BAY CORRIDOR
Panama City, Panama City Beach + Bay County
Pitch Perfect
Buck Holmes keeps marine wheels spinning just right. By Steve Bornhoft
T
he lives of David Marshall and Buck Holmes revolve around propulsion. Marshall is a Ford dealer whose passion is boating and, especially, billfish tournaments. Holmes — whose hobby is drag racing — repairs and balances propellers for a living. Marshall’s boats have grown in size as his family has expanded, and today he owns a 106-foot Broward yacht whose performance he intends to be efficient and smooth. Bothered by a vibration problem the vessel was exhibiting, Marshall, of Dothan, Alabama, consulted Holmes, whose stellar reputation as a prop doctor extends throughout the Southeast. “Broward yachts have aluminum hulls that are more sensitive than other hulls,” Holmes explained. “We’ve been trying out different styles of prop on Mr. Marshall’s boat, and everything seems to be getting better. We’re headed in the right direction.” It is clear, then, that trial-and-error approaches to problem-solving remain an inescapable part of what Holmes does, but not nearly so much as they used to be. Static balancers like those used to balance tires have given way to an MRI machine used to scan propeller blades and dynamic high-speed balancers used to precisely tune them. “Today’s equipment helps us zero in on the areas of the blades that we need to address,” Holmes said. “We balance props by adding or removing weight
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FEBRUARY – MARCH 2017
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850businessmagazine.com
Photos by MICHAEL BOOINI