He has at his fingertips the names of the boats he has built, the years he built them, what races they won, and even where they are today. The owners may have them, but they're our boats. Occasionally a client will propose a contract that specifies cash penalties for late delivery of a boat. He's never had to pay a penalty, despite an occasional production glitch. Goetz turns early-delivery bonuses over to the guys in the shop.
Nothing turns off a customer like an empty building with no work going on.
With a new project for Lockheed Aerospace, a forty-foot racing boat in the works for a Japanese client, and other projects under discussion, empty buildings and no work seem an unlikely scenario for Eric Goetz and his team. Eric Broudy is associate vice president for University relations and an experienced sailor.