BB marine":ydqe50os said:
Build quality should include (1) Hull construction, (2)Gel coat quality ( additives used to help UV damage) (3)Fastener quality,(4) new technology advancements used, ( lack of wood and use of composite ) (5) Hull and top side bonding ( proper sealing of deck to hull and all exterior installed components sealed ) (6) Machinery alignment,( Inboards, Keel extension to hull, cutlass alignment to engine coupler, engine centered on engine bed and no soft foot, Correct overall propeller installed) (outboards, engine mounted at proper elevation, engine properly bonded, correct prop for stern lifting and proper rpm, cables and hoses installed properly and sealed, engine pods sealed correctly) (7) Electrical system installed as per ABYC recommendations, QC check sheet filled out confirming that all connections are made properly, tightened and proved to function to manufactures specifications. (8) plumbing installed and tested no leaks, routed properly to sumps, over board drains, tank and faucet connections correctly made and proved. (9) Interior finishes (10) all vender installed equipment installed to the venders specifications.
Delivery experiences, customer service, new boat experiences with little issues is a testament of good customer service and a good dealership. The experiences listed are important to keep new and experienced boaters to be repeat customers. If a new boat owner has an issue the response of the dealer or manufacture has nothing to do with the quality of the build. Usually when business is good there are more complaints about dealerships and manufactures customer service because all the little warrantee issues consume much of the service departments time. Dealers look at back logs usually a month or better. The little warrantee issues that take two hours to repair will normally get moved to the top and repaired. The larger jobs get kicked out, parts needed, waiting for factory approval, some jobs actually need a sub contractor to do repairs because the in house technicians do not have experience in the repair. Some manufactures have field technicians that are dispatched to help dealers in larger warranty claims. All of this is customer service. As a boat owner manufactures customer service should be non existent. The dealer should be the boat owners customer service. If the boat build is quality a boat owner should never have to talk to the manufacture. The dealer does. As a marine technician working with boat lines Carver, Searay, Regal, Trojan, Welcraft, Larson, Pacemaker, Navigator, Boston Whaler ,Lund, Stratos, Cruisers, I don't ever remember a customer ever talking about the manufactures customer service. The boat owner didn't complain to the manufacture about quality, they talked to the dealer and expected the dealer to take care of it. We has the technicians and service managers rated the manufacturers customer service. We were the ones dealing with the factory to get our customers taken care of. As technology improved in the marine industry the quality improved. I personally don't agree with a manufacture being a dealer and expecting the dealers to compete. I don't agree with a manufacture providing service to some customers and not to all. It changes the playing field for customer service. I also don't agree with dealerships not being equipped to service and repair the complete boat. If dealer sells a boat with a Yamaha there should be technicians certified to repair it and confirm a proper PDI , If a dealer sells Volvo products there should be a certified in house technician employed by the dealership. It is the manufactures responsibility to make sure that a dealership that gets a selling territory can fulfill the needs of all the customers in that territory and except the responsibility to repair "Joe's" boat that is 250 miles from the dealership. Every dealership I worked for had a road vehicle. Every dealership I worked for had a certified mechanic with knowledge to repair the power plants that were installed in the manufactures boats. We were all tested for ABYC certifications some tech's stronger in electrical, refrigeration, electronics, and some specialized in rigging to make sure that when the customer took delivery the boat was ready. This was the requirement of the boat manufacturer. Some have mentioned Sea Ray. Sea Ray was an average 7 build. Boston Whaler was a 7 build, Cruiser was a 7 build, Regal was a 6 build, Navigator was a 6 build, Carver was a 6 build, Trojan was a 5 build (only because they used a lot of wood in the construction and it rotted) Larson was a 5 build..... All of these companies as a technician had good customer customer service.
Rating the build as a customer based on your experience when purchasing the boat is not really correct. Build quality is not always on the surface. I have worked on some pristine looking boats that were built to substandard workmanship. I'm not by any means stating Fluid Motion builds to substandard. They build in my opinion a nice boat that is not flawless. They build a good hull, but skimp on gel coat quality, fastener quality, the use of higher quality composite materials, and in house fabrication. The assembly line ( I have never been to the factory but I have seen many photos of it from customers that have been there) It does not resemble some of the major manufactures plants that I have been in. It resembles a small manufactures plant that has outgrown the facility. If the craftsman building the boats are high paid skilled boat builders this does not matter. If its a makeshift assembly line with makeshift installation tools it does.
Not every boat is built on Monday. I don't care who's assembly line built boat you are referring to there are going to be some Friday built boats. I worked for a Regal dealer in Raynham MA. Slips Capeway Marine in the 80's. We took delivery of a 255 Regal. The hull was poorly finished full of factory patches, engine installation was noticeably off. Gel voids poping on the decks. I started rigging it for a customer and told the salesman that sold the boat, sell them a different boat, (we had several of that model in stock) This boat would have been a problem. He did. We used this boat has a warranty parts boat stripped it and at the end of the season the boat was sent back to Regal to be refitted. I imagine they chalked it up as a lost. Not all boats are built the same from the same manufacture . This one slipped by QC. This was a time in the market that it was booming.
I don't think I have ever worked on a 10, 9, maybe a few 8's but they are far and few between. I personally don't give a boat a rating when they are new unless it was like the Regal that I mentioned. I rate boats on how well they are built when they are 5 to 8 years old. How well did they hold up? How good does the gel look ? A 10 year old boat should still have a good finish if maintained yearly, the fasteners should all be in good condition, If the machinery compartment is well sealed and vented properly it should look like it did the day it was purchased if maintained yearly. Motor mounts, mounting hardware, wiring should be in good working order, running gear just be getting broke in with 1000hrs ( most 5 year old boats probably only have an average of 300 hrs. A 8,9 or 10 boat should not show its age for 10 years.
I have had two different technicians on board my boat since owning it. Volvo technicians. They were involved in the Turbo issue I had. Both remarked at how much they liked the boat ( Looks ) both remarked at how much they disliked the engine installation. One took several pictures of the installation and sent them to Volvo. The comment of one of the technicians was "She is pretty on the outside but ugly in the inside." Meaning under all the fluff. My point of this comment is a Technician as a different view compared to a boat owner of build quality.
I stand by my high rating of a 6 for build quality.
