solid power for life - Charles Industries, Ltd.

Lyle St. Romain (in white) takes questions
from reporters about new Charles Industries
products while touring Lake Pontchartrain.
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“Every single meeting and event in the
city brings so many things… there’s just
such a deep sense of appreciation for every
visitor who comes.”
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“Every single meeting and event in the city
brings so many things,” she said. “First, it’s a
boost to the economy. The people who come,
offer a vote of confidence in the city. And there’s
just such a deep sense of appreciation for every
visitor. The New Orleans experience is very
much alive!”
The next day, Charles teamed with the city’s
own Mayer Yachts, which provided a gorgeous
31 Luhrs Sportfish Hardtop for a tour of the
lake. Though Mayer suffered its own damage at
the hands of the storm, the company is now fully
up and running, a part of the boating community’s
ongoing efforts to rebuild and restart.
The group launched from the historic
Southern Yacht Club where, in spite of losing
their facilities in the hurricane, the staff
welcomed Charles Industries and their guests
graciously, providing a location for breakfast,
lunch and meetings in the lovely modular unit
that houses the club while it’s being rebuilt. The
group enjoyed local delights such as turtle soup,
muffuletta and fried shrimp po’ boys.
After filling their tanks, all set out for a cold,
clear day on Lake Pontchartrain. “It was one of
the roughest days I’ve ever seen on the lake,”
Lyle reported, but the ride was smooth and the
demos were a great success.
Ben Ellison, editor of Power & Motoryacht,
was impressed by the quality of the presentation,
as well as by the products on display. “They obviously
really care about New Orleans and really
wanted us to see the city,” he said. Having spent
a winter in the Big Easy in 1972 working on oil
field supply boats, Ben was happy to join the
Charles outing. “I really love this city,” he said.
He was stirred by the dramatic contrast between
those businesses that have managed to get on
their feet, such as the Yacht Club, and the
destruction still surrounding them.
Among the products Charles brought out for
the event was SmartBoost, a new AC voltage
booster that adds boosting capability to any
existing 50-amp marine transformer. When dockside
power drops below 210 VAC, SmartBoost
provides a 15 percent AC voltage boost. Easy to
install and use, SmartBoost provides fully automatic
operation with manual 1:1 override.
Also ready for its close-up was StartNow,
Charles’ microprocessor-controlled back-up
starter unit. StartNow is designed to provide
guaranteed back-up battery charging while the
boat’s engine is turned off, allowing electronics
to run off the main battery system, and automatically
switching batteries if it detects a lack of
cranking power.
What grabbed Ben’s eye most, though, was
the new isolation transformer, the ISO-G2, a
deceptively simple-looking plain white box that
serves to protect boats from shore-power problems.
“You’ll never know it’s on your boat,” he
reviewed, “except perhaps because of all the bad
things that don’t happen.”
The ISO-G2 allows a shore ground to
terminate to a shield between the transformer’s
windings, separated from the yacht’s AC ground.
“It makes a boat into a bird on a wire,” says Larry
Budd, an engineer at Charles Industries, referring
to the same kind of electrical isolation that
allows birds to land safely on high-voltage wires.
For Anne Giovingo, a Charles Industries sales
representative based in New Orleans’ Waters &
PHOTO (ABOVE LEFT) ©iSTOCKPHOTO.COM / CHAD PURSER
David, the entire event met a need that was both
municipal and personal.
“Charles took the leap of faith and invested
time and money to bring people here,” she said.
“It goes to so many levels, so many layers where
one event spreads out and helps in so many ways.
As a local, I won’t forget that. It was a very standup
thing to do.”
Of course, the irony is that, after all the loss,
the commercial marine business is actually now
booming in the Gulf region. Donovan Marine,
Charles’ distributor in the area and the second
largest marine products distributor in the country,
is experiencing a rise in business as recovery
continues. Big supply vessels are being built, and
the Workboat Show has made a commitment to
return to New Orleans every year. Charles will
also return, and whenever they have something
new to debut, Lyle said, they will certainly consider
adding another full-scale presentation.
Anne Giovingo for one is quite pleased with
that plan. “We are all very sensitive now to who
sticks with us,” she said. “And conventions, as a
general rule, bring in high caliber people—the
kind that any city would want to have visit.”
Bill Parlatore, publisher and editor of
PassageMaker Magazine, was also among Charles’
guests that weekend, and he says that his hosts
went out of their way to showcase New Orleans
at its best. “This was a story I needed to write,”
he said.
Lyle is thrilled to be part of the greater story
of recovery in New Orleans. “The people were
blown away by everything,” Lyle said, “by the
resiliency of the people of New Orleans, by the
new products and by the show we put on.”
Like all those who have helped with the
recovery efforts, Charles Industries is a testament
to the true power of people.
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