I watched Seeker built from some of the earliest episodes pulling the huge sheets of steel up to weld. He inspired me to dream bigger and do more. Been an amazing journey and I actually felt involved by supporting the project just by always watching and liking Seeker videos. Even now on the water Seeker continues to grow and get even better. Thanks for following his adventure and documenting it and Yeti for sponsoring this video.
@@thomasbecker9676you want me to read something written by naysayers like yourself that are too lazy to get out and do things on their own you don't have the stamina to build a stick bridge much less a boat until people like you and like that have to run other people down to build yourself up make sure you're pretty low person I'm just glad I don't have to deal with you on a daily basis cuz I hate malignant people like yourself
@@billsargent3407when people put negative things about other people it's only to bring them lower than themselves so you're trying to make him lower than yourself with your comment put you on a pretty low level of species of human I'm truly glad I don't have to deal with malignant of your nature
The Non-Launching Party was great! It has been a great ride and an inspiration. Get out in the shop and do something. I'm building a shop, stick by stick.
I've been watching your journey for a lot of years and cheering you on. To see it finally come to fruition is incredible!! I kinda hate to see the journey come to an end.... I really hope you continue to show us a new chapter in the saga of SVSeeker!!! You can bet I'll be watching.......
Great video. I was glad to have been able to visit Doug and Seeker when I was passing through Tulsa some years ago. Wish I could have played a part in building it.
Dude, this gives me chills! I didn't watch Seeker from the beginning, but I've followed for a very long time. I forgot some of this, the 7 months on the Hard, wow, that was just so hard to watch when it was happening. Best wishes to Doug and the whole crew!
Me too - been watching all this all these years, and still, totally enamored with Doug's amazing skills, perseverance and dedication. He is truly one of a kind. Many of us perhaps have lived vicariously thru all this but then we aren't a Doug! What a fella :)
He just got into the Gulf of Mexico this year,, is finalizing the drivetrain and systems to fully support research properly imo.. he's rebuilt the transfer case several times trying to achieve a robustness similar to marine focused equipment.. Naysayer,, shame on you.
One of the absolute best channels on RU-vid. I've been subscribed for years and years, and thoroughly enjoy the content. It's crazy that it's been three years since the insurance fiasco. Doug has come so far since then, and is currently on the East Coast of Florida conducting some upgrades to the boat. Wish him and the boat nothing but years of safety and adventure!
Incredible the number of naysayers at this juncture. This is certainly a feat for the common man, and those that chose to sacrifice to help Doug get it on the water. And the story continues as systems that weren’t meant for a boat are adapted and challenges overcome.
Tenacity and sticktoitiveness are great qualities, admirable virtues, but they don't erase things like boat stability and seaworthiness. Building a 74' luxury yacht in your front yard mostly by yourself is way beyond any one person, but taking the extra week or two at the start to come up with real a real statement of requirements, scantlings and stability curves is not. It wouldn't have required any equipment that he didn't have, and would have saved him time, labor, and money, it just would have taken a bit of humility, real humility. Seeker as she stands is not safe as compared to other recreational sailboats. And on the ocean the duty to render aid is not just a norm or a societal nicity, it's the law. Doug isn't just putting himself at unnecessary risk. And I'm not some nay sayer who thought seeker would go straight to the bottom on launch. I had put my prediction down in writing more than a year before she launched including performance numbers that turned out to be reasonably accurate too (her top speed looks about 1.2 knots lower than I had projected, which was already well below the potential of a hard chined steel boat this size). She has major stability issues and adding bulwarks with insufficient freeing ports and hatches that aren't water tight to that mix is a recipe for disaster.
00:58 "the worst that can happen is - you can fail" There it is. End of story. More important than that - if you fail, accept it, take away something, anything, from that failure and move on. No fixing some mistakes. Like building a ship with no real plan.
@@DuncanMargetts on the road, you are never alone. This boat is a new build and even professional build boats have time of trails let him figure it out he will get there one issue at the time. And you lighten up, cranky pants.
I miss Kay, I hope she is doing well. Its sad yet comical how Seeker was launched 2 years ago, and it cannot operate longer than a few days without breaking down and taking several months to fix.
For the price of the kitchen appliances alone you could buy a boat that is more capable and comfortable and take more people further and faster than Seeker has gone more safely and with less work. Doug spent 15 years and half a million dollars on seeker.
I can’t believe the negativity in some comments . The point is he got out there and did it! And he is encouraging to anyone that does the same big or small projects. Are there other ways to achieve what he he’s trying to do ? For sure and he would agree, but this was his way and he is having so much fun doing it , don’t knock it until you try! Lovely tribute to Doug and the seekers! Cheers Warren
@@thomasbecker9676 have you watched his video? He built a huge boat from ground up , filled it with all sorts of equipment and is using it on the water right now! Do I agree with all his decision , no , but doesn’t make it wrong ! He cast his own propeller blades out of very hard material to cast ( im in that business) and they work ! That’s ridiculous! What have you done that makes what he did pail by comparison? I don’t see anything you posted? Cheers Warren
@@Cheers_Warren This is the usual sort of thing Doug would say. Legitimate criticism, concerns or advice from people who actually know boat design/building and sailing the oceans are dismissed with him pontificating about building a 74 foot boat in his front yard.
Congratulations of capturing the essence of this project, the man and the ‘boat that the internet built’. I watched Doug from the beginning and it has been an amazing project throughout and could not have been completed without vision, determination, a fair bit of help and obstinacy. The marine environment is a very harsh environment and it will test man, materials, equipment and systems. By his own confession Doug had no relevant marine experience and it’s pretty safe to say he does challenge orthodoxy and ‘rules and regulations’. Any new vessel, especially a one of a kind ‘home built’ can be fully expected to have ‘teething issues’ and of course some of them could have been avoided by fitting certified marine equipment but of course at a much higher installation cost. I fully expect Doug will overcome the essential equipment issues and in the process develop a wee bit more humility and a new respect for the marine environment - but I will not be holding my breath on the latter.
I've watched a few of his more recent videos, he seems to spend most of his time bodging his drive train back together after it's latest failure. His drive train is a cobbled together mess of parts, his wiring is terrifying, and the boat seems to just barely function at the best of times. Building Seeker was impressive, but things haven't gone well since he hit the water.
@@timreimer5451 See, it's easy to say something like this, but the fact is, people build working boats themselves quite frequently. And Doug doesn't listen to anyone, if he did, he wouldn't be on transfer case rebuild #6.
You mention the Coast Guard, would that be the lot who have broken most of their icebreakers and can't agree on a design or a budget for any replacements? Maybe you had better take that over Doug, they need some leadership and you are now qualified, in all senses !!
