Greg Owens 21:06
Right. It’s a whole nother Yeah, I mean, there’s there’s pluses and minuses to having the new facility, right? Yeah. Did you guys do this? Did you do the same level of work on the boats at the old facility being in triple wides?
Peter Belden 21:21
I would say we did. The vessels were less complex at that time. And the equipment was a little less demanding in terms of maintenance and rebuilds and that kind of thing. But we, we Jerry rate, a lot of stuff, we had a we’ve always had a really strong engineering department up here. And they’ve been really clever about figuring out ways to do things in house. As far as the maintenance and repair of equipment. When we came up here, it kind of coincided with a leap forward in the technology on the vessels in the demands of the maintenance department. So it was good timing. Wow, give us a better and more more infrastructure take care of the boat, newer boats.
Greg Owens 22:01
I’m curious, what is that? What is that technology differences? What what was what was the What have you seen that has changed the most in that time period,
Peter Belden 22:12
I would say the emissions side of things has made the engines much more complex. And so we have the same big, complicated engines, but they have these additional layers of emissions controls on them, which also require lots of maintenance. And there’s a lot of regulation behind that too. They have to be operational, we can’t take it quite as far with us as they do in the trucking world in the, in the trucking world with emissions. As I understand it, if some of your emissions equipment isn’t working, and you let it go too long, it’ll just erase and you just pull over in the side of the road, and it shuts down and wait for something to get fixed. They don’t do that with us. Fortunately, because we can’t pull over on the side of the road. We’re underway with passengers. But we are still held responsible for self reporting any problems with the emissions equipment, keeping you up to high standards? So that adds a layer of complexity for sure. On the engineering side, the waterjets, which is our propulsion system, that’s much bigger. The computer and control systems for the vessels are much more complex.
Greg Owens 23:16
Yeah, right. And some of those computers are pulling the emissions to from my understanding that my brothers Yeah, my brother is a diesel mechanic on on the lumber industry primarily. And he talks about the same thing a lot. That’s how a lot of the times he’s just troubleshooting emissions problems, right, and spending a tremendous amount of time, replacing emissions parts and that kind of thing and getting those those things up and running again. But you know, then we get clean, cleaner air, hopefully. Right, right. And and so what would you suggest, like a career path at this point for somebody that was looking at getting into your industry? What would it mean? Is it is it like go engineering or in your path? Become a cap, you know, don’t be a deckhand Captain that direction?
Peter Belden 24:09
Well, it really depends on I mean, they’re very different directions,
Greg Owens 24:15
again, in mind, with people that have different mindsets to in so many ways, right, or Yeah,
Peter Belden 24:21
I mean, they’re both very demanding in different ways. I think I think if you enjoy working with people and being out out of the fresh air and interacting with the public and having that sort of a work environment, deck is great. And working your way up to captain is a natural progression from there. If you really enjoy technology, and you know you’d like to wrench out things, obviously that’s an engineer’s the way to go they they work with a lot of really fun equipment. So if you’re inclined to mechanically that’s that’s a great career path as well. And I would say the first thing you could do is go to the Blue & Gold website and look at our jobs section. You know, jump in and give us a call.
Greg Owens 25:02
There’s a lot of time, but probably a lot of different ways to get started, right? And just even, yeah, and there’s,
Peter Belden 25:10
there’s a big tradition in the maritime industry of mentoring and helping people in their career. Once you’re once you’re kind of in the fold. It’s it’s a slow absorption of knowledge over over years and years, and you get you connect up with the right people. And that’s, that’s kind of where you how you build a career out of it.
Greg Owens 25:28
Right? Yeah. And I, for me, personally, like mentoring has been so important for my life. And I continue trying to mentor, you know, the next generation in so many ways, because I, I feel like for some, it’s such a great way to learn. I know, for me, I’ve learned like, proof, not promises. Like when I read a book about success, that’s sort of a lot of promises, but I don’t get to ask questions and, and then hear the person’s real story, right in so many ways. But when I when I have a mentor that’s like, shows me the path and the steps and, and get to ask questions about their, you know, emotional state, basically along the way, and how they navigated those waters and those kinds of things. It’s been super helpful. Absolutely, yeah. Are you are you involved in any mentoring programs within that, in your industry now?
Peter Belden 26:25
Nothing is really structured. Like that. But day to day, I’m always, you know, interacting with the crews and working we have a lot of deckhands who get their time and work up and get their license and we train them to drive the smaller boats and work their way up. That’s that’s a constant mentoring process. And just I that interaction every day with with the crew members. So I would say yes, but not in a formal way.
Greg Owens 26:52
Right, right. That’s how that’s basically how it is with me in so many ways, right? I am involved in some more formal mentoring programs, but a lot of times I find it like the organic ones are the most interesting to me, especially when it’s somebody that’s eager, and they want to learn and they keep coming back for more. And I find it some of the most rewarding moments of life is when somebody’s coming back a year or two. And they said, Hey, I came to you with a problem, the question of decision that I needed to make gave me some ideas. I went with those ideas. And I want to say thank you, it’s it’s proven to be valuable, right? And then it’s like, Wow, that’s great.
Peter Belden 27:32
Yeah, and it’s really, it’s really tangible in my industry anyway. I mean, you have a somebody who starts out as a deckhand, and they don’t know anything, and they learn and, and, you know, certain people pop up and seem to really be engaged in the work and really want to work towards a higher level of licensing, or become a co captain, and you see them go through that whole process. And those are some of our best captains. Now, guys, who did start that process 10 or 15 years ago, when I first met him, it’s, you get to see it in our line of work over here.
Greg Owens 28:04
And I wonder what I can only wonder what’s going on with younger people today. And maybe in some ways, I feel like there’s there’s not as many things breaking down that they need to fix. Or I’m not sure what’s happening because like, none of my nephews are that interested in fixing things like I was when I was a kid. Right. And, and taking things apart and putting them back together and understanding how it works. It’s a lot of their gadgets just work. And there’s no way of like fun glueing it anyway, in so many ways, right?
Peter Belden 28:38
I think that last point is exactly it. Because I grew up taking things apart and putting it back together and sometimes putting them together the wrong way. And then they wouldn’t work. And you’d have to figure out why it doesn’t work. You just can’t new stuff. You just can’t do that with its you tried to take it apart into breaks into a bunch of little pieces. And I’m sure things are planned that way, obviously, if you want to have a consumer economy where you have to buy a new thing instead of fixing the old thing.
Greg Owens 29:00
Yeah, I mean, I used to build like computers. I was thinking about it, like I built my own BMX bicycles, right, like, I mean, it was like, because they did, I wanted to upgrade them. I wanted to have a better bicycle, things broke. I couldn’t just go to Amazon and buy a part or get a new bike, right. Like that was outside of my thinking in any way. Right? Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting. I wonder where our mechanics are gonna come from right, more and more. You’ve been trying to have a proper wrench. That’s the other. Yeah. You know. And I’ve also noticed though, too, that sometimes I can, I can find somebody that is mechanically inclined by giving them a few tasks and watching them work, but maybe they have no skills, though, right? But I watched them work. I can see a little bit like, oh, wow, they’ve got some tinkering knowledge and they stick with it long enough, right? And then you just throw the wrench down and slamming into the ground, right? Um, do you see that yourself? With some of the people that you guys hire,
Peter Belden 30:02
yeah, yeah, there’s definitely usually by the time they get to our engineering department, you’re gonna get somebody who’s, who just has no skills to be they can’t pick up on it. But there is a type of thinking it’s a sort of a three dimensional mechanical type of mindset that you can you can manipulate things, and you can work with things. And yeah, it’s either there or it isn’t pretty much. And yet most people, I think, recognize whether they have it or not, and they are going to get to this level of engineering, not having those skills or having it be such an uphill battle for him.
Greg Owens 30:37
Right, right. Right. Wow. So any new things that you’re seeing coming like technology wise, or in your industry coming up? That seems exciting or different?
Peter Belden 30:50
Well, yeah, I think we’re, we’re gonna hit a transition over the next 10 years or so which is getting away from combustion engines wherever we can. That’s, that’s the big push. locally in California, the Air Resources Board is the regulations continue to mount on internal combustion engines used in the maritime industry. And there does become there will be kind of a point where it’s not feasible, either technologically or practically, to meet the emission standards that are required. And that’s going to push the more development of electric and hybrid type technologies. So I think that’ll be the next big thing. There’s already a proven technology for driving vessels with electric motors and batteries. I think the trick is getting the power into the batteries. You can fast charge things shoreside, but it requires a different kind of infrastructure than what we have, at most terminals these days. And kind of some talk about some interim solutions, where you would have a huge shoreside Bank of batteries that would slowly trickle charge overnight, using grid power, and then during the day that could drop charges onto vessels very quickly, and keep them at the capacity so they could run on electric. So those kinds of things seem to be moving along. But in California, were driven by the regulations, that’s definitely pushing things faster than technology is so
Greg Owens 32:14
interesting, because I see, I hear that too, in a lot of industries, right? When when it comes down to it, you know, and the, like you said, the infrastructure is not quite there yet. Nobody knows how it’s going to get created yet, or what’s going to be the what is going to percolate and rise to the top as being the the best way to move forward or the interim way to move forward on these regulations.
Peter Belden 32:38
Right. And California has always had the mindset, regulatory wise, it seems, for better or worse that you put the regulations in and let the industry figure it out. And that’s definitely
Greg Owens 32:50
right. And I think that’s true within the solar the solar industry. Big way, right. It’s definitely pushed solar, and helped in a lot of ways. And I also think it’s slowed things down in some ways to technology wise, right, because I think sometimes they just they’re pushing things out there. They’re not quite ready for market. Right. pick ups with that sort of? Yeah, right. Right. Is there any place that has an electric ferry the size of your ferries, right now, in the world that’s operating?
Peter Belden 33:29
In Norway, they, I know there’s a fairly large passenger ferry in Norway, that’s operating full electric, meaning it’s not a hybrid where you have a generator running charging batteries or anything like that. It’s fully electric, and it charges on shore at each end of its route. I don’t recall all the details, but it seems like you know, Scandinavia, they’re, they’re pretty on top of that. And I’m sure there’s demonstration projects around and there’s also some hybrid technology where it is the generator running at optimum efficiency, charging a battery bank, which operates electric motors to run the boat. And there’s some efficiencies and savings there and emissions and and fuel and all that. So that’s kind of that in between solution. And then hydrogen played around with as well hydrogen fuel cells for propulsion.
Greg Owens 34:19
That’s that’s not a bad direction to go in a lot of ways because that it’s seemingly maybe a little easier to build the infrastructure but but nobody seems to be pouring the investment money into it. Yeah, there’s
Peter Belden 34:33
there’s been some demonstration projects that have kind of fit had fits and starts, but I think the one thing one plan we were looking at it was a it was a fueling issue was one of the issues that was a challenge was getting that fuel source to the water to your boats directly. So
Greg Owens 34:52
and for you, Peter, what are you most excited about in the near future here this summer, as we as very continue along Here in summertime in California, and I mean, luckily, we’ve got blue skies and No, no. Those slope like last year’s yet. Yeah,
Peter Belden 35:09
yeah, I would stay I’m cautiously optimistic about kind of a return to maybe not to return to where we were pre COVID. But to return to something that’s it’s good for the economy and good for people and gets people out and feeling a little better about their, their life and what they’re doing out there. COVID got kind of dark for some folks. And it’s nice to see things turning around. And I’m kind of hoping for a nice event free summer and fall.
Greg Owens 35:42
Right? Yeah, meet me too. I mean, we as we were talking earlier, too, there’s a there’s a lot of activity going on, which is great for being a contractor in California. And, you know, it’s I know that this, you know, hopefully it’s not, but I’ve been around long enough to see these things come and go. So it’s like, take, take all the opportunities we can right now as they come up. And, you know, and try to do as much work and as we can. We’ve been working seven days a week here lately. And it’s, you know, it’s still seemingly not enough. So. But, again, I mean, no, you know, it’s good problems to have for sure. Yeah, for sure. And I agree. I mean, it’s so much stuff that’s like this, there’s so much activity going on and so much things coming back to some sort of semblance of normalcy and people enjoying life again, in so many ways. And that’s so exciting to see. because like you said it got dark for quite a few different people. For sure. Yeah.
Peter Belden 36:39
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we went to a baseball game last week and 100% capacity. at Oracle park there giants is
Greg Owens 36:48
there’s a lot of fun. It was Oh, I bet that that probably felt really normal in so many ways, right?
Peter Belden 36:54
Yeah, it did. It’s, and it was. Yeah. I mean, you think it would take a while to adjust to those sorts of situations. But it felt fine. Everybody was great. And yeah, it was a real positive experience for us going out into the crowd,
Greg Owens 37:09
watching a ballgame. That’s great. That’s great. There’s simple things in life we can really start to enjoy again. And really, I hope we can kind of have like gratitude towards that to going forward. Right? Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Well, this has been great. Peter, thank you for taking the time and talking with us here on the Watching Paint Dry podcast. How can people find out more about you is would LinkedIn be the best direction or go to the website for the Blue & Gold Fleet? Yeah, I’m
Peter Belden 37:38
personally not great with social media. I think I’m on there, but I rarely look at it. Yeah, I would say Blue & Gold Fleet is a good contact, especially if you’re interested in careers in the maritime check us out. If you want to find out more about the ferry service that we operate for whether that would be SanFranciscoBayferry.com And we’re running a ton of service. Now we’re running out of Richmond, again, Oakland, Alameda all over the bay. And even if you don’t have to go to work on a ferry, it’s a great way to just go out and get the fresh air. And it is,
Greg Owens 38:09
it is it’s good to see tourism coming back in a way to and tourists riding the ferries and that kind of stuff, you know, and that’s Yes. You know, as much as Yeah, it’s nice. It’s just nice to see the activity that way, right. people enjoying? Yep, definitely. Well, thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day. This has been wonderful to have this conversation, and we’ll see you soon. Yeah, sounds good, Greg,
Outro 38:37
thanks for the time. I really enjoyed it. Alright. Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.