One of the other things that I see when I look back at Barnbougle [having dug back through some of my old photos from construction on Friday] is just how young everyone was.
This was sort of by design: all of my current associates had been on site at Cape Kidnappers for the six months previous, and only Brian Schneider and his fiancée were up for staying on the road longer, since they didn't really have a home to go back to at that point. I don't even remember how old Brian was, I just remember thinking that I'd built High Pointe when I was 26-27, so I was confident he could make the most of the opportunity.
The other thing was, we had a shoestring budget to work with, so we really couldn't afford to bring all the experienced guys ... I would have loved to have Eric there more, but Richard pleaded poverty. Luckily for him, there were a lot of talented people who wanted to work on one of our projects. Kyle Franz had been an intern for us at Pacific Dunes, and he was willing to go down there and work for a bare-bones wage, so he was in. We also drafted Nicolas Biar, a young Frenchman who had worked at Pacific Dunes and who Greg Ramsay somehow convinced to come to Tasmania on a work permit ... Nicolas was a one-man finish crew!
[/size]When I'd interviewed interns the previous winter, I mentioned that there were three places we might wind up having work for them, and in the end, I picked the three guys who said they were most intrigued by the project in Tasmania -- George, Philippe and Chad -- an adventurous crew for an adventurous course. I only found out later that it was actually the first airplane trip Philippe had made in his life ... Montreal to Launceston!![size=78%]
[/size]Though I value experience, I am also keenly aware that the best projects I have been on are also the ones where the crew has had the most fun. Thus, it's important to keep finding new talent for each job, for whom the current project you are working on is the coolest thing they have ever worked on in their lives, as partial compensation for the long days, low pay, etc. Nearly everyone on that crew has gone on to work on more great projects where they personally had bigger roles, yet I think most of them would agree that Barnbougle was still the highlight of their careers. [size=78%]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%] [/size]