THE ONLY BUSINESS WORSE THAN THE BOAT BUSINESS

In 1972 I had just finished my distinguished army career and needing employment, I went back to work for Eastern Mountain Sports. I had worked for EMS before being drafted and now they were having a huge growth in sales, especially in the cross-country ski department. I decided to become a cross-country ski expert. I moved to my family's home in Eaton, New Hampshire and worked at the EMS store in North Conway. During the long New Hampshire winter I skied every day, raced on the weekends and got certified by the Professional Ski Instructors Association. This was the first ever certification for cross-country ski instructors.

In 1973 I approached the owner of EMS with a plan for EMS to have a cross-country ski center where people could make use of all these skis we were selling and to be able to learn how to use them with lessons. Every ski package sold by EMS would come with a free ski lesson at the EMS Ski Touring Center. Al McDonough, the president of EMS, bought into my idea. A full page add in the Boston Globe cost ten thousand dollars, EMS advertised in there all the time, so my budget was ten thousand dollars and not a penny more. Of course in spite of all the free ski lessons to be given out and my plan not to charge for trail use, I told Al I'd make money for the company, just trust in me.

In the summer of 1973 I searched for a touring center location. I settled on the old Interval Ski Area in Interval, New Hampshire. I mapped out old logging roads and trails and with some cutting, I put together about twenty miles of trails. I was amazed how the land owners where happy to let me use their land and no one even asked for an insurance policy never mind a land use fee.

Every morning I would get up early, strap a frame pack to my back with several gallons of gasoline, oil, and tools. I carried a chain saw and a brush cutter, which is the most dangerous tool ever. The brush cutter has a gas engine at the top with a long shaft and a circular blade at the bottom. The blade spins and you swing the thing back and forth cutting everything in its way. It's a good way to cut someone's ankles right off. I would hike for miles finding the end of yesterday's work and clear the trail until dark, seven days a week. In my spare time, I fixed up the base lodge, which I was now living in, and built an addition for the ski shop.

I hoped to open by Thanksgiving. There was a lot more work to be done on the trail system come Thanksgiving, but it turns out I had time for the work since it did not snow. It just got cold. Every day I got up prayed for snow and ventured out into the woods to work n the trails. I hired people to run the snack bar, luckily they just paid me a percentage of the business they did, or didn't do. I stocked the ski shop and mounted all the rental skis. By mid December it still had not snowed, not even a little.

To add insult to injury our country was involved in a huge gas shortage. You could only buy gas every other day based on your odd or even license plate. People driving to North Conway had 5-gallon cans of gas in their truck in case they needed gas to get home. People were driving around in gas bombs. Most gas stations were open for a short time each day and quickly ran out of gas. People were afraid to drive any distance. So there was no snow and no fuel. My promise to big Al McDonough was looking pretty bad.

On Christmas night I stood at the big window at the front of the touring center and watched it rain. It poured and the temperature was 18 degrees. The rain built up as ice on the ground. You could not get a bigger mess if you tried. The week of Christmas to New Years is the biggest ski week of the year, but we had no snow at all. Back then the downhill areas did not have snowmaking. North Conway was a very sad place to be.

On New Years Eve it snowed about 10 inches. New Years day we were mobbed. The ski winter of 1973-1974 will go down in history as one of the worst ever. The rest of the winter was still very bad. I spent days shoveling snow from the woods onto the trails. I gave lessons on a shoveled 100-foot path of snow.

At the end of the year I put my tail between my legs and traveled to Boston to meet with big Al. Al seemed happy to see me and offered me a job at the Boston headquarters as his ski buyer for the whole company. I accepted the job and moved to the Boston area. I left the White Mountains that I loved so much for the big city. I needed something outdoorsy to do. My brother Rick, who ran the EMS North Conway store, came to visit me and agreed I needed something down here. Together we went to the Boston Boat Show and bought a C&C 25.

In 1979 I left selling skis to work for Baltic Yachts and I have been in the boat business ever since. Every time I thing about how bad things are in the boat business I just think about the Touring Center and the winter of 1973-1974. It doesn't always snow, but the sun always comes out.

Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com

Bump Wilcox