Is there a word that's the opposite of Kudos:

If there is, I'm not aware of it but if there is such a term I'd sure apply it to a boat yard in Portland, OR. When I started this thread I didn't mean for it to be so long, but here it is.

Here's my story. I had a transmission on the port engine go out in May when we were bringing the boat back from Portland, OR. I had to leave it at the municipal marina in The Dalles, OR where it crapped out. I wanted to get it back to a boat yard in Portland that I'd had work on the boat in the past. A couple of weeks of horrendous winds followed by 2+ week trip to Europe followed by more horrible winds kept me from getting it down there, but finally in mid-July we got it back down there.

At that time I told them what I wanted fixed (port transmission and generator) and when it needed to be done (NLT October 15). I was assured it would be done and not to worry.

I made repeated calls to them to check on their progress and was assured by Joe (the owner) and Brian (yard foreman) that it would be ready. Wednesday of last week I called again and talked with Brian and told him I thought we would be there around lunch time or a little after.

So Monday we showed up around 10:30 to pick up the boat and cruise it up river to home. Brian came out of his office and appeared to have been caught off guard. His first words were something to the effect that we had showed up about 2 hours earlier than expected and they were "just finishing" some things on the boat and then wanted to wash it. I told him the wash job wasn't necessary and he said it really was because the boat yard had an infestation of bugs and he wanted to wash them of

While waiting I talked with Joe and told him I was disappointed that they'd had the boat for almost 3 months and didn't get the genset done. He mumbled something about the transmission parts that came in to repair it were wrong so he had to send them back and that delayed the repairs by 4 days. I said "C'mon Joe, you had my boat for 3 months. How could a 4 day delay keep you from getting it ready?" He didn't have an answer for that.

So Jim and I were going to take our stuff down the ramp to the boat but would stay out of the way of the workers. When we got down to the boat we found out they did not have the generator running and had only put the boat in the water late the prior Friday night.

I went back to Brian and told him I was very disappointed that they didn't have the gennie running. He stammered around and said "Well, we had it running great when the boat was on the blocks, I just don't know what happened to it."

I said "Really? Please explain to me how you ran my generator on the hard without having a source of water for cooling."

He knew I had caught him in a lie so he mumbled something about being confused between my boat and another.

So around 4:30 when it was definite that they didn't have a clue what was wrong with the genset I told Brian to get my bill ready, that we were taking off. Joe and I took a 30 minute sea trial to make sure the transmission worked (it did). They did prepare my bill, I paid him and we pulled out.

So, here's a warning to boaters in the Portland, OR area. DO NOT take your boat to Multnomah Yacht Repair. If you do, don't expect it to be done on time and don't expect the repairs to be completed if you have more than one job for them to do.

We lost a whole summer waiting for them to get Beachcomber done and I'm pi$$ed off about that.

Antonyms for kudos

condemnation
denunciation
dishonor
disregard
disrespect
ill repute
lowliness
unimportance
blame
criticism

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright [emoji767] 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

That's a bummer, man. I had a similar experience when I first bought Wayfarer. I tried to bring her home, and within sight of the marina, my port engine overheated spectacularly. I took her back, and the jerks ended up keeping her for almost two months without even making an attempt at getting anything done. I had to make the two hour drive down there and stay on the boat for a week, so that I could bother them several times a day and essentially shame them into fixing things. My first summer season was pretty short. I was also pissed off.

I hope the bill was at a great discount.......

Boat yard time

Over 45 years of owning a variety of sail and power boats, the one constant I've found is that no matter how much time you give a boatyard to finish it's work, the work is never fully completed in that time frame. And, only if you're lucky, what they did do was done right. And of course the estimate was way too low. The only solution is to adjust your expectations.

Had a similar experience in the Vallejo Boat Works a couple of years ago when they didn't even touch the boat for 35 straight days! I was pissed!

The best term I can come up with that is the opposite of 'Kudos' is 'Shame!' Shame on them for dropping the ball! Shame on them for losing our future business.

Some yards just don't seem to care. They know they have the boat and you'll pay the bill to get the boat out of the yard. They have no incentive to exceed their very low expectations.

The opposite of Kudos is “write a review and spread the word”. Actually, that’s both a synonym and an antonym. Write reviews and spread the work. I’m so sick of this crap.

Left the boat at Indian Town last summer, asked them to put a new shaft flange on. 5 months to get an estimate when they'd originally told me they could do the job in a few weeks. Their estimate was $12,000. I did it myself in 2 days (access as a bitch) spending only $120 for the part. This kind of nonsense appears endemic in the marine business.
When you find one of the rare good guys, hang on to him.

We've been trying to get canvas work done since June. None of the five outfits we've called have shown up yet altho' they said they would.

All of these experiences and my own as well tell a story.

There are too few boatyards for the amount of work out there in the summer time boating season. In the winter these same boatyards starve I think.
Boatyards also want to delay because they (at least the ones here) charge you a daily storage, and dunnage rental fee while you are waiting for them to get around to doing the work.

I will share a story that worked for me.

I picked up a severe vibration that was isolated to the transmission on a previous boat. The boat was a vee drive and you needed to pull the engine to change the tranny, something I am not tooled up to do. It was late April, and the season was just ramping up. I bought a new tranny and had it sitting next to the boat on the hard.

I asked the boat yard owner how long to change out the tranny, and he told me that there was a long line and he might be able to get to it in June. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wad of cash, and started counting hundreds. I held out $500 and asked him to re-look at his schedule. He looked me in the eye, took the $500 and said that I just made it to the front of the line. I was back in the water 3 days later.

Next story/lesson is to never give a boatyard a date long in the future. They will sit on your boat renting you dunnage and storage space and get after your boat a week before your “due date”

Last bottom paint I had done was in late march, before the season got going. The boat yard owner asked when I need the boat back. I asked him when could he get started. He said today (remember boat yards starve in the winter). I told him I wanted the boat back in 1 week. He asked why one week and I lied telling him I had a spring trip planned. We pulled the boat that day and I was back in the water in a week.

Yelp, Google reviews, posting in boating forums...this is the new way of anti-kudos.

You won't get the lost time back, but you may well help others avoid the same misfortune that you suffered.

Likewise, kudos for great work are extremely important. We (the public) rely upon such reviews to find good places to work with.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry you had it go that way for you!

Opprobrium. Harsh criticism; public disgrace arising from someone’s shameful conduct.

I was involved with many projects in the boatyard that used to be next door. Good friends with owner and manager. Had between 6 and 10 techs.

Scheduling work was a nightmare. Long time established customers would have an unexpected failure a few days before a tournament, gotta fix him up now. Some other job blossomed in scope once they dug into it. Ace tech "Johnny" quits. Big parts order comes in with 5% missing. Travelift blows an engine. Boomtruck blows a hydraulic hose you can't get too. Etc, Etc.

Transient guys generally had to get in line behind the long time customers.

Can't really hire for all the needs in peak season, as work gets super slow in the winter.

So don't beat up the yards too much. It is a very tough business.

The owner of the yard next door finally had it and sold out to developers. Now I have McMansions next door. He moved to the NC mountains and bought a little skiff for the lakes.

Rather sad to hear so many negative stories re maintenance in the US. Pleased to be able to say that most Australian boatyard operations appear to be pretty on the ball, and do get things done. My personal experience at my marina is excellent and speedy attention to anything needed. Once or twice I even found myself wishing they did take a bit longer to give me more time to come up with the where-with-all to pay for it.

Not impressed with many USA boatyards and their work.

Just as not impressed with how little most USA boatowners understand that working on a boat is not always a piece of cake nor understanding running a yard at a profit in many cases is black magic.

Not pointing any fingers in particular...just basic thoughts on the boating world in the USA (East Coast mostly).

FUdos??

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

I hope the bill was at a great discount.......

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Tom, The insurance paid for the trans repair less my deductible and less a 17.5% charge due to the age of the boat. What they paid included the haulout, pressure wash, tuning the props and straightening the shafts.

I had them bottom paint it while it was out.

The sad part of the big picture is there is nowhere up in our neck of the woods (river???) that I can get that work done. There's a HUGE crane company that can haul out but nobody around to fix the trans.

Columbia Marine Center, the place that normally takes care of my boat is going to fix the genset while we're down in AZ.

At work we used “one over _________ “ or the reciprocal.

Youngsters today are using the word "shade" (as in "throwing some shade on these folks") in these cases, though that may be too mild for your particular need.

Mike,
Over a burger and a cold one (thanks again) after you and Jim got her tied up at CRYC I recall asking you if you would use “them” again. Obviously you had plenty of time to fume over the shoddy service on your trip home. I’m really sorry for your boat problems this year and even more for the terrible service.
The good part is you got her home, just in time for the winter.
Now, let’s get her ready for the trip up north next year.

Cheers!

I will say that in our location we do have a choice of many excellent yards and some of those are very dependable on scheduling. We use one yard for all work and they are consistently excellent. They seem to most to be expensive but if one values time and frustration, I think not.

So, I guess the question is how do you get good service, how do you get your schedules met. Obviously, good choice of yard is first object, but I think our key is we always have someone there either daily or quite regularly. Many in our area use yacht management companies and I'd say they consistently get better service both because of follow up and because of the amount of business they bring. So, I'm afraid we have the "Squeaky Wheel" Syndrome.

First I'd never schedule over an extended time period. I want a start work and finish work time. Perhaps, "call me when you start." I've found that given more time, they are less likely to meet expectations. It seems they think "no hurry" and do that all the way to the end. We schedule work and agree we'll bring it on Sunday and pick it up on Friday. Or bring it on the 1st and pick it up on the 12th.

Second, then, if I couldn't be there that period, I'd strongly consider any possible person I could have be there. Most are going to service those present and dismiss those not present it seems. It seems insane that you might need to hire someone to make sure the people you hired to do the job do it. Perhaps not needed where you have a relationship, but other times seems to be.

I read things like this thread and it really angers me. I can't imagine having to put up with some of these things, yet know many do and know that the OP is organized and fair and communicates but can't be there and then gets treatment like shown here.

There are pockets of good marine services up and down the east coast.

Then there are places with one or two good yards for miles and miles.

Plus, as I said...the vast majority of boaters don't even know boat terminology let alone anything about the boat and it systems...so they overwhelm an industry ripe with undertrained technicians and keep the cycle of poor service spinning.

psneeld said:

Plus, as I said...the vast majority of boaters don't even know boat terminology let alone anything about the boat and it systems...so they overwhelm an industry ripe with undertrained technicians and keep the cycle of poor service spinning.

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And too many shop on the basis of price and don't get experts in the areas they need.

No easy answers here. So many want good service, but then ask the yard to cut here, cut there and complain when their neglected engines can’t be fixed cheaply. I’ve so often had to tell yards how much I didn’t want to cut corner, wanted the better part, etc.. often yards are capable of better work than they are trained by customers to default to.

Few though are good at planning, in any industry where each job is different.

One thing is for sure, I’ll do anything I can to not have a laundry list of work anywhere from May through September. If your expectation is to get good service during the time when everyone else wants their broken things fixed, think again. Only way I know how to do that is to put systems on a maintenance plan and service them before they break. It’s an ideal at least.

Just splashed the boat after a month in the yard. I did about 50% of the projects, but needed help on others and some that I physically can't do anymore. I have a great relationship with the marina and Sean who did the Fiberglass and paint work during my refit. That said, the economy is much better and people are having lots of work done in the boatyard. Unfortunately, people with skills who want to work are employed. What's available is unskilled or lazy. So yard labor is stretched thin. The 2 week plan stretched into a month. The nasty project was switching from ablative bottom paint to hard. This involved sanding the ablative off without messing up the barrier coat. The sanding and 2 coats of bottom paint took the better part of 5 days. While it's unlikely I would have gone with another yard, I did get prices in FL and the Chesapeake region. It's been suggested that going to an excessively expensive yard gets the job done on time without the delays. For same work same paint, estimates ranged from 180 to 300% of what this cost me. Maybe I'm cheap, but I'm just not going to spend 3 times the money for the same work because the yard gets it done 2 weeks faster. So, I plan my time in the yard with a significant margin to allow for the extra time. I get quality work, access to their shops for my projects and a very fair price. Welcome to a better economy and a shortage of skilled labor that wants to work.

Ted

Peter B said:

Rather sad to hear so many negative stories re maintenance in the US. Pleased to be able to say that most Australian boatyard operations appear to be pretty on the ball, and do get things done. My personal experience at my marina is excellent and speedy attention to anything needed. Once or twice I even found myself wishing they did take a bit longer to give me more time to come up with the where-with-all to pay for it.

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But you guys are so far away

ghost said:

One thing is for sure, I’ll do anything I can to not have a laundry list of work anywhere from May through September.

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Oh, our marina gives discounts on service in those months.

One thing I've found is that if you'll schedule as much work as possible in off-season, then when you do need something during peak season, you will get priority.

Curses!

GFC said:

The sad part of the big picture is there is nowhere up in our neck of the woods (river???) that I can get that work done. There's a HUGE crane company that can haul out but nobody around to fix the trans.

Columbia Marine Center, the place that normally takes care of my boat is going to fix the genset while we're down in AZ.

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I am 40 miles north of Portland and it is still hard to find a good tech that is willing to make the 40 minute drive north. Where is Columbia Marine Center?

Columbia Marine Center is across the river and about 1/2 mile downstream from my marina. The owner takes care of my boat (he couldn't do the transmission because the boat had to come out of the water). I went in to see him and explained the situation with the genset. We're leaving for AZ tomorrow so he's going to get my boat and take it to his marina where he has the equipment, tools and personnel to pull the genset out of the boat to repair it.


He's also the only guy I would trust to move my boat without me at the helm.


To give you an idea of what a great guy he is, two winters ago we had a hellish winter. I had told him where my deicer pump would be in case he needed to install it while we were down in AZ. He called me one frigid morning in February and told me they were headed to my boat to put it in.


About 2.5 hours later he had it in the water but it kept tripping my 50A 120VAC breaker because of all the heaters I had running in the boat. We brainstormed for a few minutes when he came up with the idea of plugging my deicer into the pedestal of the boat next door because that guy's boat wasn't hooked to power. Jim also takes care of that boat, knows the owner well and said he wouldn't mind.


After about 4-5 hours total time for two of them to be down on the docks in freezing weather he called to say they'd gotten it working and the ice was clearing out of the slip.


Here's the kicker. When I got back from AZ and went in to settle up with him he wouldn't take any money for that day. He said it was nice because it gave him and his worker a nice break from being in the shop.


I got them a dinner certificate to a good steak house and we had them out for dinner on the 4th of July on the boat.


I don't expect that kind of service from anyone, but it is nice to know there are still people like that in the world.

Boat yard

Happy to provide a referral. PM me if you'd like to chat about my experience. I'm in Portland and am on the Channel.