I wrote a letter to George Buehler about my trip with David Katz aboard his Diesel Duck and George asked if he could post it on his web site. I told him sure but let me dress it up abit so as not to offend anyone. The revised edition has been on his web site since then and most of you have probably read it already. For those of you who haven't here it is, I'm sure he won't mind.

This is my report on my two week stay with David Katz aboard Seaducktress moving it from San Francisco Bay to Poulsbo, Washington. I will start with the last week because I had more fun that week, though I did get a lot of experience bringing the boat up the coast. The second week I threw up a lot less, actually I didn’t throw up at all the second week and was eating very good to make up for throwing up the first two days and not eating for at least three days.
We arrived in Poulsbo on Sunday afternoon and fueled the boat. That was the first time my feet had touched land in a week and I got some laughs trying to walk on the dock. We couldn’t get a slip until the next day so we anchored just outside the docking area. I had suspected the boat would garnish attention and it did. While the boat was being fueled three or four people asked about it and even more just stopped and looked. We got a slip Monday morning and settled into our mooring at the Poulsbo Marina. The preset-up people from Trawlerfest arrived and gave us our permanent slip for the show that afternoon.
David and I started getting acquainted with our fellow boaters mainly because they stopped by the boat and asked where it came from. One guy on the fuel dock was a broker and had been in China when David took delivery and had seen the boat. I made several friends by showing the boat to them. They would come by and ask questions and I would invite them aboard and tell them the story of the boat, George Buehler, and Seahorse Marine, and from my knowledge of those things they thought I had more of a connection than just the few days I had spent on her. “Her”, that just doesn’t seem right to call a Diesel Duck a “her”. I soon started telling people my impression was “it’s a cross between a sailboat, a power boat, and a Sherman Tank”.
I discovered on my around the world bike trip that people felt a need to come up and speak to you if you were on a bicycle, especially if you looked to be from a foreign land. This boat has the same attraction. Somehow the image of this craft, (craft doesn’t really fit it either) gave people the liberty to investigate. Certainly the owners would not be uppity or sophisticated. The owners would be friendly and inviting. Somehow they made a connection even before they saw us; somehow they made a connection with the boat. Somehow they knew that the owners of this boat didn’t inherit a family fortune, (not that there is anything wrong with that),win the lottery, (not that there is anything wrong with that either),or have a career in the software business, (not there is anything wrong with that particularly either). Certainly the occupants of this boat were from a working class just like them. People were equally curious about the boat and the fact David had brought it from China mostly by himself.
The closer we got to the starting of Trawlerfest the more people came to look. Finally on Saturday the last day and the day of most attendance, people were literally standing in line and inside there were as many as twelve people at once. Peter Pisciotta even took a picture and included Seaducktress in his presentation, “Selecting the Right Yacht” which was very, very good by the way. I had so little time from showing the boat that I only had time to see one other boat, a million dollar yacht.
Not that there is anything wrong with million dollar yachts.
I wish I could afford one. I did feel somewhat out of place on it though, I didn’t dare touch anything. David noted to me afterwards that these boats always seem to have a bottle of wine on the galley counter. It made him think that he may get out a bottle of beer and set it on the counter of his boat.
Quite a few people had followed the Diesel Duck on the internet and were familiar with Seahorse Marine, George Buehler, David Katz, and Don Wilson. I talked to several people for quite a long time about the development of the cockpit and the passageway under the pilot house. I would tell them that the designer and the builder liked these changes so well that they had designed a new boat around those changes. I wish I had had some brochures. George had some nice brochures at his table in the vender tent promoting his designs including the 46+2. Some people came on board with that brochure clinched in their hands. I would open it up and show them the similarities between Seaducktress, which was on the cover, and the 46+2. I told them that four were under construction.
I would give anything to have a Diesel Duck on the East coast. I actually believe these boats will appreciate in value. With the right marketing approach I also believe the demand for these boats will be strong.
Okay, now for the first week. David picked me up at the airport at 11:00 AM Sunday May 23rd and took me to the boat. We drove to a market and bought provisions and while I put them away he returned the rental car. I fixed dinner and David said he wanted to fix a sticking shifting cable on Monday and leave Tuesday. After dinner we looked at the cable and within an hour or less had it working just fine.
We motored under the Golden Gate Bridge at 9:00 Monday morning and I couldn’t resist the temptation to call my wife and gloat, she was very jealous. Within an hour I was hanging over the rails vomiting my insides out. Not only was I seasick but I was embarrassed because I had talked David into taking me along with the assumption I would be of some benefit to him.
I had taken pills to prevent this but nothing helped. The only relief I got was lying on my back. That afternoon David asked if I thought I could help him stand watch. I answered yes although every time I tried to stand I started heaving. He told me I could watch from 9:00 PM until midnight and 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM. I can tell you that when I laid back in that lazy-boy I would have given $100.00 for how it felt. The relief was similar to lying in a bed and I believe that chair is right on the pivot point for the boat.
As you probably know David doesn’t talk a great deal and didn’t tell me until the afternoon of the second day that I would get over it, and eventually I did. That was great to hear and feel after a few days. I certainly couldn’t plan this great adventure with my wife on boats if I was to stay sick all the time. I finally got brave enough to put some food in my mouth about Wednesday. I tried to make up for the first two days by preparing good food for David and staying out of that chair which I had come to love.
I think David came to like me and appreciate my assistance.
To my knowledge I did help watch standing and when we got to Poulsbo I cleaned the boat from stem to stern and top to bottom. None of the knots I tied came loose and though I watched behind us no fenders fell off after I tied them to the railings in preparation for docking. I attached the lines to the dock and got a little of a reprimand from David when I made those cute little curls on the dock of the excess line. He said that kind of defeated the character of the boat. I agreed but left them there anyway. By this time I had started to take some pride in ownership of the boat and I wanted curly cues. Apparently no one turned up their noses at them and walked away. People would ask me questions about the boats performance and I would tell them the only thing I had to compare it to was a car. I explained that David had put the paravanes out on the windward side only and as bad as I felt during part of the trip, the rolling didn’t seem to be noticeable.
I came to like and respect David. There are not many of us that would attempt to do what he has done. I don’t agree with him on everything. He reads too many fiction books.
This is my report and if you have any questions are comments please let me know. I’m planning a trip to Zhulai in November."

Randal Johnson.

Hop ahead to December 2005. After this was written my wife, Ruth, & I have made the pilgrimage to Seahorse Marine and put our faith and confidence in Bill and Stella and have on order and under construction Motor Vessel "Dora Mac" 462-5.

Kristian
I didn't know you could go from the Black Sea to the Baltic VIA canals. In 2000 I did a bicycle tour of the world in which I pedaled 15,800 miles and rode through 40 countries. I rode from Bergen to Foord, then down to Oslo. I loved Norway. I'm now reading "Into The Light" by Dave & Jaja Martin and I'm at the part where they are wintering over in Svolvaer. The Martin's are on a 33' sailboat with three kids under eight years of age.

Hello Kristan -- Dorothy and I are planning on taking our Duck DD462-02, to your shores when we reach Europe, but this will be several years from now. We will be doing shake-down cruises out of Hong Kong later this year, then possibly down to Australia, before coming back to the west coast of the US, all before heading on to N.Europe. If you would like to exchange emails directly my email is dnagle1949@aol.com

This is very interesting
I have just recently discovered the DUCK.
Living on the west coast of Norway, all the thoughts put into these boats makes perfectly sense for me.
Are you planning to take the boat through the canals from the Black Sea to Baltic sea?
If you are going to Scandinavia, could I propose for you the west coast of Norway?
I can assure you that you will find nothing like it in Scandinavia except for the nothern part of Norway.Not that the rest of Scandinavia is not nice, because it is. But it is different.
We are for the moment in the Med for 1 year with a 33ft motorboat. Even if it is winter it is warmer here than in Norway, which for the moment have temperatures down to -40 Celsius.

http://www.noonsite.com/General/Piracy
just food for thought
John

Fantastic sounds great, although the around africa route that Idlewood is doing sounds wonderful as well. Just be careful of pirates that route sounds kind of thick with them.
John

Sounds like you had a great time are you planning on sailing her home from the builders?
John

John

We plan to take delivery in China when the boat is completed later this year. From the yard we will go to Hong Kong for additional provisioning and then on to the Subic Bay Yacht Club in the Philippines where Seahorse Marine maintains a membership for their clients. This will serve as a shake down cruise.
From there we are a little wish washy on where to next but the most likely possibility is to cruise down through the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, at least two years in the Med and Black Sea, up to the Baltic one summer, across the Atlantic to the east coast, down through the Panama Canal, from South America across the Southern Pacific stopping at islands along the way to New Zealand and Australia and back up to Seahorse Marine for a refit. We're estimating this trip to take between five and ten years.
This past Thursday, February 2nd, I signed over the ownership of my main business to its new owners after three months of negotiations. I have two more businesses to dispose of and sometime this summer sell our home and we will be ready to go. My wife retired in October and when these tasks are complete the boat will become our new residence.

Randal Johnson

Sounds like you had a great time are you planning on sailing her home from the builders?
John