| Excalibur, Twenty Years Old and Still Running
Strong!
By Capt. Art Vroman
Finding a trailer boat that could be launched from the dry
storage at Channel Islands for weekend trips became easy
after talking to Don at the LA boat show. I remember noticing
that two boats he had on display were made like pieces of
fine furniture and they certainly looked rugged. But they
were decked out for fishing, and I wanted a boat for diving.
I asked Don what he knew about making a boat for scuba diving.
He replied that he had made the Bottom Scratcher and the
Sand Dollar, 55 foot charter dive boats out of San Diego.
I had been certified on the Bottom Scratcher in 1976 and
that was all I needed to hear. After several months of planning,
I ordered the Excalibur and the adventure began.
The
concept for the Excalibur was based on the small fast dive
boats used in the Caribbean as compared
to the slow
ten-knot California dive boats loaded with up to thirty
divers. The Excalibur would cruise at close to
20 knots fully loaded
and carry only six divers. Don constructed a 23 Albacore
Special with custom fold away seating, teak tank ranks for
ten aluminum 80’s, and a beautiful tower with
a second station to allow the crew to leave the open
deck space
below for the divers while they suited up. The Excalibur
was fitted
with the smaller 100-gallon tank, as each trip to Anacapa
Island would consume only ten gallons of diesel fuel.
The boat was also delivered with enclosures for the
tower and
a full boat cover to preserve its beautiful bright
blue color. On the delivery day, after a nice lunch
with Don
and Shirley,
Don and I took the boat for its first trip in San Diego
harbor. I can still remember the solid feel of the
boat driving from
the tower and the wonderful sound of the new diesel
engine.
It took the first couple
of years to refine the original concept into something
that would attract paying
customers and work efficiently. I quickly learned
that hiring
a captain with me along as the Dive Master was
not working out. I
also discovered that I would probably be better
off advertising in the one of the local diving newspapers
to generate more
business. The next year after getting my Captains
license and having an free announcement in skin
diver magazine,
I
came to another realization: I wasn’t charging
enough money! I decided to start charging more
than the large
dive boats, as my service was personalized and
the trip to the
dive spots much quicker. As I kept raising the
price I noticed my customer base change from
divers who were
offsetting
their
fare with all the seafood they had caught to
divers who were more concerned about the quality
of the
trip than
the cost.
The final discovery was that my portable scuba
compressor was not needed, as the Excalibur was
very seaworthy
with six divers and eighteen scuba tanks! It
would still cruise
easily at 18 knots at 3200 rpm and eliminating
the noise of the compressor was greatly appreciated
by
the customers. 
The next four or five years were filled
with the business taking up all my free time on weekends
running what had become
a real business. This was not really the original plan, but
I was enjoying meeting the people and giving better service
than the big boats could offer. I was running almost 40 trips
a year with customers from all over the United States.
I
also came to another realization, which was very shocking.
I couldn’t afford to use my own boat! During the summer
I would run 6 trips a month at $450 a day, if I turned away
a paying charter my cost would be over $300 in lost profit!
Well least I could use the boat during the winter when business
was slow. In 1987, my 280 outdrive had massive problems with
the lower gear case caused by a mistake my mechanic had made
the year before. Rather than overall it, I had a 290 Duoprop
outdrive fitted by a shop in Marina Del Ray. The shop was
buying engine outdrive assemblies straight from Volvo and
splitting them to sell to people who needed new units. The
engine had to be lowered in the hull and the transom re-cut
to fit the new outdrive. I was excited about the addition
of power trim but was not ready for the increase in performance
of the Duoprop. The boat ran much quieter and added 3 knots
to the cruise and top speeds. As it turned out, lots of other
boat owners wanted a Duoprop and somebody broke into the
yard and stole the outdrive off a friend’s Skipjack
25 and had my Duoprop almost off the boat when he was scared
away by the harbor patrol. Some six months after the Duoprop
incident, the boat was stolen from the dock under the hoist
in broad daylight. At nine in the morning, a girl who was
high on drugs untied the boat and it drifted across the harbor
and came to rest on the docks for the Whales Tail restaurant.
A live aboard boat owner thought it was strange to see the
cabin doors all locked up with the outdrive raised and no
ignition key. He called the harbor patrol who arrested the
girl and turned her over to the Oxnard police. I got a call
at work and I had to claim the boat from the harbor patrol.
It was a freak incident, and I couldn’t think of
any way to have prevented it other than chaining the
boat to
the dock. 
During the years that I ran the Excalibur as a charter
boat, there was no shortage of adventures. The Coast
Guard, in
response to Mayday situations involving scuba divers,
twice enlisted the boat for search and rescue operations.
The
first Mayday was for a fellow scuba instructor who
had surfaced
with a bad case of the bends upon boarding his own 65-foot
charter dive boat. He was quickly transferred to the
Excalibur and my charter group transferred to his boat.
While he
was administered oxygen, the Excalibur set off at flank
speed
to meet the rescue chopper at Channel Islands harbor.
We made the harbor in record time from the backside
of Anacapa
and as I entered the Harbor I realized that for once
I didn’t
need to slow to 5 knots! I have to admit I enjoyed the 25-knot
blitz to the coast guard dock where the paramedics were waiting.
The helicopter whisked him to Los Robles Hospital in Thousand
Oaks where he made a complete recovery. The Excalibur had
got him to the chamber some 40 minutes quicker than his boat
would have. The treatments in the recompression chamber completely
eliminated the paralysis he had arriving at the hospital.
The second Mayday involved two aerospace engineers whom I
worked with. Andy had been scuba diving off Mike’s
42-foot sailboat at Hungry Man’s Gulch at Santa Cruz
Island while Mike made sure the boat was anchored properly
in the strong current. I heard Mike’s Mayday on channel
16 reporting that Andy was overdue and I relayed the message
to Coast Guard Long Beach, who asked us to participate in
a search and rescue. We searched the surface over a 5-mile
area to see if he had drifted by the anchored sail boat into
the Santa Barbara channel, but did could not find a trace.
Then we sent two divers down to do an expanding square search
pattern at the sailboat with the same unsuccessful result.
The Coast Guard arrived after our divers surfaced and were
also unsuccessful. The next day the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s
Dive Team found and recovered Andy’s body. He still
had air in his tank, but had panicked when he became
entangled in the kelp and without a buddy to assist him
had drowned.
By 1993 it became obvious that I needed to reevaluate
my charter business. My aerospace job now involved
lots of
travel and the dive business had continued to decline,
as the game
became less abundant. In addition, my commercial
dive insurance and fish and game fees had sky rocketed.
In reality, I
was working most of the year to pay expenses. The
boat
was paid
off and it been fully depreciated so the tax incentives
were gone. So I decided not to renew my 6-pack license,
discontinued
the advertising and stopped running charters. All
in all it was fantastic experience that exceeded all
my
expectations.
I had run my own charter dive boat for ten years
without a single accident and my customers enjoyed
personal
service and some of the best diving in California.
Don’s
23 foot pocket dive boat had met all the challenges
with flying
colors was absolutely perfect for my fast day trips
to the Channel Islands.
What I quickly realized, was that my business decision
was accompanied with a major lifestyle change as
I didn’t
need to spend every weekend at the harbor either
doing maintenance or running charters. It took several
years
to get used the
Excalibur now being my personal toy instead of a
proud work boat. I used it for my own scuba trips,
harbor cruises,
etc.
until 1999 when I moved to another house which had
room to store the boat. So, after 16 years in Channel
Islands
Landing,
the Excalibur was moved to Chatsworth for some sorely
needed refurbishment. It was a big decision because
the landing
was always full with a long waiting list and I knew
I could never get back in.
Having the boat next to my garage and all my tools
handy made the work a delight. At the landing,
I had to bring
everything and I always forgot some key tool
or part. So I took my time
and did everything I had always wanted to do,
but couldn’t
accomplish with the boat at the landing. The
tower was removed, stripped and powder coated out in
Lancaster.
Unfortunately,
the shop owner botched the job and I had to repeat
the
whole process again. The tower floor, control
box, and bench seat
received a now coat of gel coat. The tower was
fitted with new antennas, stereo and loud hailer speakers,
and deck lights.
Two new Morse controls and cable sets were installed
on the steering stations including new teak inserts
for the wheels.
The electronics were updated with a Lowrance
LM-160
GPS Sonar and Chart plotter replacing the original
Lowrance
Depth sounder.
A Horizon Intrepid VHF with a Ram remote microphone
for the tower station was installed in addition
to a Horizon
SL-150
knot log for the lower helm. The SITEX 16-mile
radar was remounted on a new bracket and my old SITEX
LORAN
was left
in place as I always enjoy having redundant information
to compare to the GPS. I also added a Guest battery
charger to keep the batteries fully charged.
The propulsion system maintenance was next task
with all of the dings removed from the props
and a full
service
done on the outdrive. The engine received new
belts, valve cover
gasket, raw water strainer, updated power trim
hydraulics, new zincs, filters, and ventilation
hoses. The complete
bilge pump system was replaced, including an
audible alarm to warn
when the pump was activated. I had the fuel
tank polished to remove any impurities and replaced
the tachometer
on the lower station with a brand new original
equipment Volvo
unit.
The next step was to restore the blue hull that was polished
to a mirror finish with the latest polishes
and waxes. New waterline stripes and CF numbers were added with
the original
Fish Machine and Volvo Penta Diesel stickers
still in good shape. The teak bow plank, tank racks, deck pads, and rub
rail were all refinished with stainless rub
rails added where the lifting straps would hit. I had planned to
refinish the
deck with new gel coat, but I discovered
a major problem. The fiberglass over plywood deck had areas of dry rot
and de-lamination of the fiberglass deck skin. It took several
months to repair/replace all of the wood
with all different kinds of chemicals from West Marine. Before I finished
the deck, I had a shipwright in the harbor
replace all the teak
Formica in the cockpit. After lots of anguish,
I decided to have the entire cockpit including the inside hull
and transom sprayed with Line X polyurethane coating. It took
two tries to get the top coat color right,
but now the deck looks brand new and is sealed against any possibility
of
water leaking through to the wood.
To finish the project I had every piece of
stainless on the boat including the swim
step brackets,
dive ladder, piano
hinges, fuel tank seam covers, and other
items professionally polished to a mirror
finish.
To protect all my handiwork,
I had a new full boat cover made that covers
the entire boat to the waterline. I also
had the Excalibur
name
and
logo
on the transom. I was finally finished and
the boat looked gorgeous. There is something
timeless
about
a boat with
a beautiful design and quality construction.
As Don would say, “ Perfect
is Good Enough”.
So that is the story of the Excalibur, and
I am sure all the Blackman owners understand
the
attachment
I have to
my boat. I can’t imagine ever selling the Excalibur, as
we have had so many adventures together. Besides, I haven’t
seen any other boat that I would rather have. Every time
I launch the boat at the harbor, people gather around and
comment on the functionality and beauty of Don’s design.
I have to gloat a little bit, because boats like mine are
extremely rare and aren’t for sale.
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