Shop rates ?

[REO6205]

Just out of curiosity, what does a boat repair shop or mobile marine mechanic charge in your area? Our local guy, with a good reputation and years of experience, is charging 200 an hour now.

 

[freedomvango]

Our shop rate is 175 for in shop stuff, so that's not out of the realm for mobile at all.

 

[SkookumR29]

Gallery Marine on Lake Union in Seattle is charging $200.00 now, but they do very good work and are one of the few Yanmar shops in the Puget Sound area.

 

[Rocky Lou]

I pay similar rates depending on whether it's engine work, electronics, generator, etc. However, I've also been successful finding the best shop mechanics and asking them if they 'knew someone' who works after hours and can come to my boat. The answers with all of them I asked was, 'yes, me' and I'm paying $120/hours all cash. I also pay a bit for a travel and provide an awesome seafood lunch which I eat with them so we can chat about the repairs. I work along side them so I know exactly what's being done. In the yard, I've seen a lot of chit chat going on while the high dollar clock is ticking. It's a great deal for them as they are lucky if they get $50/hour paid by the shop.

 

[Submariner]

I pay similar rates depending on whether it's engine work, electronics, generator, etc. However, I've also been successful finding the best shop mechanics and asking them if they 'knew someone' who works after hours and can come to my boat. The answers with all of them I asked was, 'yes, me' and I'm paying $120/hours all cash. I also pay a bit for a travel and provide an awesome seafood lunch which I eat with them so we can chat about the repairs. I work along side them so I know exactly what's being done. In the yard, I've seen a lot of chit chat going on while the high dollar clock is ticking. It's a great deal for them as they are lucky if they get $50/hour paid by the shop.

This is good to hear, as I do installs off-hours, on the side, as well, for other boaters. I usually quote a fixed price for a job, put a value to the installation. To pay by the hour doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The more you do something, the better you get at it, and the less time you need. The installer shouldn't be punished (paid less) for getting good at something, and who doesn't want their boat finished sooner than expected? Sometimes a job pops up with something unforeseen that causes a lot of extra time. I've done over 15 Lenco autoglide installs on R27's and R25's. On a 2021 or newer R27, it's 8 screws to remove to pull the helm seat, takes me a few minutes. I had one boat where the factory used bolts instead which required me to pull the microwave for access to the bolts underneath. This added a substantial amount of time to the job. Hourly, would just add this to the bill which makes scoping projects somewhat of an open-checkbook which nobody likes. It also adds to your comment about paying high dollar per hour for chit-chat going on, as that's hourly billing. With a fixed price for the project, if the project takes longer, or gets done quicker, if I stop to chat, if I have to run to the hardware store, doesn't matter. The only time I would do hourly billing is troubleshooting, as in that scenario, when somethings broke and you're trying to figure it out, you really can't estimate how long it'll take. Instead, I would simply quote out a 2 hour time-slot to spend time troubleshooting, and re-evaluate at the end of the allocated time. But most of my work is projects/upgrades.

 

[freedomvango]

which also brings the topic of making sure whoever is working on your boat is licensed, insured, and certified. A lot can go wrong and insurance are not forgiving with that stuff!

 

[Submariner]

I pay similar rates depending on whether it's engine work, electronics, generator, etc. However, I've also been successful finding the best shop mechanics and asking them if they 'knew someone' who works after hours and can come to my boat. The answers with all of them I asked was, 'yes, me' and I'm paying $120/hours all cash. I also pay a bit for a travel and provide an awesome seafood lunch which I eat with them so we can chat about the repairs. I work along side them so I know exactly what's being done. In the yard, I've seen a lot of chit chat going on while the high dollar clock is ticking. It's a great deal for them as they are lucky if they get $50/hour paid by the shop.

Personally, I think it's a great deal, overall. This happens with me quite often. I spend a day on someone's boat doing upgrades, they take me to lunch, and out comes a list of boating questions to talk about over lunch. Then back to the boat to finish up. I like it. 🙂

 

[Rocky Lou]

Absolutely, a great deal! I recently completed a bunch of work that I estimate would have cost me $20K at the boatyard. Working alongside my 'moonlighter' (who is the top mechanic at the yard), for about $6K we got it all done. The hourly vs. fixed rate is a decision you make together and it cuts both ways. He would not have wanted to quote fixed rate for several items, for the generator, power steering, and stern thruster, that had too many unknowns and no clear path to troubleshooting. For example, the Power Steering pump had gotten wet and didn't work properly. The UFlex factory said that all wiring was sealed and none could be changed...my only solution was to replace the pump that cost about $2.5K and, run new cabling with installation likely running well over $5K. We decided that I'd use a needle to clean the visible corrosion from the 12 pin connector (female) and my mechanic would run a new wire from the pump to the helm switch since 2 pins had broken off the male connector. It works great and cost under $500.