

came up with winning ideas to make the
fabrication process faster and easier. Chris
O'Mara, Whipstitch Marine Canvas, was the
ﬁrst-place Don Racine Award winner for his
Tape Measure Snap Stud (see page 48).
He won a full registration to the 2021 MFA
conference in New Orleans. Second place
went to Matt Jones, Oyster Creek Canvas,
for his Custom Foot Pedal for Pneumatic
Grommet Machine. He won a case of Kit 42
donated by IMAR Products, which contains
12 individual blue customer gift presentation
boxes. The third-place winner was Amy Poe,
Wyckam, for her Pencil that Never Needs
Sharpening. Poe won 20 yards of Tempotest®
60" marine fabric donated by Miami Corp.

Budsin electric boat makes waves
A case study of the fabrication process and results
of a custom travel cover, new canopy top, new
seating/cushions and side curtains for a handmade 15-foot mahogany Budsin electric boat
(www.budsin.com) created excitement during
the MFA conference in Daytona Beach, Fla.,
Jan. 9-11, 2020. The patterning for the project
involved high school students at the Career and
Technical Development Center (CTEC) in
Burlington, N.C. The team of project fabricators
spent time patterning with students and
completed the remaining work at their individual
shops. The fabricator team was: Amy Poe,
Wyckam Fabric Creations; Mike Charpentier,
Paul's Custom Canvas; Jeff Viehmeyer, Alameda
Canvas & Coverings; and organizer Derek
Robinson, Fabric Tattoo/Eqodry USA.
The finished boat was displayed during the
conference. Those who worked on the project say
the most surprising benefit was the excitement
of the students. "They were far more interested
in the process than we thought," says Robinson.
"The engineering students were enthusiastic
about the patterning technology and actually
patterned and made a top themselves."
During the conference, this case study
generated discussion about using the idea to
create interest in marine fabrication among
young people. "Perhaps the MFA community
could get involved with developing a similar
program nationally to get high school students
interested in the marine trade," says Robinson.
The MFA is currently discussing creating an
MFA webinar series based on the patterning
workshops at CTEC using footage recorded
by the students. The fabricators who took part
in the project say they enjoyed the opportunity
to work directly with students and to be hosted
by Glen Raven Custom Fabrics. Additional
sponsors included Marlen Textiles, Trivantage,
Eqodry, Fil-Tec Inc., Quality Thread, Keyston
Bros, Fabric Tattoo, and Corinthian Marine.

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2/19/20 11:37 AM
http://www.budsin.com
Marine Fabricator March/April 2020

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