Tartan Factory Tour

A few weeks ago, I visited the Tartan Yachts factory to get a tour of their new facility as well as see firsthand the changes that they have made in the last eight months. Tartan Yachts are built in Fairport, Ohio (which is just east of Cleveland). From what I understand, we (Crow's Nest Yachts) was one of the first two Tartan dealers. So, we are naturally the longest standing Tartan dealer in the country.

A lot has happened in their history: starting with the Douglass and McLeod built Tartan 27, which reorganized to Tartan after a fire destroyed the plant in 1971. Speaking with Tim Jackett, who started working with Tartan in his teens, Tartan had always had a natural rival with the northern Lake Erie builder, C&C. While C&C's history of successful yacht building ended several tumultuous times, in the late 1990's they were purchased by Tartan Yachts, ending the history of racing rivalry between the two. At this point, Tartan invested heavily in composite technology. In 2002 they introduced epoxy construction and carbon fiber masts as standard. More recently, Tartan was brought under new ownership. This new ownership has brought new direction to the Tartan Yachts, with the addition of a few new members.

As I went through the plant, we were taken through every station or step of the boat building process. At each station we were greeted by a very friendly Tartan employee, who explained what they do, what capital/ equipment improvements have been made, what procedural changes they have implemented. By the end of the tour, I came away quite impressed with the level of knowledge and the attention to detail of the employees. Boat building on this scale is tricky because each boat is inherently "custom," but their relatively low production volume means that quality assurance must be consistent (whether it be a C&C 99 or a Tartan 4700).

Here are a few observations that I found interesting:
Tartan has two plants. Seven months ago Tartan was building all of their boats out of a single facility. This could be their biggest improvement because, judging by the size of the old facility, it was small. Now the old plant has been updated extensively and houses the teams that complete the hull and deck lamination/layup, spar building, and half of the QC team. The advantage to this arrangement is that it effectively contains the activities where dust is created and separates them from the painting and woodworking stations (where dust collection is critical).

While at the station where the decks are layed up, there was a Tartan 3700 deck being post cured. The advantages of building with epoxy aside, Tartan uses a VARTM epoxy infusion. What this means is that the dry layers of cloth are laid up behind the sprayed gelcoat. After that CAD cut end grain balsa core is positioned and layered with additional glass. CAD cutting balsa core makes for a faster and more precise layup process. After all the glass has been layed, Tartan vacuum bag the deck together and the epoxy is released under vacuum. This enables them to have fully epoxy saturated part without any excess resin. Additionally the VARTM process squeezes the glass and coring together, ensuring better adhesion, tensile strength, lower weight, and virtually eliminates any VOCs from entering the environment. The 3700 deck takes about three days to lay up and about fifteen minutes for the resin transfer. After that, the wet deck is cured under pressure for eight hours in a warm bay. Most of the vacuuming bagging equipment has been upgraded in the last year, which the employees were proud to show off. I got a real sense of pride from those working at Tartan. They are proud of their work.

Tartan makes their own masts. All new Tartans and C&Cs come standard with carbon fiber rigs. The obvious advantage to a carbon mast is the reduced weight aloft, which reduces the rolling motion of the boat in waves. The masts are layed up on proprietary molds, which are wrapped in unidirectional, omnidirectional, and biaxial prepreg carbon fibers. This is a very expensive way to make a mast because the materials costs. Prepreg fibers come with the epoxy already saturated in them, but must be kept in a refrigerator, otherwise they will partially cure. The masts are layed and cured over about a period of a week. What is unique about the way Tartan makes their masts, is that they are able to reinforce the mast from the inside, which gives the mast a cleaner look than other composite rigs. This way the mast looks "smooth" from the outside. The masthead crane is moulded in one piece, which appears tricky, but allows for a stronger, lighter part. Then the mast sections are joined, vacuum bagged, and cured in an autoclave at close to 200 degrees F. Then masts are sanded, holes cut, primed and painted. It is a lot of work for a mast, but the end result is something owners appreciate. On an additional note, Tartan does make rigs for other boats, such as Farr 40s and older Tartans.

They have also implemented a new gelcoat QC procedure, where every batch of paint is checked for color and durability. Something that I found really cool is that they may be using clear gelcoat in the future. This will be done only on boats that are ordered with Awlgrip. The advantage to this is that, the laminate can be visually inspected before the boat leaves the factory. So if, for instance, there is a small section of epoxy starved laminate, they can see the problem before it becomes one. They are also looking at the addition of sonic detection to inspect the adequacy of lamination before the hull and deck are bonded. This emphasis on empirical quality control was due in part to the extensive background of a new executive, Tracey, who as a former composite technologies specialist was a contractor for the Department of Defense, before joining Tartan/C&C last year.

The hull and deck are trimmed and shipped to the few factory. Here houses the assembly, front offices, woodworking shop, and paint booth. The in-house woodworking shop is first rate. They recently purchased a CNC mill, so now if you would like to have the boat name engraved on the dinette, it can be done for an additional charge. The wood shop has a significant amount of flexibility so that boats can be customized. For instance, we have added additional bookshelves in the forward cabin and a teak deck on a Tartan 4400. Recently Tartan has switched from solid wood cabin soles towards a composite sole with a very thick wood veneer. This change allows keeps the moisture from the bilge from rotting the underside of the floorboards. A smart idea. When I toured this area, I was impressed by how much space they had to work and the cleanliness of the space. By reorganizing their shift schedule, they will, for example, complete varnish work when other activities at the plant are idle. Something this small, keeps the finish cleaner, and results in a better product.
In the last year, they have invested in a very nice spray booth. Which provides the best conditions to have a mirror finish Awlgrip. The employees were proud of the new equipment and these new procedures, which were developed from the bottom up. It is hard not to be excited about the future of Tartan/C&C. They also have twice daily meetings for each boat, in which project progress is updated and any issues are remedied before the boat is finished.

I have to say. I'm impressed. After my recent sail on the Tartan 4000, sailing a Tartan is truly something special. It is an exciting time for Tartan/C&C, and they have some very cool developments on the horizon. They have an open door at the factory, and if you are considering buying a new Tartan or C&C, I sincerely encourage you to visit the factory.