Researching what to do as a pirate.

Been off working on the ship for the past several months and now I have a chance to get back at writing for the blog.

Summer of 2009 was remarkable slower in terms of people at BRF as well as those boarding the Dreadnought. But that was expected, since December of 2008 in fact, so I was not surprised. The people (patrons) at the Faire did have a great time and the weather was some of the nicest I have had experienced so far. A cool summer suits me fine as I had to work in a costume in it every weekend.

Picking up where I left off-- OK so from the visual surveys done and from my talking with BRF staff it was determined that a pirate attraction at the faire would pull in patrons and it was something at a certain percentage of patrons wanted.

From that I began to draw out and think out what it was I wanted to do, exactly. The Dreadnought ship WAS NOT what was envisioned first. Wow! What I ended up doing was not what I had set out to do. This will come up again later in this blog as the story weaves on.

What first came out of my head was to build, on land, a skull shaped cave. It would have been more like a chicken wire over Styrofoam shaped skull like rock shape that got sprayed with concrete and painted to look like rock. It would have been cheap, easy to make, interestingly enough to draw attention and the insides would have been grottoes that I would have fitted out as displays about famous pirates through out the ages, along with weapons, treasure and the like. This goes back to my museum background. Everything on display behind glass. Very dull actually when I look back at it. But the dry land and skull rock idea I liked and still like today. Would have also served well when I went to sell the "shop" later on.

I seem to recall that Peter Pan and Captain Hook had some sort of skull rock or cave in the Disney cartoon movie of that story. It almost always seems that pirates are hiding out or sticking treasure into a skull like cave. So this is why I wanted a skull cave. It would also been very strong and safe to lock up my displays in.

After more meetings with BRF staff it became clear that a skull looking rock with museum displays was not going to fly. They were right about static displays. Compare that pony rides, elephants, the joust and sword fights in the streets and you can tell it was going to be a real loosing idea. Also the idea of a time line of famous pirates was not working either. The faire is set in 1580s and I was told that what the merchants and others presented was along the lines of Renaissance England. So Blackbeard got left behind- wrong time period!

So now comes the research. Pirates in general I knew about. Elizabethan Sea Dogs and the English Renaissance time period I was very weak on. This meant research on my part. Also the change from a museum display inside a skull cave to something else threw things off track.

Research has the word "search" in it. And that is what you have to do. I dug out all the books at the library I could get about Elizabethan England, Sea Dogs, and the Renaissance in general. I also began to look at business plans and business structures. I was not trained in business at all and I found the business side of the research very interesting. This took a good length of time. If you are considering a project like this better start NOW with every aspect of research you will need. Unless you know it all right now- and good for you! But all the same you never know all that you need to and part of growth in to keep on learning different things.

At about this same time I began to do something that would help get through all the work and research I needed to. I cut out of my life TV viewing and computer gaming. Both of these freed up several hours of my time each week that I could now devote to this side line job. James Gurney of Dinotopia fame is a great spokesperson for no TV viewing. He does not own a TV. Think of what you save on no cable bills!?

Next post will continue on about specifics of researching and planning towards a finished product.

One last thing: I found this image of the Dreadnought from the air. Not clear who to credit it to. If it is yours let me and I will give you create. Here is the link-

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/pirate-ship-3/

Fun to have built something so neat and big you can see it from high up in the air.

Making Money and Survey: Part Two

Sorry been awhile since the last post. Too much to do other than post to the blog, but sorry all the same!

Part Two of the "Can I Make Money as a Pirate."

From the survey types used at BRF to determine how many people came through as paying patrons, age types and the like, as expressed in the last post, it worked out on paper that plenty of people walked through the gates at the faire. It also appeared that a wide spread of demographics was represented in those patrons that walk by me, or walking into shops, or out of shops- or what ever spot I was observing.

All this indicates a higher chance for success. From the numbers on the page it was determined that, IF, my pirate ship could capture a percentage of those people that I would have a healthy income in the 19 days that the faire was open.

So, to answer what I posted last time, on paper it looked like the numbers of patrons at the faire supported making money as a pirate.

Can I Make Money As A Pirate?

What a question- can I make money as a pirate? I doubt that many of the Golden Age of Piracy pirates uttered that but I could be wrong. For myself, living in the 21st Century that is a good business question that I asked myself, and got asked, when I was considering what to do at the Bristol Renaissance Faire (BRF). I had visited the faire and figured that with all the people (patrons) they attracted that operating something that featured pirates, a display about pirates or a shop, ought to make some money as a small, side line business.

So how do you know if you are going to make money at this, or anything. I had worked in different established businesses while in college. These had been Mom and Pop sort of stores, many flower shops- yes from flowers to pirates. I did it back then for the extra college money I needed and it turned out that I got a good hands-on education on small business management, of sorts. But I still did not have what I needed to know. How much could I bring in? In one hour, one day, a weekend and for the entire run of 19 days that BRF is open.

From my museum work, what I do for a living everyday for the past 20 years, I have learned how to conduct surveys. Not the type that we all hate of a person jumping at you and asking questions. I learned the sneaky type. The one where you just watch and record what people are doing. So I took some time and got a small notebook, a bottle of water and found a spot to sit so I could watch people.

One method is demographics. Who is walking by you? This is still a visual survey. Just divide your page into sections such as "babies-toddlers", "Grade School", "Middle School", "High School", (you can lump teenagers as a group under "teens") Young Adult (college age) "30-40 year olds", "Empty Nester's" (that is 50 to 60) and "Seniors." Do the slash mark method //// sort of thing as people walk by you. Mark the age level that best matches what you think that persons age is. I would write my start and stop time at the top of the page. I generally did this for one hour blocks. Once in the morning, afternoon and towards the end of the day. What this gave me was a slice of what type of age group BRF was drawing in and what my potential patron would be. I remember that they got a wide age span. It was interesting to see how many strollers got pushed into the Faire grounds- plenty of young families visiting when I did back in the early 2000s. I set up watching by the main gate and I only marked patrons coming in, not going back out.

If you want to duplicate this you had better collector current data as times have changed.

You can do this visual survey of ages for general admission, stake out a shop and see who is buying, stake out another attraction or whatever your interest is. Going by age groups is good as different groups spend more than other groups and the interest in learning or doing something differs between ages as well.

Male and Female. You can collect visual data on how many men or women enter the grounds or who is buying what. Race data can be collected the same way too although I did not as race was not a factor for my business.

I also did a simple timed survey of a particular attraction to see how many people entered, how long they stayed and the like. So once again I parked my self at a distance, had my small notebook out and timed how long a person entered the building and then when they left. This gave me a indication of what an average visit time might be. If you have a building, or ship, and you have only some much floor space you need to determine how many people you can actually move through the structure. Also I wanted to know what another place did in terms of business. This would give me a benchmark to go with. Very simple to do. Just sit and count people that enter for one hour. Do it a few hours and you will get a ratio of people who go through in a day.

I also recorded what was being sold and for how much. What is a soda, a beer, admission to the Haunted Dungeon, turkey leg, t-shirt, pony ride and so on sold for at BRF? This would give me an idea for a base price for my business.

All of this gave me some real world numbers to base what I might expect to make with a pirate attraction at BRF. By the way BRF managers did not want to tell me what data they collected as they had to spend plenty to hire survey firms to collect it all. I can understand that. But from what I did it cost very little, mostly my time, and anyone can do this for themselves as well. This was good to do and if you are considering a business like this you really ought to hire it done or do it your self, BEFORE you invest any time and money in the project.

Thanks for reading.

Ideas Come From Someplace.







I think it was in the summer of 2000 that my wife and I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, located near the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin to spend the day at the renaissance faire. We had been to one in Michigan years ago and having since moved to Wisconsin we thought a day spent at the faire would be fun. It was.





Prior to going to Bristol I had ideas of starting a small business to help bring in additional money. I assume that is why most people start a small business... make some money. My first ideas had drifted around thoughts of making items for sale to reenactors of the colonial time period here in the Midwest. Reenactors get called living historians by some. These are those dedicated men and women who research a particular time period and gather together the clothing, accessories and equipment necessary to recreate a persona from that time period. I had done some reenacting and knew what these people wanted and thought I could manage a business that catered to them.





Once I had visited Bristol and saw the crowds of people they drew and took in the wonderful English village atmosphere of the place I figured I had found a new direction to take. On the drive back home I turned over in my mind what I could do as a merchant at this renaissance faire that would be both interesting for me and a money maker on the side.





I thought about this on and off over the next several months. I did some reading and research, part about the renaissance and in part about the Bristol Renaissance Faire (BRF). I have to say that I believe that the subconscious mind plays a big part in working out our problems and giving us solutions. Ideas come bubbling up from someplace and it had to be the subconscious at work. I had been a big fan of the movie Sea Hawks, made in 1938 I believe. Sea Dogs, the Spanish Armada and Queen Elizabeth I had not escaped my attention. Putting these things together drew me to the idea of pirates. What if I sold or did something pirate related? Sea Dogs were pirates and really good ones too!





So by the fall of 2000 I had the first glimmers of some sort of pirate attraction at BRF. I had no experience in running a business, renaissance faires, Elizabethan time period, being a pirate nor did I have a firm idea of exactly what I wanted to do. But I thought I could smell a chance to start something great and make money while doing it. I was itching to get started.




You may want to check out the Ebay auction for the Dreadnought found at :
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pirate-Ship-Structure-at-Auction-Think-Big-Live-a-Dream_W0QQitemZ300302051541QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item300302051541&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

A Very Big Dream.

In 2006 a dream was realized fully when the Royal Privateer Dreadnought was built and opened to the public. Dreadnought, a highly detailed Elizabethan time period pirate ship (privateer is a nice way of being a pirate0 was the result of years of planning, research, gathering resources and bank loans. Mike and Janet Breza- a husband and wife team- are the member/managers of The Pirate Ship LLC, the business that owns and operates the Dreadnought at the Bristol Renaissance Faire located in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

At the end of a very long August weekend in 2008 I was talking to some pirate re-enactors about my ship when I stated, "I ought to write a book about how to build and operate a pirate ship." We get asked a great many questions about the Dreadnought and how it was built. Most people feel that the ship is a real floating vessel, that it is very old, that it is really a real pirate ship and on and on. With a steady stream of people asking in person, or by email contact, the idea of a book just sort of popped into my head.

OK, so nearly everyone wants to be an author and few get beyond the "I am writing a book" line. I know that if you are interested and passionate about something then it is safe bet other folks are and that if you write about it they will want your book. Alright I am passionate and interested in pirates but writing a book is task. What I need to do is get organized, start writing things out and show it to others while I am doing it. The Pirate Ship Dreadnought blog will help me get organized, keep me writing and will get you great insights into how to create your own pirate ship attraction that you can operate at a Renaissance Faire or Pirate Festival.

By reading this blog you will get a very good idea of what takes to make your own replica ship, non-floating. For those who need to learn about building and up-keep on a real wooden sailing ship I know you will find another blog to help you with that. For those who want a structure that looks just like a real pirate ship and one that you can operate as a business, sales shop space or entertainment attraction then the Dreadnought will be your spot. If you like pirate reenactments then the Dreadnought will be of interest to you as well.

We made mistakes, we did things the hard way, we learned stuff and we had fun while making thousands of people happy. You will learn from our mistakes and benefit from what we do right when you follow the blog of the Dreadnought. That sounds bad! Blog of the Dreadnought. Will have to work on that a bit.

By the way the Dreadnought is up for sale. Yes you can buy the whole ship. Visit http://www.pirateshipdreadnought.com/ to learn more.

Thank you for reading and I trust this will be of great benefit to us all.

Mike