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YACHTING Magazine Names Dick Fisher an Innovator

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:25 am
by Dutchman
YACHTING magazine named the five innovators in the yachting business. Dick Fisher is one of them. The four others are are Heinrich Hertz (radio waves and its resulting technologies), David Blount (Hydrodynamics-design), Russel Slayter (fiberglass wool-FRP), John Adams and Shep Mckenney (Seakeepers-gyroscopes).

To see Boston Whaler represented due to its inventor and the material used even though they really don't make yachts (60-feet long) was good.

Re: YACHTING INNOVATORS

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:45 pm
by dtmackey
Thanks for sharing.

Picking five is tough, not knowing the specific selection criteria. There are so many other innovators out there and I would have included Ray Hunt who is considered the father of the deep-V hull. He also pushed Fisher to build the first 13-foot Boston Whaler instead of a sailboat. Not to mention that larger Whalers now utilize deep-V hulls.

Content shared from Ray Hunt Designs.

Boston Whaler 13: The Boston Whaler 13 (1960) was a stable utility boat, much loved by families for its stability (adults as well as kids could dive off the gunwhales without upsetting the boat) and unsinkability. This boat not only launched that builder as a major brand but created a whole new genre of desirable outboard tenders and coastal utility boats. Interestingly, Dick Fisher, the President of what would become Boston Whaler, had approached Ray Hunt to design a sailboat but Ray convinced him to use a newly developed foam construction to build an outboard boat instead. That 13-footer was a commercial success for several decades, followed similarly by the 16-foot Boston Whaler Montauk.

D-

Re: YACHTING Magazine Names Dick Fisher an Innovator

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:56 am
by jimh
Picking Heinrich Hertz makes no sense. The existence or radio waves was not invented by him; radio waves are a property of nature. Maxwell predicted their existence. Also, I don't think Hertz transmitted any intelligence using radio waves. That was Marconi or Tesla. Marconi sent wireless or radiotelegraphy messages. Tesla is said to have demonstrated a wireless control for a boat.

WIKIPEDIA has this quote attribute to Hertz himself regarding his own thoughts on the usefulness of radio waves:

It's of no use whatsoever[...] this is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right—we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there.


I would hardly think that he qualifies as an innovator in boating.

Re: YACHTING Magazine Names Dick Fisher an Innovator

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:44 am
by Dutchman
Jim & DtM I agree with your comments, but those were the five that Yachting magazine picked. Personally I think a Chris Smith (Chris-Craft) and Nathaniel Herreshoff should be at the top, too.

I agree with Jim's comment about Hertz. but here is what Yachting Magazine said and some of it is plausible:

As mariners, we can't claim Heinrich Hertz all to ourselves. His discovery of radio waves has had an impact far beyond the watery world. Still, his work has played a key role in maritime communications and navigation that is, perhaps, unmatched by any other scientist's.

When he constructed his "oscillator" and then used it to jump sparks between a gap, creating pulses of electromagnetic waves that were detectable several feet away through thin air, Hertz wrote: "I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application."

Within a decade, radio signals would be broadcast across the Atlantic Ocean.

To one degree or another, we owe Hertz credit for our VHF radios, radar, satellite communications, GPS, cellphones, and even the microwave ovens in our galleys. Hertz also discovered the photoelectric effect, which formed the base of knowledge that led to our modern concept of solar power. He advanced experimentation with cathode rays and contributed to the field of theoretical mechanics — all before dying at age 36, in 1894. And yes, the frequencies we call [H]ertz are named after him.

Re: YACHTING Magazine Names Dick Fisher an Innovator

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 am
by jimh
To credit Hertz for GPS is absurd. The phenomenon of radio waves was not an innovation. It is a element of nature. Maybe YACHTING should credit God for creating water--water is rather fundamental in boating.

The biggest innovation in electronic navigation is, without doubt, the use of global navigation satellite systems, which were invented and pioneered by the military of the United States. I'd replace Hertz with Colonel Bradford Parkinson for electronic navigation innovation in creating the U.S. Air Force NAVSTAR system, then Ronald Reagan for making it available to the public, and then the taxpayers of the USA for funding it so the world can use it for free. For general navigation innovation, I would suggest another American, Nathaniel Bowditch, author of THE NEW AMERICAN PRACTICAL NAVIGATOR, published in 1802 and still in print.

Also, without Maxwell's prediction of electro-magnetic waves, Hertz would probably not have looked for evidence of them. Maxwell's work, even today, defies my comprehension. How he came up with this theory is astonishing. If anyone is the innovator or electro-magnetic waves, it is James Clerk Maxwell.

Re: YACHTING Magazine Names Dick Fisher an Innovator

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:00 pm
by Dutchman
Jim
Did you let Yachting Magazine know?
I don't disagree I just stated what Yachting magazine published and it included a person very much part of Boston Whaler.