BIG News From the Drydocks

[RCSubGuy]

BIG CHANGES ON THE HORIZON


I have made the decision to greatly modify my business and my offerings. This was precipitated by the upcoming renewal of my shop lease, an in-depth analysis of sales and income, and my own projection on where the hobby is going.

I am going to be moving the business into a smaller, more focused shop area in close proximity to my home. From here, I will be focusing exclusively on builds, creating blog and video content, fostering the DiveTribe community, and being an outspoken advocate for the hobby as much as I can.

So... what does that mean to you?


Effective August 1st, 2023, you will see many of the currently offered products disappear from my offerings. I am still going to market and support my partner vendor products, but many of the items that were previously manufactured and built here at the Drydocks will no longer be produced. If you are holding out on making a purchase for some reason, I would highly suggest placing your order immediately before these products cease being offered.

One of the biggest voids this will leave will be for our excellent line of watertight cylinders. In order to support the hobby and keep this product line alive, my shop manager, Jason Butterfield, will be taking production of these units on himself as a separate entity, completely apart from the Nautilus Drydocks.

Rest assured, despite these changes, I will be part of this hobby for many, many years to come.


I'm open to suggestions, comments, angry rebuttals or words of encouragement.



Bob

[tifosi12]

Wow, good luck with the new arrangement. Hope it all pans out.

[QuarterMaster]

It's STILL always Christmas here at the Nautilus Drydocks!



Well, maybe not at "Ronny G's" :-(

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Standing by for Orders, Sir.

[Subculture]

What became of the 'blue water' sub range you were working on?

[trout]

You got to do what you need to do. Things evolve and your business model will to. I wish you continued success.

[rwtdiver]

I hope your new venture is a great success Bob! Knowing you and your enthusiasm, you will make it work!

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat."

[SubDude]

Will you still be selling the Type 212?

[RCSubGuy]

Will you still be selling the Type 212?

I haven't fully decided. Odds are good, but I'm trying to avoid holding massive amounts of stock. I have to order the hulls in batches of at least 10, which is a lot of room and cash to have sitting around...

[Subculture]

Perhaps supply on a pre-order basis? e.g. get ten orders, or whatever it takes to break even on parts cost, then buy in the ten boats. Perhaps offer an early bird discount for the first few, then knock any remainder out at full list. Rinse and repeat.

[RCSubGuy]

Valid, but not realistic.

No one in their right mind, in today's world, is going to be interested in paying $1000 for a kit that will be delivered "some time in the future when the vendor get 10 orders".

They want it now. If I go one day over an estimated delivery date, I get emails from grumpy customers. Would be different if this was a high margin product, but I intentionally cut my profits to make an accessible kit for the market.

Still thinking... Perhaps doing away with the assembled and RTR versions and only offering the unassembled kits would be the way to go...

[Subculture]

What became of the blue water boat concept, insufficient interest?

[wlambing]

Bob,
I know that you have to keep your business in a sustainable manner and would beseech you to maybe go that route of offering the unassembled kits that you mentioned. We've been without some of the old "standards" for years, now. Stuff like Marlin, Sturgeon, Trafalgar, etc., all of which have been on your "Coming Soon" list for quite some time. I'm tired of looking at Permits, that were never front-line units in real life anyway! Obsolete when they hit the water! Small class, small capabilities, and they sucked to work on!! My Sturgeon has been retired for 10+ years, but I'm seriously thinking of refurbishment to counter the Permits that show up at events. Sturgeons stemmed the Red Tide!!
I also know that I don't know all the ins-and-outs of running a small business in today's world (or at all!) But we need to have some selection available from people such as yourself that can produce a good looking and enduring product. A selection of well-known vessels and a smattering of some one-offs, perhaps?

Another thing to think about is that there is only a small number of folks that 3D print stuff and what they do make has their own problems (think striations, unsightly faceting, that stuff). Exorbitant cost, too! (Take that Shapeways!!!! You can keep your bad packaging, bent parts and shoddy materials that won't take standard paints, too!!!!)

Anyway, we need you and we need new stuff too! (Or modernized versions of the old stuff!)

Take care, stay cool,

Bill

[Subculture]

He has one pair of hands and only so much time and energy to devote to this, and rather too much is being expected of one person, IMO.

All lay load on a willing horse.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Bob,
I know that you have to keep your business in a sustainable manner and would beseech you to maybe go that route of offering the unassembled kits that you mentioned. We've been without some of the old "standards" for years, now. Stuff like Marlin, Sturgeon, Trafalgar, etc., all of which have been on your "Coming Soon" list for quite some time. I'm tired of looking at Permits, that were never front-line units in real life anyway! Obsolete when they hit the water! Small class, small capabilities, and they sucked to work on!! My Sturgeon has been retired for 10+ years, but I'm seriously thinking of refurbishment to counter the Permits that show up at events. Sturgeons stemmed the Red Tide!!
I also know that I don't know all the ins-and-outs of running a small business in today's world (or at all!) But we need to have some selection available from people such as yourself that can produce a good looking and enduring product. A selection of well-known vessels and a smattering of some one-offs, perhaps?

Another thing to think about is that there is only a small number of folks that 3D print stuff and what they do make has their own problems (think striations, unsightly faceting, that stuff). Exorbitant cost, too! (Take that Shapeways!!!! You can keep your bad packaging, bent parts and shoddy materials that won't take standard paints, too!!!!)

Anyway, we need you and we need new stuff too! (Or modernized versions of the old stuff!)

Take care, stay cool,

Bill

Fair observations, Bill. But what drives the existence of a business is a client base substantial enough to support said business. The American r/c submarine base is small and aged. And with no new blood coming into the hobby an assured decline in the base over time is inevitable. No kids, no future.

Bob's learned the hard way you can't trust American outside vendors for production work -- you either do the work yourself, in-house, or you lose your shirt to shoddy work, late delivers, damaged tooling, or outright theft of your tooling. The American r/c submarine base is too small to support a business with a meaningful employee list; shop space rental and associated business expenses; and heavy reliance on outside vendors.

To produce and carry the items you want retained and added means talented, long-term employment of people who won't turn around next week and become your competitor (No! I'm not referring to Jason -- he and Bob are joined at the hip with this new relationship). Salaries are a sizable fraction of the business expenses. The base does not warrant that expense.

Bob's re-worked business model is his best option to stay in the game, in my informed opinion.

A contributing factor for this down-sizing of the Nautilus Drydocks. Bob's in this business for the wrong reason: He Loves This Hobby; he's unable to be dispassionate about this Craft as applied to a business -- I'll put it this way: The reason Surgeons don't get wrist deep into the cracked chest of a loved one is that if you can't be professionally dispassionate about what you do, you'll make the wrong moves, again and again.

Successful businesses are run by use of the brain. Not the heart!

Bob has recently fully engaged the brain. We'll take what we can from his continued service to the hobby.

David