Chapter 7

“Ron, how about Gulfport for the night. We could get the top floor at one of the casinos. Then it will be a short hop to New Orleans in the morning. Mark you on for that? Said Marty over the radio.

“Yeah. Give us 10 minutes,” replied Mark.

We were 2 ½ hours away. Arron called back, “We only need 1 floor! Eight rooms per floor, I already called in dinner reservations, so clean up on board. Tom had to call in to let them know we were coming in! No choice due to ranks!”

“It’s okay, will it be like the TV shows,” asked Ron.

“No!” Tom yelled back.

Ron came back with, “Just kidding.”

At dinner, Ron told Arron where they were to deliver the boats! Linda had the contracts. Aaron didn’t like the layout and called for our chopper and borrowed one from Pensacola. Both had 50 caliber side guns. After breakfast, we made a quick stop at NCIS to check-in and went to the boatyard where we docked the boats in Gulfport. Two skinheads started to run their mouths until the helicopters came over with the ‘50s hanging out the door. Mark and Arron stopped them and put them in a car to be taken away. They were Union and didn’t understand.

Things went smoothly on the trip over to New Orleans in the boats but we kept the helicopters with us.

The rest went quiet until an NCIS office started and Tom dialed the DOD and it stopped them. He wanted to know who he knew and he said Potus and walked away. He asked how many masters and he said 13, and 146 Seals and Rangers. The choppers were loaded and we left. Pensacola allowed Arron to go to Jacksonville and they would return it. Aaron told the CO, “Anything that you need, call me!”

Instead of going to Pensacola or Jacksonville we shot across to Mississippi to see different 3 ports that had roll steel and airplane steel companies that could make beams for the boats.

Ron said, “By shipping 9 and 16-foot turbine steel rails we could weld a frame together in 48 hours and rivet and weld the outside cover to the frame for durability and strength then attach the mooring struts and all the framing for support of the hull. We could put a hull together every11 days, and a complete boat in 23 days. Right now it takes 40 days. We are not working on just one, but that would be 3 boats per line, 10 lines another 50 million. We were talking to Steinbrenner in Tampa, FL. Grumman/Republic on Long Island, N.Y. The Navy yard in Baltimore, 2 rolled steel plants in Toledo, Ohio, due to a problem with G.M. closing plants. If we could get someone to produce ribs like the C-17 or C130 we could produce one in 17 days.

“Who are doing the ribs now,” asked Tom.

Ron replied, “Grumman in New York. They ship ribs to the docks, then they move up the Hudson and we build the hulls and then back to Brooklyn to be put together. It could work. Another is Boeing, they are closing a line that could make struts to attach to ribs. I will call Grumman about the ribs, call Boeing about the struts, the 2 sheet plants in Ohio, rail to Brooklyn. Are we good for a start, he asked of Tom and Marty.

“Yes we are!” said Tom.

“Can you get Steve to call me about exact thickness, length, and width so there are no mistakes.”

“Sure!”

Steve did the follow up that he was asked for and also sent Ron a computer with diagrams of each boat, platforms needed for the hull’s side engines, plates, electrical gauges, wiring set up also had the company wiring color codes. He said to put plug-ins on all connectors, freshwater lines, sewage, fuel, and tanks, (bladders) when needed, side steering thrusters, everything to the first deck and wheelhouse. Ron laughed and said, “It was like a paint by number set.”

Steve smiled, Marty said, “You’ll use it!”

Andrea met with Tom and Marty! They told him to go see if he could sell more boats. He started on the Lakes, Mississippi, Texas gulf, California, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Alaska, Canada, Maine and then back home. If none of the orders cancel that’s 1,141 boats, none are military, and all are North America only. He didn’t even try Florida, Bermuda. The Caribbean, port of Tampa, Miami, and Lauderdale as they were done earlier!

“How long to get them done and shipped, asked Tom of Ron.

‘I’m working on that!” Ron said as he walked in and gave Andrea a hug and said, “126 a month.”

Andrea said, “WOW.” He wasn’t expecting that many that quickly. “All my sales talks showed that it would take 40 to 60 days to build ten boats to the customer’s specs and shipment. How can we achieve that,” he asked Ron?