The rates for services in the marine industry are insane. I own a 4 seat piston powered aircraft. FAA regulations severely limit the work I am allowed to do as owner and just about anything beyond an oil change, putting air in a tire or changing a lightbulb must be done by an FAA Authorized mechanic (A&P) and then inspected by an FAA authorized Aircraft Inspector (AI). Most aircraft mechanics hold both ratings and therefore are able to do the work and certify the aircraft as airworthy. There are strict requirements to earn these certifications. My AI's shop rate recently went up to $95/hour.

Compare that to the lowest billed rate at a boat yard. Around here they are charging nearly as much for the completely untrained generaly yard help as my AI. Jobs like winterizing and oil changes usually fall to these guys while more experienced guys (sometimes even with some training) do more involved tasks.

Still the work you had done takes me an afternoon to accomplish and my parts rates are not inflated so the same tasks hit my wallet for well less than 1/2 of what you were billed.

BTW I think I'd be asking for an explaination of why it took $570 of labor to drain the water tanks, pour in some anti-freeze and run the faucets until antifreeze filled the lines. That takes me about 45 minutes if I stop to talk to my boatyard neighbors.

[QUOTE=SailorJackson;15131]I got the winterization bill today.
[LIST]
[*]Winterization used 9 gallons of antifreeze, of several different types. The total material was $86 and the labor was $570.
[*]Oil change was $48 of oil and $142 of labor, totaling $191.30
[*]An impeller replacement was $47.60 for the part and $95 for the labor
[*]Replacing the shaft packing was $95 in labor. I had purchase the material and was going to do it myself but never had time, so they used the parts I provided.
[/LIST]

I've always been accustom to doing all the boat work myself. Only rather recently has my income and lack of free time pushed me toward having this sort of thing done by the marina. When these invoices come in I'm always a bit shocked. Anybody else have this sort of work done for them? Are these charges out of bounds, or just typical? I will confess to taking the boat into the best marina in the area. I've had too many things screwed up by the low end places.[/QUOTE]

I don't know about 1/2 a day Bill (you must work fast!), but I agree the parts cost seems about 30% higher than what I'd expect to pay here and the labour rates seem really high!
(for instance, on a slow day I can change my oil in an hour - so therefore the rate is $142/hr.??) !!! :eek:

Greg, you really did have a dilemma, especially since you used to do the work yourself. Whenever that happens, the normal reply is "Did you geta quote first?" You didn't say. I think it's something like attorneys (hope you're not one!!! :)) who charge an hourly rate for something that takes less than an hour. The rise in prices for non-trained help usually goes in the pocket of the yard owner and not the worker.

Regardless of how busy (and "flush") I might ever have been, the two times I've had someone work on my boat, I have had to redo their work anyway, so concluded that a few work days were well worth my pocketbook, sanity and safety.

The first case was the exhaust from the riser to the muffler. The worker INSISTED that instead of the hump hose, that I had on board and asked to be used, he would use a hose LOOP. End result was that the hose rubbed against itself. I caught it in time and put in the hump hose, just like I asked him to do. I'd also asked him to use paste on the threads of the riser, but he didn't and we got serious blow by which I had to fix by taking the riser off all over again and redoing the flange to riser fitting.

The other was when we replaced our standing rigging and added a ProFurl. A month later I couldn't get the top swivel all the way down when I changed jibs. The same rigger came to my boat and literally started complaining about how the original rigger didn't do it right!!! He was standing up on the pulpit when he said that and I was sorely tempted to push him right off - but then he wouldn't have finished fixing his own goof! He'd forgotten to use locktite. Jerk.

I have to make the time to fix it myself these days. It's cheaper, and it's done right. This year alone: rebuilt raw water pump [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6766.0.html[/url], installed new exhaust hose from muffler to transom [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6760.msg45301.html#msg45301[/url], new alternator properly aligned, new HX (old bracket broke putting a hole in the old HX shell), all new raw water hoses at the engine, and a new head [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3797.0.html[/url]

Since way back with those two examples, I do all my own work. I won't have to have the standing rigging redone for another five years or so, but that I cannot do myself. No one cares about your boat the way YOU do.

Sorry to hear about your "gulp" moment. Go make a LOT of $$ and get back to your boat.:eek:

[quote=stu jackson c34;15141]
Regardless of how busy (and "flush") I might ever have been, the two times I've had someone work on my boat, I have had to redo their work anyway, so concluded that a few work days were well worth my pocketbook, sanity and safety.
[/quote]

My experience exactly. In the last 5 years I've used an outside guy twice, once for an opinion on the health of a diesel and once to get a new coolant cap stem soldered onto the exhaust manifold, neither of which I could do.

That antifreeze price works out to almost 10 bucks a gallon? I buy next year's this year when it goes on sale for $3 a gallon, which will be likely this week or next. We did all the water tanks, faucets, head and washdown pump yesterday, including bypassing the water heater it took about 2 hours, so their labour rate works out to around $285 an hour. He must have stood there watching the water run out of the facuet. And that oil change price, wow.

I couldn't go sailing if I had to pay that kind of money on maintenance, so I'm a prisoner to work to some extent, but a free man to a much larger extent.

Bud,
When you had the coolant cap stem soldered on to the manifold did you have it done in place on the engine or did you remove the manifold? I've got the same problem!
Thanks,
Tony

The guy did it right on board, it was a local rad shop that did it. I was surprised at how easily it went but it's not DIY unless you've got a super honker of a torch to heat up all that cast and you are good with soldering. It was a bit messy due to the flux splattering around so protect everything you can around it. You'll have to drain the coolant but I was doing that anyway because I was putting all new hoses on everything.

[QUOTE=SailorJackson;15131]I got the winterization bill today.
[LIST]
[*]Winterization used 9 gallons of antifreeze, of several different types. The total material was $86 and the labor was $570.
[*]Oil change was $48 of oil and $142 of labor, totaling $191.30
[*]An impeller replacement was $47.60 for the part and $95 for the labor
[*]Replacing the shaft packing was $95 in labor. I had purchase the material and was going to do it myself but never had time, so they used the parts I provided.
[/LIST]
[/QUOTE]

Greg,

I too have been in a squeeze for time and found it sometimes easiest to just go ahead and pay for jobs that I could do myself if I just had the time.

My concern is the price they charged you for materials. In my experience with auto repair or boat repair firms is that they get the parts and supplies at a discount and only mark them up to retail price. Your yard went far beyond that. The engine takes one gallon of oil. $48 seems a bit high for that. The same with the other materials.