Program helps backyard tinkerers bring minds to market. (Thunder Bay).

Sometimes frustration is the mother of invention.

Stymied by his attempts to launch and retrieve his boat in bad weather or over rough terrain, Robert Marchese set out to build a better trailer guide system.

The MARKEZE is a trailer accessory, which does not work like other typical guides.

"This unit pivots and floats," says Marchese.

His invention was selected as one of the winning business ideas at the Northwestern Ontario Technology Centre's (NOTC) first annual Idea Factory Challenge, a contest to assist backyard mechanics and basement tinkerers to bring their bright ideas to the marketplace.

"I've been a boater all my life," says Marchese, "and it came to a point where I was with a friend of mine and we had gone out in really terrible conditions and we ended up doing damage to a new boat. It was horrible."

So he went to the drawing board three years ago and began cutting and fabricating pieces of aluminum together.

"I'm a welder by trade and I swore I was going to come up with a solution one way or another," says Marchese, who works for Bruno's Contracting Ltd. in Thunder Bay and is an avid outdoorsman.

His patented guide keeps the boat centred when loading or unloading from a trailer. Built with an aluminum frame, plates and posts with specially-designed foam padding, the unit easily bolts onto most trailers.

"When you back the trailer into the lake and the boat floats off, this unit floats up with the boat and maintains control when the boat is in the marked position (being ready to release)."

"The tilt arms keep control of the boat at water level," he says. "That's where the real secret is.

"There are two four-foot arms on both sides which deliver positive lateral pressure and act like squeezers. It's very difficult for the boat to twist."

The invention, which fits boats in the 16- to 22-foot range, has the endorsement of Gord Ellis, a well-known local outdoor writer. The Ontario Provincial Police in Thunder Bay field tested a unit last summer and plan to add more.

"The unit is just, going into production now," says Marchese, who has sold about 30 units for $699 a piece. Marchese has made arrangements with various manufacturers to build the boat guide. He is also negotiating with dealerships in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Fort Frances and Duluth, Minn. "I'm working on a network of dealerships.

"It's just on a small scale right now, but I'm hoping that will change. I'm introducing them at a cost price this summer just to see what response I get."

Picking the top six winners out of 109 entries, submitted from 57 individuals from across northwestern Ontario, was a tough chore for the panel of six judges, says Melissa Gorrie, NOTC's director of communications.

"It was just an overwhelming response and the quality of ideas submitted was unbelievable. Unfortunately there were only six winners, but there were probably 60 winning business ideas."

Each innovation has to be an enhancement to an existing product or a completely new idea.

Winners received a customized award package of $1000 cash for business expenses, $2000 worth of research credit funding at Lakehead University and Confederation College, market research studies from the federal Industrial Research Assistance Program, access to various business loans and some mentoring opportunities to turn their ideas into reality.

"The challenge was a way of getting those individuals who are in garages and basements designing innovations out there by giving them the support to make it marketable," says Gorrie.

Some ideas are so revolutionary, the winners are reluctant to talk.

Brian Maki would not get into specifics of how his Easy Hold Ice Auger works until his prototype machine is patent protected.

'His double rotation ice auger eliminates the twisting force that other augers produce. The gearing reduces power demands so a smaller engine can be used.

"I can't release too much information except to say it runs fantastic," says Maki, a Thunder Bay heavy equipment mechanic.

"It has no rotational force. When you're drilling it stays perfectly neutral."

Coming up with ideas for the challenge was not a problem for Maki who submitted 18 ideas.

"I love seeing how things work," says Maki, who took a mechanical engineering course at Confederation College and is pondering a career as an inventor.

"I was coming up with an idea per day for the challenge, evolving one idea in another. I was working on an idea for a gearing system when I developed the ice auger idea."

With the help of staff at the Northwestern Ontario Technology Centre, Maid says once he obtains a patent he will take his product to market.

www.notc.on.ca

www.markezesolutions.com