b'runs into financial difficulties while your project is under- Spirit of Seattle. When it is not conducting harbor tours, FOGHORN FOCUS way you will be dealing with its creditors and possibly ait has played as the opening session venue for the first Se-court appointed trustee to recover your costs or to get yourattle-hosted U.S.-Chinese International Tourism Summit vessel completed? and continues to be a preferred venue for local technology companies, weddings, and private events. In our case, AAM allowed us to perform a CPA level of due diligence and review its financial and tax records, asWould we build another boat? Answer is yes, but only if well as check its business references. Full disclosureI waswe continue to leverage our professional relationships with the CPA for this part so everything I learned was firsthand.PVA members who have been critical to our success. We Based on the results we made the decision the risk was suchare a large community with vast amounts of knowledge to we would not incur the cost of a surety or performanceshare. I encourage everyone to spend time in the exhibitors bond. I am not sure how often shipyards would allow suchhallsatgatheringswhenlookingforideasordirections an exercise, but this level of transparency allowed us to be- for remodels and refreshment of our vintage boats. More come comfortable in signing the contract. importantly, start the conversation with a PVA associate member in the exhibitors hall when you are looking down At the time we selected AAM, we knew this was the largestthe road for a new boat. I wished I had done more of this monohull boat they had built. We also knew that our hullwhen I first joined PVA.would be fabricated in their old facility and floated and moved into their new state-of-the-art fabrication facility onAs a recovering CPA, my final question is if its time to the north end of Bellingham Bay. This was considered oneconsiderstartingtosaveinyourCapitalConstruction more construction risk. The key was constant and effectiveFund for a new boat.communication between all partiesit is critical to main-taining trust throughout such a large project.We avoided as many change orders as possible by making decisions upfront; relying on the design and installation of materials used in many of AAMs prior builds. When it came time to sit down and work through the change orders there were none that were in dispute; two were a result of specific materials being included in the initial bid that were not available at time of build and the substituteAbout the Author material was more expensive. Overall, the over/under costsKEVIN CLARK of change orders amounted to an immaterial amount ofCEO & PRESIDENTmoney based on the total cost to build. ARGOSY CRUISESWere there mistakes in design or desired outcome? Natu- Kevin and his wife Cary, own and operate Argosy rally, nothing is perfect, however if you put your specifi- Cruises in Washington state, which operates a fleet cations in the contract upfront and know how to measureof vessels providing daily tours of Elliott Bay and the desired outcomes, it makes resolving any issues muchsurrounding Lakes, private charters, ferry service, simpler. When we accepted the boat and put it into service,andcommunityspecialevents.Inadditionto overthecourseofthefirstseasonAAMremainedourArgosy Cruises, Kevins focus has been the promo-partner on the boat, and any issues related to our criticaltion of city and statewide tourism nationally and few criteria were addressed and corrected under our con- internationally as an effective tool for economic tract and warranty. growth. He is past chair of two of Washingtons largestdestinationmarketingorganizations,the Our new All American Marine build was christened theWashington Tourism Alliance and Visit Seattle.Salish Explorer and became our proud sister ship to the FOGHORN 30'