OnBoard Magazine - Issue XIII - 2021 Season

come together, relying on Bluewater’s expertise in the process and their Captain Willie Zimmerman’s bluewater experience. “The whole team was absolutely amazing and the project was truly a dream come true. Here we have the old-school craftmanship and art in the plank on frame construction, yet with all the amenities of newer technologies and updated design strategies. It’s the best of both worlds come together and we couldn’t be happier with the boat and the whole process,” states Zimmerman. Polatty brought in Applied Concepts to design the entire interior and systems layout, a relationship of long standing and inherent trust. The project began with extensive measurements, the removal and testing of the fuel tanks, the insidewas fully fiber-glassed and some decks replaced. The flybridge was built and attached and the running gear and propulsion systems spec’d out for the planned 1400 MAN engines. When an opportunity to make a deal to upgrade to a set of 1550s arose in the middle of all that, they essentially had to go back a few stages to make it work. “Working with customers who understand that delays can be opportunities and understand changes, is a great experience. Willie and the Shrivers took everything in stride and are just 1st class people to work with,” explained Polatty. From the Shriver brothers’ and their Captain’s perspective, the Bluewater team made the whole experience the best they could imagine. “Bluewater was phenomenal every step of the way and Jim and Rhonda were great,” explains Nick. Captain Willie Zimmerman pointed out that much of the project took place during the pandemic and travel to the boatyard in North Carolina was impossible for long stretches of time: “Rhonda sent pictures every week with updates from Jim and the crew. They made sure we were involved every step of the way.” Rusty Shriver added that the work was top notch on every detail and that Jim made sure he was as transparent as possible on every decision made—“it was really important to me as I was probably the most skeptical of the project, and they seemed to agree with me that ‘good things don’t come fast’ but I had every sense that Jim was straight with me on everything. It was an amazing experience.” The Bluewater commitment to “on budget and on time” was fairly reached—even with the months delay for the new engine installation—and Ro Sham Bo splashed in July of 2020. She rides as she was built to in that “old school” style, but is replete with the most sophisticated gear imaginable, sporting two Seakeeper gyros, the latest Furuno Sonar and all the toys in the sportfishing arsenal. 48 BLUEWATER