toocoys
Guru
My father is the kind of guy who always fixed everything. Walls, appliances, cars, lawn mowers - if it broke, he fixed it. I definitely got his desire to fix it myself, but I definitely did not get his know how. I was way more artsy than mechanical growing up.
On my first boat, the 1967 Chris Craft 31', I lost my reverse gear when I took it off the transporters trailer. After doing my due diligence, I printed out instructions for the transmission, and decided to call a mechanic. I was scared to break something. When the mechanic got there he stated, and I quote, "I've never seen one of these." Could've been lack of experience, but it was probably moreso that he was twenty something. But I read him the instructions that I had printed out, and then paid him $190 for an hours worth of labor and trip charge. The only thing he literally did was turn a wrench a few times.
More recently, like last week, our stuffing joints needed to be repacked. The thought of water coming into the boat was a bit too scary, so I called another mechanic. After receiving the invoice for $294, I went over to youtube and found that I probably could have done the job for the cost of materials.
I have two problems. The first is that I am paranoid of sinking the boat, so anything that deals with something that can potentially create a leak I cannot control, scares the living $h!+ out of me. The second problem, is that I often bite off more than I can chew, or know how to digest, and it ends up costing us twice the amount it needs to. Like last years A/C replacement that should have been a plug and play deal, but ended up being a three month fiasco with Flagship, and then the purchase of a new Dometic unit.
I'm very envious of these boaters who can start a project, drag it out over three days time, and contemplate every step they need to make to accomplish the job. I have quite a lot of free time for projects, since I only work 14 days a month, however I don't have a lot of judgment skills.
How mechanically inclined were you when you first started boating? If you weren't that mechanically inclined, how did you develop the mindset needed to accomplish projects - especially without buying materials two or three times and redoing things? And most importantly, how do you know when it's time to call in a professional?
On my first boat, the 1967 Chris Craft 31', I lost my reverse gear when I took it off the transporters trailer. After doing my due diligence, I printed out instructions for the transmission, and decided to call a mechanic. I was scared to break something. When the mechanic got there he stated, and I quote, "I've never seen one of these." Could've been lack of experience, but it was probably moreso that he was twenty something. But I read him the instructions that I had printed out, and then paid him $190 for an hours worth of labor and trip charge. The only thing he literally did was turn a wrench a few times.
More recently, like last week, our stuffing joints needed to be repacked. The thought of water coming into the boat was a bit too scary, so I called another mechanic. After receiving the invoice for $294, I went over to youtube and found that I probably could have done the job for the cost of materials.
I have two problems. The first is that I am paranoid of sinking the boat, so anything that deals with something that can potentially create a leak I cannot control, scares the living $h!+ out of me. The second problem, is that I often bite off more than I can chew, or know how to digest, and it ends up costing us twice the amount it needs to. Like last years A/C replacement that should have been a plug and play deal, but ended up being a three month fiasco with Flagship, and then the purchase of a new Dometic unit.
I'm very envious of these boaters who can start a project, drag it out over three days time, and contemplate every step they need to make to accomplish the job. I have quite a lot of free time for projects, since I only work 14 days a month, however I don't have a lot of judgment skills.
How mechanically inclined were you when you first started boating? If you weren't that mechanically inclined, how did you develop the mindset needed to accomplish projects - especially without buying materials two or three times and redoing things? And most importantly, how do you know when it's time to call in a professional?