Monday, July 4, 2016

Bluenose

By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
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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