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• Orthopaedic recovery:
Joint replacement
ACL/knee surgery
Rotator cuff
• Manual therapy for back & neck
• Hands-on, individualized care
• Convenient, spacious location
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
changing careers and working for the
Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant as a
Systems Engineer.
“It was just a better job,” he says.
About 15 years ago, Rydzewsk quit
working for the power plant and
began earnestly what before he’d been
doing only in his spare time — fixing
people’s engines.
“I’d had it with the Dilbert-style
corporate experience,” he says, “and
realized I had things I wanted to do
besides paperwork.”
While fixing engines, he started tinkering
with different ways of pushing
boats — drive systems — and came
up with a design that he thought had
some potential.
“I made two very different rough
prototypes for this drive and got a
patent on it,” he said. “The second
prototype worked very well, but it was
very crude. I needed to make a third
prototype and hired an outfit to construct
the hull.”
He named her Louisa, after a greatgrandmother
from Norway. About the
time he finished de-bugging its patented
drive system, in the fall of 2008,
the sagging economy hit bottom, and
the boat building business, and any
market he might have anticipated for
his drive system disappeared. These
days, Louisa spends a lot of time in
local waters, with an occasional trip
down to Key West and the odd fishing
and diving trips thrown in.
“She’s best described as a Down
East cruiser,” he said. “Her hull shape
is like a Maine lobster boat. She has a
cabin with a pilot house and a small
fly bridge with controls.”
She carries a Cummins diesel
6CTA 8.3, 420 hp engine that at hull
speed, 7 knots, gives her a range of
about 1,000 miles. At planing speed,
she’ll range out to about 450 miles.
Rydzewsk continues to work, refining
his drive system (“not an inexpensive
process,” he says), in the hope that
when the economy strengthens to the
point at which people come back to
purchasing boats, the system will find
a buyer. He gets out about once a
week, right through winter.
“There are very few jet-skis to annoy
you in the wintertime,” he says.
8115 Market St. Ste 204
Just minutes from Wrightsville Beach
(910) 686-1869
www.GrowingGrins.com