Boat yard has me over a barrel

[STeveZ]

I'm hoping you more experienced boaters can offer a little insight and advice.
I'll try to be brief by sticking with facts and leaving out the BS, drama and speculation.

Last year the guy who works on my boat lost the lease on facility where he stored, built and work on boats. (It was landlocked and he had transported boat with a hydraulic trailer.) He sold the trailer and in the fall he set up shop in a nearby marina. I took the boat up late in the fall, had it pulled and had the engine and tranny removed in order to rebuild the transmission. The transmission was promptly rebuilt and I paid for the rebuild only. I also noted that the barrier coat and bottom paint he had applied the previous year (at considerable cost) was not performing as promised. Some of the supposed multiple coats of bottom paint appear to have come off in chunks all the way to the barrier coat. I was told that this would be repaired.

Fast forward to this spring. I got the engine and bilge cleaned up while it was in their shop and launch was promised for mid April. Weeks passed and communication became sparse; an occasional email. A terse email received a promise of a launch last week. Didn't happen. Sunday night a Monday launch was promised (via email). As of tonight (Tuesday) a 4' square of bottom paint appears to have been patched and my freshly painted starboard bilge remains empty. I'm at wits end with this guy. As of last week the transmission was still sitting down in Annapolis, apparently the shop was closed when he stopped by (on his way to do some fishing).

The folks at the marina seem similarly dismayed with this character BTW so they might be open to the introduction of a third party.

1. I'm two for two for boat yards. The last guy did the work but was a complete a-hole. I'd trailer a boat before I put up with his abuse again.

So finally a couple questions:

1. Can you suggest some hard ball tactic to get this guy off his ass? I don't seem to have a lot of leverage at this point in time.

2. Whats the deal with my bottom. I'm afraid it gonna need to be blasted down to the barrier coat and repainted at some point.

[CaptPatrick]

1. Can you suggest some hard ball tactic to get this guy off his ass? I don't seem to have a lot of leverage at this point in time.

2. Whats the deal with my bottom. I'm afraid it gonna need to be blasted down to the barrier coat and repainted at some point.

It's not possible to get blood out of a turnip, so about your only recourse, short of getting legal proceedings initiated, is to stay in the guy's face... Getting a laywer involved will likely only add to your costs & while lawyers are better at wringing a turnip than the average Joe, a turnip still doesn't yield any blood.

Your bottom paint was obviously not applied according to directions included with the barrier coat. Most likely, the narrow window of time between the last barrier coating & the first coat of bottom paint was exceeded. The Epoxy cures, amines rise to the surface & become essentially a release agent under the bottom paint. High pressure wash it to remove any other loose paint, thoroughly sand it with 80 grit, soap & water wash with a scrub brush, allow to dry, wipe it with denatured alcohol & add a new coating of barrier coat. Apply the first bottom paint coat within a few hours. You can even add the bottom coat while the barrier coat is still tacky, (2 man job, one applying bc, the other following 30 minutes behind with bp).

Good luck in getting this situation resolved...

Br,

Patrick

[Ric]

it looks like there is a red under the black maybe an ablative first coat was red ././././././.2nd coat black .
.,chipping and peeling in certain sections is an indication that those areas were not properly scuffed "sanded" after the last application of barrier coating prior to painting that is why the majority of the hull is fine and only certain areas are problamatic.,.,i can see the sheen on the white surface (barrier coat) from the photograph..,.and both coats of the ablative are just falling off .,.,.,to sheeny a surface to bond too,.,.,.,.,

[Bruce]

Let me give a perspective from another point of view having dealt with sub contractors.

Go see him face to face. Emails, phone calls are useless and are easily brushed off when you ain't there.

Don't go with a mad on, although your entitled.
Apparently there is an issue, money most likely, maybe not on your part but on his.
Contact the gear builder directly. Could be he's never been paid and the money's long gone.

Be blunt, but calm about this. Try and find out what the problem is. You may have to baby sit him to get it done.

Lawyers and their letters only affect your wallet and are meaningless.

I'd contact the yard owners and find out if this has been a problem. I'd also find out if you don't already know, who is paying the storage if there is any.

I've seen where a guy will piss a job into years and then goes away only to have the owner realize the storage money he paid to the repair guy never made it to the yard and now he's looking at a 5k storage bill to get his boat.

If no response, then just pickup your gear, get your parts and have someone else finish it.

[Carl]

I believe what Bruce and Capt Pat said is right on the money. I say this from the contractee point of view.

I am not proud of this...but on occasion I have fallen off schedule on a project due to whatever reason. I can say that Mad, Angry threats don't help get things on track. Involvement with a lawyer would have been worse. A good sitdown can be good, but those who made it there business to make their presence known really wound up getting what they wanted, their job. One client just came by to see the progress on a daily basis with a followup call here and there, another with more time hung around and well just hung around...

[STeveZ]

Thanks for your responses.

Unfortunately I seem to spend more time at the yard than he does.
And its difficult to have a discussion when his cell phone rings directly to VM and he doesn't return calls.
He sent me another email this morning saying he was going to wrap up work today. He must have a very busy day planned!
I'll drive up there, again, later this morning.

I understand that this is a busy time of year for boat yards but I was intentionally ready early this year, to beat the rush.
And this guy doesn't seem particularly busy. He's a young man but had a health scare recently that may have made him somewhat philosophical about the importance of work.

Lastly, believe me, I've considered the various doomsday scenarios:
Tracking down the tranny and having someone else install it.
Law suit for bottom repair and loss of use.
The possibility that the tranny money was spent and the install money is intended to get it out of hock. Especially because he billed me for the removal/install while the tranny was still in the shop. At this point the only leverage I have is payment of the final labor bill and they're not getting that until the work is done.

Thanks again for your thoughts. I can handle and understand delays but its the stonewalling that makes me nervous and angry.

[JohnD]

Steve,

Sorry to hear what you're going through, I think the worst is not being able to interact with the guy. Though not boat related I have a similar issue with one of my tenants, soon to be ex-tenant.

Anyway, I used the tactics Bruce mentined when I ran into trouble with my repower last year and I'm satisfied with the work that was done and glad it's over.

Give a call to the tranny shop directly and try to find out what's going on. Be persistant but pleasent with the mechanic, get you're boat back and then never go back (like the first place you used.)

br,
JohnD

[CMP]

Steve, I had the same thing happen on a bottom job and I had to sue. WHat clinched the deal with the judge was the pics I took as I took the bottom paint off which took me only 3 hours with 2 dull scrapers on a 35' downeast boat. I did not get any loss of use $$$, but I was paid for my time and got all the $$$ back that I'd paid him...

CMP