Wow, Larry!! That's a huge project! You've made great progress already. Hope the schedule holds but more importantly, hope all the work is well done - correctly the first time. Is this a yard you've hired before? Are you assisting in the project?
Thanks for posting the project. I'll be watching and cheering in the background. This could be one of those projects where you keep saying to yourself, "Well, as long as I'm in here and this is accessible, I might as well..."
Good luck!
This is our first time in this yard, St Johns Boat Co, JAX. It's one of the few yards in the area where we can do as much or as little work as we want. The manager has been here for 4 years and previously worked for Huckins. The yard and manager both get high marks locally. They have a different and interesting business model: a minimal in-house staff supported by a stable of local experts.
Our project team consists of 3 entities. The yard and a local 2 person company (recommended by the yard) gave us a T&M not to exceed to physically remove the engine and tanks and a T&M not to exceed to reinstall both. I hired another ex-Huckins employee, who is out on his own, to help us disconnect the engine electrically and reconnect later. He'll also help with the fuel manifold system and make sure everything else is to ABYC guidelines or as close as possible. I've known Eric for 3 years and he is probably one of the best ABYC techs in the JAX area IMHO. The big decider for us was that the 3 groups know each other and have a long history of working together.
The tanks will be built by RDS Aluminum in Perry, FL. I sent out 5 RFPs. RDS and one other company were the only ones who have the capability to build the tanks. The tanks have a radius against the hull which eliminated 3 firms. RDS's quote, with listed assumptions, came in at $5,579/tank. We visited RDS a few weeks ago and feel confident with them building our tanks.
We'll run the engine and running gear up to Bomac Marine for rebuilding this weekend.
Lena and I will take care of removing/installing everything else in the engine room, renewing it, rewiring, re-plumbing, etc. We will get help as we need it from the yard, Eric or the other 2-man team. The yard already helped out by bringing the forklift over during battery removal.
We were lucky that we are able to rent a furnished cottage 0.1 mile from the boat yard. After living on the hard for 6 months the last time we did a
major, Lena put her foot down this time. Definitely a good call on her part.
Project creep, well, I may try to sneak a few things past the project's cost analyst (Lena) but that could be hard. She knows that what we save here is part of our vacation next year.
I think we're off to a good start with costs for the week (excluding the haul-out) just under $1000. We're not naïve and one week isn't the project. A project like this can go sideways in a hurry but I try to look at things as being half full though which makes sleeping a little easier.
Let the game continue.
