How do you find someone to repair your boat?

Hi All,

I'm doing some research for a new service that will assist boaters in finding quality service providers to work on their boats.

I'd appreciate it if any of you would take 5-10 minutes to complete a survey about how you get people to work on your boat.

Survey is at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Boat_Service_Survey

There is a drawing for gift certificates for anyone that does the survey.

Thanks in advance!

I look in the mirror.

It it envisaged the "Service" will receive payment from either the service provider or boat owner(directly or indirectly) for work placed via the "Service".
Good idea bringing this to TF, it should provide useful advance publicity of the proposed "Service".

I can’t complete your survey because on question 11 I have only used two of the options and it’s looking for me to rate each one. Also, the only thing I contract out is transmission work, that’s not an option.

SeaMoose said:

I can’t complete your survey because on question 11 I have only used two of the options and it’s looking for me to rate each one. Also, the only thing I contract out is transmission work, that’s not an option.

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I had an issue with this one, too. I answered the 2 or 3 I use as 1,2,3 and then rated the rest I don't or won't use in my order of preference. It wasn't a well-worded question, IMO.

If the OP is considering building a social micro community/affiliate marketing revenue stream its the most important question.

And now for a word from the sponsors my company has built several of these PM me if interested...

I select mine by word of mouth and experience, not from a web site or app. So not much benefit to me.

I live in Fort Lauderdale, not exactly difficult, plus we have a bit of a management company ourselves.

alormaria said:

I look in the mirror.

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Yes, mirror, I do agree that money can not be found even people who do not do anything without messing up, scratching and conscientiously work to which you have hired. That's why I do it all myself and have not even learned to enjoy service and repair as part of boating.

Thanks to all for the input and survey suggestions! For those that didn't finish, you can go back and do the updated version.

To BruceK, you'll note that there was no mention at all of the final service name. Yes, if we pursue the service we will use Trawler Forum to promote, but as a "Paid Advertiser" which is what brings in the revenue that lets the site operate free of charge for users.

Also, we were careful to put the post into the "Harbor Chat" category, which is the open forum. Sorry if we have offended anyone.

An "Angie's List of boating service providers would be a good thing. I do much of my boat work myself but we all have our limits even if we don't know it yet. I had to contract out some work about a year ago and it didn't go well.

As with Yelp and other review sites, people who have had bad experiences post reviews many times more often than those who have good experiences. Also I suspect that boating service will have only a small sample set which can easily be skewed by the bad experiences.

Also unlike home services where it can be difficult to find a painter or window washer, much less objective reviews of them, boat yards are well known to anyone who opens their eyes. But that isn't to say that boat yards are the only source of boat service work. Independent, mobile guys are some of the best IMO.

The foregoing isn't to discourage the OP because there might be a need for his website, but to give him some thoughts.

I would suggest he modify one of the questions on how much work you do yourself to include a choice for partial DIY. I suspect many of us are like that.

Also I find it interesting that TF was not one of the choices for on line boating forums. Isn't it bigger than say MTOA? I also didn't see Cruisersforum. But I realize that there probably are hundreds of them. It probably would have been better to include a box so you can enter any forum not listed.

David

When we moved to USA to live/cruise aboard in Florida, we had no knowledge of course of any local contractors. In our early weeks we were besieged by all sorts wanting to wash/clean the boat, dive the bottom, yada yada yada. We made a few poor choices but overall found the best possible advice was 'word of mouth' a philosophy that served well over many years of boating in Europe. Most boaters have big mouths when it comes to getting poor service versus good service and passing on their comments on the dockside. Putting such in writing, especially in the USA leaves the commentator open to potential law suits which at best will tone down the criticisms and at worst cost mucho bucks.