Well here I sit in a St Maarten shipyard with my boat still on hard ground. I left the boat here for over a month and a half with the expectation that the projects I hired them to do would be done. The two big things have been completed, but the little details have not. The first big project was the bottom of the boat. The yard has sanded off 14 years of old bottom paint, repair the aft end of the keels, primed the hull, and painted it. The things they forgot to do was move the water maker intake though hull (I want it lower so it does not suck in oil, grass, and air), fiberglass over the old through hull, replace a hull zinc, and change the seals in the sail drives. Now they have to go back and repaint these areas after they are done.
The other project I contracted them to do was a new hard top for the cockpit (I will write about it next week probably). The hard top is done, but it has not been attached yet. Now they have to bend some of my old steel frame to make everything look good and install the hatch I shipped down. I think it will look great, but we will see.
Also I sent out my jib to get restitched, the outboard to get tuned up, and the chart plotter looked at. I have not seen the jib yet, the outboard was misplaced (in fact the manager though it was lost and was prepared to buy me a new one. Now that would have been sweet!!!), and the chart plotter was never even touched.
The bottom line is just like other jobs you have to be present to project manage the work. I had a nice visit to the states and it would have been nice to arrive to a finished boat ready to be put into the water, but that is not how it works I guess. By mid week everything should be completed and I will be back in the water. All in all going to a shipyard every two years for maintenance and upgrades is worth it for the enjoyment of the time I get on the boat. In the mean time I am taking care of other small project to get the boat ready for another great charter season.
Hey leave a comment if you have a good (or not good) boatyard story. I would love to read about it!!!!