Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. (C) Copyright 2002. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> Send all comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net ============= James Part VIII. Lofty Goals James 57 I waved Celeste over. "When did you land the Community Center contract?" She let me pull her on my lap and gave me a kiss, "Since Marjorie pulled some strings at City Council. She had asked me to prepare a press release with a discourse on Mueller's design philosophy, which she then sent to a few universities, including Mueller's alma mater," she grinned, "And back came a handful of supportive letters and she used them to convince sundry and all that I'm even better than she made me out to be!" Her eyes glowed, "Not bad for a second year arkie student, huh?" "Oh, you passed your exams?" "Yeah, I think so, a miracle considering the extreme circumstances I had it sic'd on me! Mmmm, although the lovely sweetie DID make it up to me, afterwards..." Celeste sighed dreamily. I stroked her arm, "Are you enjoying all this? We haven't seen you all that much lately!" "Mmm-hmmm! I LIKE making buildings, and to be able to watch them take life is fascinating and gratifying as hell." She kissed me softly, "Hon, I have to go..." "Back to the boys?" "No - I didn't know how long the Regans were staying so I told them to go early, now Jules is going to fly me over the Community Center to do some sight prep work." Jules was with Sara and Sherri as they made arrangements with Al Jeffray at Brookhaven Island. Now she came over and tugged Celeste up. She looked at me, "Don't you have something to do?" I pulled a sad face, "So I had hoped, but nobody seemed interested in having sex with me!" JulieAnn laughed and pulled me up as well. "I'm sure we can dig up one or two willing candidates! But later! Right now we need our big strong brute to be our big SMART brute," She nibbled my lips, "So he can impress us girls with his LOVELY brains." "Talking about being impressed," I whispered, holding her against me, "Have I told you lately that you're a real sharp cookie?" "Why thank you, Sir!" She dimpled and leaned into me, "I'm glad you approve!" "I'd offer to give you a real treat, but I'm a busy man." I sighed, "Perhaps I can fit you in my social calendar - in a day or two?" Jules laughed and kissed my cheek, "With baited breath, my love, with baited breath..." She took Celeste and me by our hands and waltzed us out the door. Max and I were working on Gyro 2 when Brenda came down with the printouts Sara had made. We had the engine hatch open and were making measurements with the boat up in slings. Brenda borrowed our tape measure and paced back and forth, making pencil marks on the side of the hull. She watched as Max help me install the neoprene bladders in the engine compartment. "Are you thinking of filling these with water for ballast?" "Close." I said as we bolted the second 40 gallon container to the other side of the superstructure, deep in the ship's hull. "They moved the fuel tank forward to make room for the Magnum engine, so I'm moving it back into the space they used to have the scoops." I dusted my hand, "All we have to do now is reroute the fuel lines and pump the fuel out of the old tank and we're done!" "Hmmm, that's a really good idea!" She mulled it over, "Come look at this." She led me to the side of the boat and pointed to a small blue mark, "That is the Center of Gravity for this boat according to Peter's figures," She pointed to a red "X" just in front of it. "And this is the plane point for 80, which acts like a fulcrum; like a teeter-totter, slight shifts of weight or speed will cause the boat to see-saw, and that, I'll bet is the cause of the instability." I consulted Brenda's drawings and made more pencil marks, "The new tank position is 32" behind the old one; so with 80 gallons of fuel, that will give us about 600lbs of ballast, and replaces the 500lb 10" on the wrong side..." I sat at the laptop and plugged in the numbers as Brenda hugged my neck and watched. "Look! That should move the CG a safe 19" behind the plane point!" "That's great, hon! Now run the regression down to empty." I added the formulas and watched the Center of Gravity inch forward as the fuel load decreased, "Oops!" At 10 gallons, the CG touched the plane point again. "It isn't so bad - that's the fuel reserve point and most people will never go below that..." She sighed, "But then there are always SOME who'll disregard all caution. Hmmm..." She sat on my knee and started adding to the program. "But look, if we added a 45lb ballast at the stern, it would keep the CG behind the plane point - even at 85mph!" "Hmm, and that would help keep the props from cavitating too." I observed, just as Sara and Sherri joined us. "It's all set!" Sara smiled, "In fact Al's reserved us a 3 bedroom villa by the marina starting Thursday." "Sweetie-pie," Sherri sat on my other knee, "We'd like to invite our parents up there for the weekend, is that OK?" I nodded. "What about your folks, Bren? Why don't you ask them?" "Hmmm, I'm not sure. They said no last time, let me ask again..." Brenda stood to go to the phone. "Just tell them they have two private courses there. And the third's designed by Jack Nicklaus." Sherri added. Brenda spoke for a few minutes, then covered the mouthpiece, "Is it Harbour Town?" Sherri nodded. "Wow!" Brenda said as she came back, "Dad's gone crazy in the office! He's always wanted to play that PGA course and it's his dream come true!" Brenda paused, "Is it true it's $300 a round?" "No, it's $180 for guests. Only!" Sherri laughed. "Wow, $10 a hole!" I marveled. "What a bargain!" "But it's only $2.50 a stroke!" Sara joined in. "Not MY Dad!" Sherri giggled, "He'll triple bogey every hole just to make it last longer!" "Yeah, mine would brag and say he's played EVERY bunker and water hazard!" "I'll bet if they only used their putters, they could make each hole last two hours or more!" "Can you imagine? A 2000 handicap!" "Hey, that's EXACTLY my Dad's score! On a good day!" They broke out laughing. I was extremely glad I didn't golf, my ego would not be able to take that kind of abuse. Max had finished working the fuel connections and showed us the small drill-driven rotary pump which we used to empty the old tank into the new one. Brenda explained the need for the extra ballast on the stern and Max produced a pair of 10kg anodized steel dead-weights for me to bolt down before he returned to his workshop. "James, can you put it where it can be removed if necessary?" Sara asked, "I want to try something out... Remember we were going to add a scoop under the boat to increase the pressure to the cooling intake? I was thinking we could use an angled foil to do that AND to pull the stern lower in the water." "That would work, but wouldn't it slow the boat down like before?" "Hmmm, yeah..." Sara sighed. "Wait, why can't we use an airplane foil instead, but upside down - to provide downward pressure instead of lift?" Sherri suggested. "Right! And the faster we go, the more pull!" Sara brightened. "What about the drag?" I asked. "That's the secret of air-foils, the drag is minimal for the lift, or the 'sink' it provides!" Sherri said. "And it's a straight-forward relationship too!" Brenda cried excitedly, "Inviscid flow simply depends on the density and the speed! What works in air would work in water - just a hundred times stronger!" "Right! And we already have the D-forms worked out for Max's plane!" Sherri quickly retrieved the wing foil templates on the computer. "So we need 45lb downward force at 80mph, then add 50% because it's 1/3 closer to the plane point..." Sherri mumbled to herself as she worked at the keyboard. "Bren, is the density of water exactly 100 times that of air?" "It is, at 4 degrees; at 20C it's 55.5 times." Brenda supplied, then as Sherri made changes and we waited for the results, "How are we going to fabricate it? Fibreglass alone would probably not take the stress, and carbon fiber would take days to lay up, then we have to trim for balance..." "If it's not too thick, we can use marine plywood and I think I still remember how to plane and sand." I offered. "You're on!" Sara said, "How long will that take?" "Depends on the size, and the incentives." I wagged my brows lecherously, "Maybe a couple of hours..." "And if we both offered our bodies?" Brenda leaned on me. "Four hours." I answered, and at their looks, "So I can do you ladies justice." "How 'bout me, babe?" Sherri wormed her warm fingers in my shorts, "I have some time on my hands too!" She paused and smiled at her hand squirming inside my pants, "Hmm, seems like I just got my hands around a WHOLE lot more of it!" I stroked her hair and sighed weakly, "I LIKE the way those time management courses are teaching you to maximize it!" I shivered and had to lean on the girls as they crowded around to hold me up. I was shaking and sighing as Sherri softly caressed me, then suddenly she stopped, "Oh no!" She withdrew and opened her hand, showing us a glistening spot, "Look, the sands of time are running out!" They burst out in laughter and draped themselves on me, cackling and wiping their faces on my clothing. When they showed no signs of stopping, I adjusted my pants and went to bolt the dead-weights in the propeller assembly well, just above the waterline. After they were mostly recovered, Sara and Brenda took Gyro for tests while Sherri helped me with the measurements of the sea-foil and we took it over to the workshop. I was thankful Max kept it so well equipped and well stocked. I was also thankful for the training the school workshop had given me. Sherri's 'wing' was 15" wide with a 8" chord that tapered to 3" at the tips, and about 1 inch at the thickest. For the 'lift' it provided, Sherri's calculations showed less than a 1:10 ratio in drag. For simplicity, Sherri had kept one surface completely flat. "Not optimal - there will be more declension and eddy turbulence, but it's mostly on the intake side and negligible for our purposes." She watched me as I roughed out the form in 1-1/2" marine-finish plywood, then coarse trimmed the shape on the mitre saw, before smoothing it on the belt-sander. "Can I help?" Sherri asked, as I started hand-sanding with #1 wet-dry. "Mmmm, in a moment..." I used a straight-edge to check for trueness and applied a coat of lacquer on the large boomerang-shaped wing. I washed my hands and we headed upstairs, "We have to wait for it to dry..." I informed her, "Which, curiously, takes ten minutes..." A bit more than ten minutes later, we were back in the workshop and she was clutched against me, red faced and giggling drunkenly, "I'm rich; rich with the spoils of time!" She cackled some more, "Get it? Spoils of time?" "Yes, dear..." I sighed, "I got it after you explained it the first 2 times." "I'll bet Thomas Gray never expected anyone to use his line quite that way!" She giggled some more, then she kissed my chest, and, looking at me, sighed, "Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, Heaven did a recompense as largely send. He gave to Misery a tear, He gained from Heaven a friend." She pulled my face down for a soft kiss, "I love you, my friend..." By the time Sara and Brenda returned triumphantly with Gyro for more gas, I had mounted the wing on 6" standoffs machined out of heavy aluminum. The static pressure that permitted Ground Effect flying also worked here, provided we kept the wing 'height' between 1/3 and 1/2 of the span. We removed the weights and fastened the wing securely in place, carefully matching the planing angle so as to offer the least resistance at speed. Brenda had carefully documented the results of their earlier run and now she made meticulous notes on the plans so that Peter could duplicate it. We stood back to admire our handiwork. The dark protective coating was clear enough to show the different wood patterns exposed by sanding the layers down and made it look like an expensive piece of furniture. An expensive boomerang, at least. We went out again and spent a long time testing the boat's performance at the lower speeds and we all took turns at the wheel to get a personal feel. The time to plane seemed to suffer a little but the boat showed much better tracking and the wake at skiing speeds was very good indeed. The intake pressure was running consistently in the green as well. We were nearing the Eyrie, so I drifted into the channel and leaned on the horn. "Waddaya want?" A very naked Mandie looked down at us over the patio, then she was joined by an similarly dressed Nicole. I was too agitated to speak so Sara called up, "We were just about to see how fast Gyro could go..." By the time we pulled up the docks, Amanda was waiting there in a T shirt and little else, made evident when she jumped into the boat. Nicole followed in a less hasty, but equally dishevelled state. We stared at her as she made her way down the stairs and whistled our appreciation. Her caftan was just thick enough to keep her from being arrested, but as soon as she stopped moving, she might as well be naked for all the good it did her. I was so appalled at her lewd public display that I sat her down in the back so that I could cover all her sensitive parts with my hands and my body. As good sense prevailed she too, tried to reciprocate with her hands on the sensitive parts of my body. Amanda was busy with the girls going over the changes we had made, so Nicole and I satisfied ourselves by trying to find out exactly HOW sensitive our sensitive parts could get. "Hmmm, I LIKE your Nikki the Bimbo outfit!" I said, breaking from a kiss. "Do you? I'm glad." She glittered, "But be gentle, love, my whole body is aglow, and tender." She looked at Amanda and shivered, "The sweet darling has such lovely hands... and lips." She sighed, "With such careful attention to DETAILS!" "So she passed her exams?" "Mmmm, all except her English; anyone who deliberately misspells Manxome as Maxome deserves to be failed, but she'll get another chance tomorrow..." She giggled and leaned on me, "And it looks like someone's been pampering you a bit too!" She unzipped me and looked over my satisfied equipment, then she leaned down and tasted me in her soft mouth. After she cleaned me and tucked me back in my pants, she waved Sherri over and pulled her down in a kiss. "Honey, was that you I tasted?" "Mm-hmm." Sherri giggled and blushed as Nicole pulled her down on her lap. "I never had the chance to welcome you to the Family properly, so how 'bout you reserve some time for me tonight?" Sherri smiled widely, nodded and sealed it with a kiss. Amanda fired up the engine and, within seconds, to her delightful laughter, we were powering along the lake at breakneck speed. I cuddled the ladies in the back, my hands in their familiar heart-monitoring spots. An incredibly short time, and another empty gas tank later, we were berthed at the marina. Although it did not break any speed records from the load it had to carry, the boat's much more competent performance gave us all reasons to celebrate. We ordered food from the restaurant and brought it over to Jules and Celeste at the Wheel, abuzz with our optimism for the upcoming demo of the Monster Cuddy. "Good news indeed," smiled Jules, "Peter will probably 'leak' the results this Thursday and the InterCoastal stock will start climbing. By the time we show the results to the world on Monday it will be ready to take a real hike, especially with the late trade boost from the Portfolio Managers on Friday to make their holdings look better. We will start selling our surplus shares gradually and, in 3 weeks or so, when it starts to stabilize a bit, we can see how much more we can buy back with the profits." "How can we sell our shares and then buy it back to make money?" Amanda wanted to know. "At the risk of oversimplifying; we basically use leverage to buy double, even triple the shares we want. When the share values go up, we sell this portion, but slow enough so as not to change the upward trend. If the shares appreciate enough, we may end up paying for ALL our purchases with the revenues, effectively getting the shares for free. "Now it's not easy to generate that kind of increase in share values, but Intercoastal's worth has been languishing at a 3 year low and this may be the catalyst to revive interest in them." "But why buy the shares back?" "We won't unless the shares again drop below the company's valuation, or we feel we can accrue enough to put Nicole on the board with Chuck." Jules looked around, "What we are doing now is short term, flipping the shares so we can make money or increase our holdings. But once Chuck gets involved, it will be for the long haul. We would want to keep the company and its share values as strong as we can. And that's why we won't try any of the other, less savory gambits like a reverse or a hostile takeover, where we borrow against the shares we WOULD be acquiring so that we can buy them in the first place. "Our strategy is founded on the principles advanced by Warren E Buffett, unquestionably the foremost investor of our times. He started Berkshire Hathaway less than 40 years ago and it now owns everything from See's Candies and Dairy Queen to Geico Insurance to Benjamin Moore paints to Brown's Shoes and Fruit of the Loom, with holdings in literally thousands of other firms, including many of the S&P 500 companies. To many, with 170 BILLION dollars in BH assets, Buffett IS the S&P." "BH always paid cash for its acquisitions and offered no stock options to the executives; if you wanted a share of the company, you had to pay for them, like everybody else. That way, he reasoned, you'd WANT the company to do well and your efforts are reflected in the added worth of your holdings. "Amazingly, he runs his empire of 11,000 employees with a staff of under 20, and he's not had a single CEO quit his corporations to work elsewhere. Despite not having declared dividends since 1967, his company has grown an average of 22% every year, so each dollar invested in his company is now worth $2000. Today a SINGLE Berkshire Hathaway share issued with a $5 par value is worth over 70-THOUSAND dollars." Smiling widely, Jules pulled a oversized certificate out of an envelope and held it up. "And this is IT, just arrived by courier! A solitary share of the most astounding company in modern history, courtesy of Nicole." Jules bowed in her direction, "When Nicole started investigating companies who were using Mueller's inventions, she came across a BH subsidiary, which manufactures the V-support plates used in the construction of the Wheel and she negotiated a payment in BH shares. There is a similar certificate in Marjorie's possession." She passed it around and we handled it gingerly, likely the most expensive piece of paper we would ever own. "To reiterate the fallibility in playing the stocks," Jules continued, "Just three years ago, even this venerable company was in the doldrums, when its shares fell disastrously to $40,000." Jules smiled, "Due mainly to its resistance to participate in the phenom of the day - the dot-com companies. Now of course we realize just how sound that decision was!" She sighed, "I only wish I had picked up some BH shares then - a 95% recovery rate is inspiring!" After dinner, Brenda, Amanda, Sara and Sherri again went down to Gyro to test and look for improvements in its performance and handling while Jules and Nicole continued their plans to take over the world. I had cleaned up the dishes and was outside watching Gyro on the lake when Celeste came with my coffee. She took my hand, "It's hard to believe all that's happened to us; The Eyrie, then Max's and Regan, Intercoastal, now high finance..." She sighed, "And the Wheel is 99% complete." I hugged her tight and she leaned her head on me, "What a beautiful dream..." "And one that's not about to end any time soon!" "Only one thing I wish for..." "Hmmm...?" "That you help me christen a room, or two..." "Now?" "Now." ============= (C) Copyright 2002. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> Send all comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net