Word: fleetness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...swing from boom times of frantic demand and soaring charter rates to busts during which expensive tankers lie idle and unwanted. Reksten, a ramrod-straight six-footer and lone-wolf operator, started out as a shipping clerk; in 1929 he bought a freighter cheap, parlayed it into a modest fleet (thanks in part to two rich wives), then seized on slumps to buy up tonnage cut-rate. By 1973 he had amassed a flotilla worth, by some estimates, $600 million. Now, one of the worst depressions ever in the tanker business (TIME, March 10) has left Reksten financially becalmed...
Reksten also signed a contract in 1973 for construction of four new 420,000-ton supertankers to add to his fleet of a dozen. But the world recession and quintupled prices for oil depressed demand for petroleum and thus for tankers. As a result, Reksten canceled the contract, and now must pay Norway's Aker shipyards damages of $67 million. The Norwegian government this month came to his rescue: it agreed to buy shares in several Reksten companies for $35 million. The government will become sole owner of an oil-rig contracting firm, but Reksten will keep control...
Compared with those of, say United, the friendly skies of North Carolina-based Wheeler Airlines do not seem to amount to much. The line's fleet consists of three red, white and blue eight-passenger Cessna 402s. Its route map includes such eastern North Carolina points as Elizabeth City and Morehead City, small towns that were abandoned some time ago by larger carriers. But tiny Wheeler can claim at least two distinctions. Its president, principal stockholder and part-time pilot, Warren Wheeler, 31, has a unique way of keeping up with the competition: besides being the boss of Wheeler...
...young, untested outfielder, it is hard to imagine a bleaker prospect than trying to break into the majors with the Oakland A's. Where can he play? Superstar Reggie Jackson owns right, fleet Bill North roams center like a gazelle, and modest Joe Rudi is known as the best leftfielder in baseball. Most teen-age players would cast a glance at that outfield and sign up with another club or resign themselves to ten years in the minors. Not Claudell Washington. He had an A's contract at age 17, starred in the World Series last year...
...boats available) there are more bareboat berths filled in a season than hotel rooms. Costing only between $150 and $300 per head per week, food and fuel included, bareboating compares favorably with a hotel vacation. Among the leading charterers are the Moorings (33 boats), Antilles Yachting Services (23), Fleet Indigo (14), Abaco Bahamas Charters (12) and Stevens Yachts (10). The oldest and largest firm is Caribbean Sailing Yachts, Inc., founded in 1967 by a sea-obsessed New Jersey dentist named Dr. John van Ost. C.S.Y. has 94 boats at its three bases -Abaco in the Bahamas, Tortola...