Designer Times
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Welcome to the way Las Vegas moguls work. No lengthy bid and review. No contract....not even a handshake....just get going right now. Within a week, Technifex had gathered up a team to scope out all the items that would be required to built a complete Pirate Battle Show. We had a general idea of how to sink the ship. I had figured that by making the ship twist and breakup, it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than digging a monster hole to sink it into. This gag didn't fly, so let's just dig the big hole. WDI sent me to England and Paris on a EuroDisney job in early February 1992.

Returning to the Pirate job, we showed Technifex's sinking ship model to Steve in Las Vegas on April 3rd.

The model featured a counterweight system to raise and lower the ship. Later it would prove to not be feasible. The model had a loose piece that would demonstrate what the ship would look like before and after sinking. The ship would roll about 25 degrees and sink until most of the hull was underwater.

"No Gurr, that won't get it." I grabbed the water pieces and placed them over the whole hull. "You got it." This was going to require a tremendous hole 36 feet deep into the hard Las Vegas kaliche underground rock....a big expense. But I learned a solid lesson. Just Like Walt Disney before him, Steve Wynn's vision was show business driven, not finance limited.

The whole project had three phases; concept from January to April, conceptual engineering to provide bid documents by Labor Day, then contract award by October 1st. But the Las Vegas super fast track business method was scary. While I was developing the conceptual engineering details for the ship system, Marnell-Carreo Construction was building the Hotel and the final ship installation site. This meant that we had no idea who would be the winning bidder and what final design they would engineer and build. But that Marnell was digging holes and pouring concrete every day....the winning bidder had better like the big hole that their stuff would have to fit into.

I worked closely with Kent Bingham of Entertainment Engineering to give him my civil engineering design. Kent would furnish construction documents to Marnell. All the while Atlandia is running the job. By the time the sinking ship contract is awarded, the physical placement of concrete and steel will have long been completed. Such fast track job overlap is standard Las Vegas, just like the way Walt used to built stuff. There were very few meetings during this second phase. Folks spent most of their days being really productive. I loved it.

The Pirate Battle Show bidders had only two or three weeks to respond. At the winning bid conference, all our designs were turned over to the winner, Showtech, a long time show manufacturer who has previously built the famed Siegfried and Roy Animal Magic Extravaganza at the Mirage. As everyone left the meeting in the final minutes at the end of the day, Showtech President Bill Mensching, asked that since I knew the most about the sinking ship design, why not work for him as a draftsman. The idea of starting life as a

23 year old draftsmen, then working my way up to engineering VP at Sequoia, now returning to my roots as a draftsman was off the wall. I had a very fast way of doing things, I could work out of GurrDesign, Inc. at home....why yes, I'd love it.

No sooner than Showtech got started, Wynn and Mensching added a major function change to the ship action...it would roll side to side during travel. This wiped out all my work to date on the main ship structural framework. So, I came up with a totally different design. Mensching called a week later and said put it back, no roll. Too late, we go with what we got, just no motion cylinders provided. This actually turned out to be a better structural deal in the end. I settled into a long period of making highly detailed shop construction drawings for Showtech. The main hull portion of the ship with all it's trimmings would be built in the new Showtech Las Vegas Factory. The rolling wagon chassis under the ship would be built in a factory near Salt Lake City.

I communicated daily with both shops. Atlandia and Marnell documents would arrive at my home by FedEx, and I would FedEx back my shop drawings. We had maybe one meeting per month at Las Vegas and also one at Entertainment Engineering in Burbank. I never again saw such productivity spread among a number of scattered facilities. I think in hindsight that if we were all in one place, we would have lost a ton of time in meetings, today's bugaboo in the MBA business world.

Now a big job like this is not done by just one company, Between Atlandia, Marnell, and Showtech, there are around (20) specialized trades involved.

Not all these specialists are contracted to just one prime contractor, but scattered about in a crazy mix. There never seemed to be any serious problems along the way since most everyone has worked together on previous jobs. There's civil engineering, architectural, lighting, fire, audio, costume, stunt, HVAC, electrical, show control, plumbing, script, plastics, themed painting and the like. Without major meetings involving all parties at once, daily communication is sort of a free form net via phone and fax as well as e-mail drawing files....never did see any lengthy memos.

Watching over everything was Steve Wynn and his Brother Kenny. The entire show was a passion for Steve. He wrote a script and did the voice for an audio description of the coming show which was played in a show model displayed in the lobby of the Mirage Hotel for many months. He even wrote the stunt show script in which actors provided the show recorded audio track. One day Steve was showing me the just completed themed paint job on the Battle Show Village scenery. "I think the colors are a bit dull, I'm having the painters do it over". Mr. Wynn is Mogul, Client, and Art Director, never missing the slightest detail. He could be so "Walt" at times!

By August 1993, the site was pretty well done and the two ships were ready to be moved the two miles from the factory to the Treasure Island site. I went along with the British ship in the wee hours of a hot summer night. Las Vegas Boulevard was closed to traffic and we had a (27) car police escort. I rode the final 1/4 mile to where we would unload the ship. Also aboard was Steve Wynn and Michael Jackson, Wynn's friend who also likes to follow every show detail. Quite a sight in the pre-dawn; an 18th century British Man Œo War sailing up Las Vegas Boulevard with a crew of Pop Singer, Mogul, and Imagineer.

Next up; we look in detail at how this ship sinks and un-sinks to sink again and again.

oOo

Next Month: Treasure Island Pirate Battle Show - Secrets Revealed