SV Seeker

[Happy]

No, it's called Schadenfreude.

99% that enter this thread suffer from it...

Schadenfreude is a positive emotion, one does not suffer from it, one enjoys it.
It is the warm happy realization that, no matter how average you are, there is someone out there who is spectacularly dumber than yourself.

 

[Brawr]

Doug, the many-faceted Odysseus/Oedipus/complex protagonist in the story (whose timeless themes shift seamlessly between Man Against Nature, and Man Against Machine, with a bit of subtle Man Against Man in there for the human drama element/plot thickener, when Doug makes sarcastic comments about his motley crew. The appearance of the donuts —in at least two different scenes—could be seen as Man Against Beast.) Anyway, lots of research going on in the film.

Suggested addition - I see him as more of a fusion of mythical Greeks, what with his mother obsession.

 

[chester]

I just don't understand how it is that he hasn't worked through the sailing systems and sailed it. He was holed up on Kerr which was a big lake with a good anchorage/facilities, close to home and his acolytes, the PERFECT place to test all that stuff. Hoist, observe, adjust, then head for tide water when you have at least figured out it sails and how to sail it. What the hell?

 

[Fleetwood]

He doesn't do experts, or knowledge...

 

[dfw_sailor]

He doesn't do experts, or knowledge...

Getting the boat to the tide zone ASAP is against his revenue model. Once the boat is sailing (or sunk) his revenue will collapse.

His methods of going cheap, damn the experts brings in dollars out of pitty /like minded souls who love easy snake oil solutions.

The longer he takes farting around fixing stuff that breaks all the time, the better for him.

 

[Sail4beer]

Doug and the Arkansas River outhouse

 

[Voiled]

I just don't understand how it is that he hasn't worked through the sailing systems and sailed it.

My hypothesis: he's fully aware of the stability issues and has been hiding them as well as he has been hiding the fact he is aware. He put out a couple of videos that are cut at moments the dangerously long roll period becomes obvious. Serious sail trials would expose this almost impossible to correct flaw. And a flaw like this threatens his revenue stream.

Therefore: no sail trials

 

[Israel Hands]

Now he's put out a pandering video showing kids visiting the boat. The comments make me want to puke. But I guess that they are proof that PT Barnum was right.

Dying to post a comment like "Why aren't you closer to the Gulf by now?" or "Does that boat not sail, or are you scared to sail her?" But I know he'll just delete it.

 

[Israel Hands]

Here's a pic from Reddit. I guess the head is out of commission, so Doug has his shit bucket on the poop deck. Right next to the tender lift. How long will it be until the open chains & sprockets take a finger off?

 

[kent_island_sailor]

Here is what amazes me:
Every forum on anything has one of these "aggressively stupid" operations going on. Someone will come on with advice about doing X, with ideas that are nuts, and claim to be a n00b. Far from being grateful for getting advice about why their idea is bad, they will get more and more strident about building a submarine out of used cheese and start insulting the regulars. Well sure you all are nuclear submarine designers, but you are afraid to leave the comfort of your old ideas and embrace my untaught native genius
This guy actually went and did it! He seems to have devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to really bad ideas in real life. We have an actual floating monument to doing things the wrong way.

 

[socalrider]

Here is what amazes me:
Every forum on anything has one of these "aggressively stupid" operations going on. Someone will come on with advice about doing X, with ideas that are nuts, and claim to be a n00b. Far from being grateful for getting advice about why their idea is bad, they will get more and more strident about building a submarine out of used cheese and start insulting the regulars. Well sure you all are nuclear submarine designers, but you are afraid to leave the comfort of your old ideas and embrace my untaught native genius
This guy actually went and did it! He seems to have devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to really bad ideas in real life. We have an actual floating monument to doing things the wrong way.

You're right, and that's what makes this so hard to look away from for me... the honest truth is that what Doug has done is incredibly difficult, and the persistence & effort it takes to build something this large is stupendous. Not one person in 10,000 could pull it off - in that respect the favorable YouTube commenters are right on. Coupling that with the utter and complete failure of the project itself makes for kind of great content, a persistent sense of cognitive dissonance, and an unbridgeable gulf between his supporters and detractors. Sort of a mostly harmless version of our politics I guess.

 

[Voiled]

effort

People chronically overestimate the amount of effort put into this thing. If you made a list of what he actually did the past 6 months it would be pretty short. If you exclude all the stuff other people did for him the list gets even shorter.

Sure the project as a whole is big, it's a big pile of steel sort of welded together. But if you look at the level of time consuming detail and lack of finishing touches it isn't all that much.

 

[h20man]

I think I that this whole thread is definitely in the wrong section..

There should be a section called "Drifting/Sinking Anarchy" just for this type of stuff. Rimas, Flyin Hawaiian. All flotsam mates...

What this topic has to Cruising... I do not know, but am willing to be educated....... and knowing the chaps that hang out on these boards I soon shall be..

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

People chronically overestimate the amount of effort put into this thing. If you made a list of what he actually did the past 6 months it would be pretty short. If you exclude all the stuff other people did for him the list gets even shorter.

Sure the project as a whole is big, it's a big pile of steel sort of welded together. But if you look at the level of time consuming detail and lack of finishing touches it isn't all that much.

Bullshit. It's an enormous amount of sustained effort to build something that size, even with help.

Yes, most of it is misdirected and he could have gotten a lot better boat for the work, but let's not trivialise what he's done.

And fair warning - I'm going to ask anyone who disagrees to post details of what they, personally, with their own hands and money, have built.

Because if you haven't actually done it, you don't know.

FKT

 

[Voiled]

There should be a section called "Drifting/Sinking Anarchy"

What are you on about. This is an arctic ready research vessel. His Facebook fans were thoroughly disappointed when the wreck of Shackleton's Endurance was discovered, 10.000 feet deep in predominantly ice covered waters, as it robbed Doug of the opportunity to find it. (I wish I was joking in that last sentence.)

 

[h20man]

What are you on about. This is an arctic ready research vessel. His Facebook fans were thoroughly disappointed when the wreck of Shackleton's Endurance was discovered, 10.000 feet deep in predominantly ice covered waters, as it robbed Doug of the opportunity to find it. (I wish I was joking in that last sentence.)

Voiled.... how dare you accuse me of bad faith by calling the section Drifting/Sinking Anarchy.... He would have been first to get to the Endurance wreck.... if he had the whole thing airlifted to the correct place.. set on the water and let it SINK.. right alongside Endurance... yup.. Defo belongs in Sinking Anarchy......

 

[Voiled]

Bullshit. It's an enormous amount of sustained effort to build something that size, even with help.

People have build actual functional boats finished to a far higher level in 1/3 the time virtually single handed.

And if you read carefully, I agree it's a big project but explain it's size masquerades the fact far less work went into it than you'd expect from a boat this size. The interior alone on something like this usually takes a significant amount of total construction time. Did you have a look at Seeker's interior? This is the owners suite:

Have to agree some time went into this:

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

People have build actual functional boats finished to a far higher level in 1/3 the time virtually single handed.

And if you read carefully, I agree it's a big project but explain it's size masquerades the fact far less work went into it than you'd expect from a boat this size. The interior alone on something like this usually takes a significant amount of total construction time. Did you have a look at Seeker's interior? This is the owners suite:

Have to agree some time went into this:

Name 3 people and the boats who've done what you state in bold above. The boat has to be comparable in size, mind you. I don't think you can.

So, I take it from your reply that you, personally, have never built a sailboat from scratch and therefore can't judge the amount of effort it takes. But you know it anyway.

Nowhere did I say or imply that Doug's effort was well directed or the end product something to aspire to emulate, merely that it takes a SHIT-TON of time, energy and money to do it.

And unlike the vast majority of people here, he's started with a big pile of materials and has a floating, moving boat-shaped (sorta) end result. I give him credit for that, while thinking what he's built is a large POS due to his determination not to take advice or use professionally done plans.

Yeah the interior usually takes longer then the hull. Mine certainly did. If I ever built another boat I could do it in half the time because I know what NOT to do, but experience has to be paid for.

FKT

 

[socalrider]

People have build actual functional boats finished to a far higher level in 1/3 the time virtually single handed.

And if you read carefully, I agree it's a big project but explain it's size masquerades the fact far less work went into it than you'd expect from a boat this size. The interior alone on something like this usually takes a significant amount of total construction time. Did you have a look at Seeker's interior? This is the owners suite:

My eyes!!!!

I think we all agree it's slipshod. But even slipshod work takes a hell of a lot of time; sometimes more time than doing it correctly (how many times has Doug had the transmission out? Would have gone in once if he'd done it right). Think of the time spent sourcing every part from 3rd rate suppliers, planning, starting installation, realizing your plan won't work, re-planning, finding more 3rd rate suppliers, testing, failing, troubleshooting... it's immense.

I've never taken on a project of this size, but one example I built a hybrid electric drivetrain for a car as my senior design project in eng school. Fabbing stuff takes soooo much more time than you think. Doing it badly does not speed it up. Trust me, I know. Most parts I made up got designed, fabbed and installed multiple times... certainly gave me a lot of respect for a competent machinist, mechanic, or technician (which I am not).

 

[fastyacht]

in that film I see a lot of middle aged working blokes having a lot of fun and bonding with each other while working on their svelt figures by eating pies.

sure beats a day at the firing range or shooting the fek out of the local wildlife. So far few of the predictions of disaster or failure shared on here, reddit etc have come true. He has a boat, he has a crew, he has sails, he is travelling. Goodonim.

some of the comments on my films are priceless, offensive, ignorant. Nearly as bad as have appeared on here. But no-one called me a c^&t.

Gainsayers are everywhere. I am still alive and I sailed some shit boats around a small island without too many mishaps.

Funny looking starlings though.

Dylan....

Pies. Indeed. And Lobster. And chocolate.