You might consider yourself pretty experienced with boats. You’ve owned them your whole life, you’re an experienced boat enthusiast who cruises the bay for fun and takes jaunts onto the ocean for fishing voyages. You know your stuff. Heck, you even do your own repairs from time to time, getting elbow deep in oil and grease, neck deep in engine parts, and wallet deep in tools and parts.
But the truth is, you’ve got nothing on the guys who keep boat yards and marinas up and running. They know the ins and outs of keeping a fleet afloat, and they know a dozen little tricks and secrets that make their life much easier.
If you really want to play with the big boys when it comes to keeping and maintaining your pride and joy, you’ll want to know these boat yard and marina secrets.
Bad Marinas Don’t Manage Their Hours And Labor Well
Just as with getting your car repaired, one of the biggest expenses with boat repairs is labor costs. Boat repairs aren’t always easy, and they can take some time, but disreputable marinas take advantage of customer ignorance by overcharging for labor, over estimating hours, or just plain not tracking their work hours well. That’s why it’s important to see out marinas with a good reputation.
Marine Fuel Tank Repairs Are Closely Guarded Secrets
One of the worst repairs a yacht or fishing boat owner will have to undergo is having to have a leaking marine fuel tank replaced. Such repairs can coast upwards of $50,000, thanks to large portions of the boat needing to be disassembled to complete the task. What many boat owners don’t know is that a fuel tank replacement is not always necessary. SP Marine Services specializes in aluminum marine fuel tank repair. Some companies – and there are very few of them – can repair fuel tanks at a fraction of the cost of full replacement. We’re talking as low as $10,000 in some cases. However, these companies keep their methods a closely guarded secret, going so far as to avoid photographs of the procedure so competition can’t reverse engineer their methods!
Warranty Repairs Can Keep A Marina In Business
For marinas that deal in new boat sales – not all of them do – warranty repairs can be more than a source of side income to help supplement slip fees, sales, repairs, fuel, and other revenue streams. For marinas that also sell new boats, warranty repairs can provide up to 50 or 60 percent of their repair-related income. That’s a huge number – enough, in fact, to make or break a business.
Winter Is The Best Time To Get Boat Parts And Repairs
Boating is, unsurprisingly, a seasonal activity. Marinas and boat yards have to carefully manage their stock of boat parts. Too many sitting around in stock is wasted money. Too few and you end up with unsatisfied clients can’t have their boat repaired as fast as they’d like. Because of the seasonal nature of the business, boat yards look for specials on parts during the winter to save money – which means you can save money during that time, too.