b'C H A P T E R S E V E NThe upshot was straightforward: They agreed to develop a Chatham chart, says Olmsted. I said Id provide all the data they needed from Chatham and Orleans sources. But what about cost? FCW had been ready to put seed dollars into the project. That subject never came up; Waterproof Charts didnt mention it at all. Jim Daviss reaction to Olmsted: Youve just stepped into a bucket of honey.So far so good. Now the work began. FCWsengineering participants scoured NOAA charts, edited where necessary, and corrected errors and omissions. As an example, the NOAA source showed that Chathams most recognizable landmark was a single water tank on Great Hill. There was one mistake: the hill had two towers, not one. To cure this, George Olmsted went to Great Hill with his gear, measured the tank not shown by NOAA, took a compass bearing from the other, and sent the specifics to Waterproof Charts.Data in hand, the Florida cartographers leaned over the drawing board to turn out a draft. Recalls Olmsted about the result, It was in boater-friendly scale on two sides of plastic stock, northern waters on one side, southern on the other, and they included a credit for FCW as well as its logo. Local harbor masters and marina operators studied the draft, and the Davis-Olmsted team fed their suggestions back to Punta Gorda. That enabled Waterproof Charts to produce a first edition in 1996. With copies under their arms, Davis and Olmsted visited various potential sales outlets and found quick acceptance. The new chart, priced at $20, had been printed on durable stock and could be rolled or folded; equally important, it was smaller than NOAAs version.With boat use surging during the bubble years, the chart moved rapidly from store shelf to sea. And even though the economy sagged, sales kept rolling. The Mayflower Shop regularly orders half a gross (72 copies) a year, while Cape Fishermens Supply, on Depot Road, usually moves 100 a year (at $19.95 apiece). What are the particular advantages of this Chatham-area Navigational Chart #50 E? Says the co-owner of Cape Fish, Bob Denn, its accurate, waterproof, and the customers buying two at once.To Chathams director of Coastal Resources, Ted Keon, the product probably is the most popular waterways chart used by local boaters in this region. Whenever he has to do a show-and-tell about area waters, he hauls out Chart # 50 E. Keon happens to be one of the prime contacts for updating Waterproof Charts, enabling the firm to publish a new version almost every year.Theres a larger point. Through their almost 100 hours of work, the FCW team enabled local merchants to serve a specific need, thus carrying out one of the key purposes of the Friends: being an informational resource for members and other interested parties. Its no surprise that commercial outlets102'