By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
If you have ever been really
bored and examined the back of a Canadian dime you have seen a rendering of the
sailing ship The Bluenose. The Bluenose
is (was) the pride of Nova Scotia.
During the early 1900’s when sailing schooners were the elite of the
shipping and fishing world, the Bluenose was a remarkable vessel. Not only was it a working fishing vessel, it
was also the fastest sailboat of its kind.
(Let’s see Larry Ellison’s sailboat bring home a catch of fish!)
As with all things, progress led
to the demise of the working schooner and the Bluenose sunk after hitting a
reef near Haiti while hauling a load of bananas. To commemorate the world beating
achievements of the Bluenose (and, admittedly, to capture tourist dollars) the
construction of a replica was commissioned.
Unfortunately the fate of The
Bluenose II has not been as positively illustrious as its famous ancestor. To begin there were a variety of legal
disputes and then cost overruns on the construction. The biggest hurdle however was that the ship
was required to get a steel rudder in order to be classified as sea worthy by
an American classification agency. More
than one seasoned shipbuilder called the requirement ridiculous. In essence regulation was stating that the
original design of the ship was a dud and needed to be redesigned. Slight problem – the original design of the
ship was not set up for a steel rudder.
Long
story short, The Bluenose II had to be taken out of service earlier this week
due to problems in part caused by the steel rudder. Just another case of well intentioned
regulation really mucking things up. I
suspect the original Bluenose had no accreditation or regulatory inspections
except for the fact that it was not only the fastest but one of the hardest
working ships of it era.
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