How the Tao set was assembled - Affording High Grad Pipes

Yes, pipes by Jens "Tao" Nielsen are upper end, artisan pipes and are quite spendy. My seven day set was slowly acquired, piece by piece, as estate pipes over a period of four years.
Our yacht cruise business is a good one and I am very forturnate to be able to support my family doing what I love. However it is also a seasonal business (only crazy people want to go to Alaska in the winter). I am lucky to be able to devote time to my pipe hobby during the off season.
The way I have built my collection is through carefully buying, reconditioning and selling quality estate pipes, keeping the ones I want for my own collection. I could never afford the pipes in my collection if I were buying them all as new pipes, at retail prices, using hard earned money.
I have a work bench set up in my engine room where I do the restoration work. Good photography is also key (photography is one of my other hobbies). I am quite disciplined about selling off pipes periodically to fund new purchases, some of which are new pipes commissioned by noted artisans, the others are estates.
When I sell a pipe, it has been cleaned up, polished, with full accurate descriptions along with many sharp, detailed photos. I add value to the pipes I buy with the profits going into building invetory, both to resell as well as for my personal collection.
All of this takes some personal discipline but the results have been quite rewarding. It is also a way in which my obsession and hobby is not disruptive to my marriage. In fact Nancy is always interested and appreciative when a new pipe arrives.

Here is one boat photo.

More info and lots of pix can be found on our website http://www.yachtexplorer.com/index.html

Let's try that boat picture again

Thanks for the kind words. Alaskan Song has a long history and a fine heritage.
She was built for the US Navy as a high speed air/sea rescue or crash boat in 1944. Originally she had two 1700hp 12 cylinder aircraft engines that ran her up to 40 knots (while burning 500 gallons of av-gas per hour). The boats were deployed in service to the Army Air Corps all around the Pacific Theater, including across the Aleutian Islands. I have met several gentlemen who served on these boats and they have amazing stories to tell.
She has a double planked wood hull with Oak frames, Port Orford cedar inner planks and Honduran mahogany outer planks, all silicon bronze fastened. She was converted to a yacht in the mid '70s when the aluminum house was added. She is powered by twin 425hp tubo-charged Lugger diesels now, cruising at 9knots and burning 7 gallons per hour. She is 85 feet on the water, 88 on deck and 96 overall.
More boat pics can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/richard809/AlaskanSong#

A veteran of WWII who served on one in the Aleutians gave me a CD with tons of photos in service, armed with crews, picking up downed airmen, etc. They had a quad-500 forward, two dual-50s on each beam and a small cannon aft. There was an article on the boats in Wooden Boat magazine a few years ago with photos under construction as well as drawings.

Sorry that was a quad-50 forward and she had a crew of eight. With 3200 gallons of 110 octane av-gas she only had 6 hours of range but she could cover 240+ nautical miles in that time.