Are all marinas like this?

Today is a happy and sad day. I quit my job as a yacht detailer and started back up with welcoming hands at my old job "auto mechanic". Now to the reason i quit. I was making more money detailing then as a mechanic but upon seeing and doing a few things i quit and planted my foot.

1. We used acid to wash hulls and anchors if they were rusty. Upon grabbing the acid i asked for gloves, and a mask for fumes. I was given a dust mask and typical latex gloves. This doesn't fly with me and made me very agitated.

2. The outdrives on a 38 ft formula were looking bad, i was told to sand and repaint. Instead of sand blasting or any other way they told me to do it by hand. Sucks, but not that big of a deal considering i was hourly. What really frothed my ass was when i was done sanding i was handed spray paint. I damn near walked out then. This is a 200,000 dollar boat. You dont spray paint the outdrives on a 200,000 dollar boat it needs marine grade paint in a gun for a nice even coat!!

3. We had a 33ft sea ray. It had been sitting out for awile and the marina owner wanted to fix it up, buff it, fix the leaking port window, shampoo the carpets, wipe the inside down and all other aspects of cleaning. Now the window had leaked awile so the carpet was black around the edges and nasty from people walking on it. I used pledge on all the wood, metal cleaner and wax on all stainless, and shampooed the carpets. I was even complimented by the mechanic's on how good it turned out. Later that week a cistomer wanted to look at it and upon walking in the boat said "if you replace the carpet ill but it". The service manager ripped me a new ******* saying "you know how much money and time it costs to replace carpet!" I handed him the keys to all the buildings and i walked away before i said or did something i regret.

I refuse to work for someone, when told that spray paint wont last in water the service manager said "i dont give a **** i just need to sell it". Or has me acid washing without proper equipment. The marina i worked for made a lot of money off selling boats. They sold Prestige, Cruisers, and a cpl others. He flew his airplane to france to talk to possible buyers. My question is are all Marinas this shady? My gf is a little upset bc im making less but has accepted the fact that i will not work for someone like that. I hope their not all like this because come spring ill have enough to buy a nice size boat and dont wanna deal with stuff like this.

Kudos to you for not relinquishing your standards. Different people have different ideas of what's acceptable. When those differences become too great from your standards you basically have two choices....relax your standards or find different employment.

You took the right path. Unfortunately the jerk you used to work for will find someone to replace you who will accept those lower standards.

Uh..was the marina in question located in the Miami area. Sure sounds like it.

Thanks for not compromising on you idea of fairness and quality. It ain't easy living a life with those principals, but life ain't worth living without 'em. I'm about to complete a repair on my Hummer that was quoted by the local GM dealer at over 2800 bucks. Total for me will be around $200 for parts and 2 hours labor. I told them I was a damn good mechanic and not to bullshit me. They did anyway.

No, I'm on the Illinois river about an hour south west of Chicago. My line is drawn in the sand so to speak. I will not do work that i know is not to my standards. Ill pitch a tent on my little two man bass boat before that.

My experience is not to compromise your standards on safety or quality. If my employer did I walked. I've never been unemployed long enough to qualify for state benefits either.

Quality is a recession proof trait.

Justin,
Sad but it's that way throughout the retail and service industry. Hope you're not working now at a car dealership. Most all are the same.

Too bad we live in a system that rewards cheating.

No, no dealerships for me. Are marinas like this everywhere?

Sounds like a good opportunity to start your own company....

No they are not, if I was still in the business I would be offering you a job!

(Justin-- Sent Private Message on your question.)

I'm glad you walked. Way back when I was turning wrenches on sailboats. An owner wanted an oil pressure guage installed along with keeping the light. This required two separate sending units put onto a long piece of pipe stock that had to be retreaded to metric since, at the time, standard was only available.

Hence to say that when the owner was motoring in Annapolis, the pipe broke off and the engine pumped itself dry.

Even though I told my boss that this would probably happen and I was not responsible, they elected to refuse my bonus that I had earned and I received 100% of the blame for the incident.

I packed my bags and walked.

So don't ever do anything that comprises your beliefs or judgement, it's not worth it.

3 kinds of marina's I've come across...top dollar fine yacht service ones that do almost everything right but few can afford them, the fish camps that provide services ...then a huge range of everything else in between....some can do engines others can't some can detail and others can't...etc...etc...etc

Good that you held your standards.

But not all marinas are like that, Some are, some are not. Just like all businesses.
Some are lousy, some are great. Lots in between.

In many cases the great ones most of us can't afford so it takes some asking around to find the good ones. Then rather than going to one place for all good you will have to search around and become somewhat knowledgeable about who is good at what.

Individual tradesmen are like that. Many are expert in their field and smart but if out of their field , then look out, they may not be so good.

Having spray painted many an outdrive with a spray can of Mercruiser Recommended paint following a good sanding, I don't see your problem in point 2.

No of course they're not all like that. You can choose to walk or attempt to change the environment and perhaps be given your bosses job one day. Sometimes it's better to stay and fight or at least attempt to persuade although I do not know if there was a reasonable chance of progress being made with these particular people.

And now for my own gratification I must say, that post had more grammatical errors and misspellings then any I have ever seen here on TF. I hope that was just exuberant venting and not the means normally employed to voice opinions or effect change.

Attempting to change an environment that has been the same for 30 years just is not going to happen. The owner simply does not care so long as money is coming in. The thought of working for a company set up like that makes me sick. Ill work for a smaller business that actually asks their employees how things are going. What we think needs changed and our customers always thank us for our service. The team we have is 3 relaxed guys who are always smiling and enjoying life. The customer sees this and knows, we know what were doing and it gets done faster then anyone else in town. The price of our labor is also cheaper. My grammar isn't the greatest. I was a know it all teenager who dropped out of high school. I got my G.E.D. Went to a local college and took a semester of general education classes along with massage therapy. I didn't finish it. I dont make the greatest money but im happy. I smile why i work, do a lot of others? Ive managed to save quite a bit of money for my first vessel in the spring. I honestly suck at grammer. I know it, others know it but they got the point.

Good night

Justin, don`t let yourself be upset by someone criticizing your grammar. You communicated your thoughts, that`s what really matters. This is a Forum, not a grammar lesson. And you stood up for what you believe is right and you kept your self respect.
There has to be another Marina with fair trading standards for when you decide to try detailing work again.

I believe i will not work for a marina again. Rather just when i buy in the spring using it to go Marina to Marina and get side work.

As for the grammar, im not upset by it. This is a forum not a formal grammatical school. Forums were intended to feed off each others information and knowledge. I have little knowledge of some stuff and is the reason im on here. Also why i ask a lot of questions and for the most part people answer back with sincerity.

Your grammar looks just fine to me now. It's a pet peeve of mine when it's over the top. Like I said if there is no hope then get out of there.

As long as you are happy where you are now,,,fine...

But if working around boats is your dream and you don't like how some of the businesses are run or even just part of the one you were with...I gotta say that's being short sighted.

I loved being a USCG helo pilot even though I didn't always agree with US Government or even USCG or my commanding officer's policies...but that doesn't mean that I could go look for another job with the same satisfaction...none out there in my mind. So not agreeing how things are done...and as Sunchaser pointed out...your idea of the way of doing things is neither the industry standard or the right way either.

So think long and hard about just "going back" to the way things were if you had a dream...we all have them and often when we get there the "streets aren't lined with gold" as we may have thought...but silver ain't so bad in the long run.

Here in Southern California a marina is a place to keep your boat and a boatyard is where you get work done. Is it different in other places?

ancora said:

Here in Southern California a marina is a place to keep your boat and a boatyard is where you get work done. Is it different in other places?

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yes

Unless you are the lead sled dog the view is always the same.

Justin use that little spell check thingy. ABC with a check mark.

My spelling is horrible.

I just spelled horrible wrong.

SD

Justin let it go on record that I also was put down for bad spelling and perhaps more. That was only once and some time ago and let the same happen to you.

skipperdude said:

Justin use that little spell check thingy. ABC with a check mark.

My spelling is horrible.

I just spelled horrible wrong.

SD

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Ha ha, my spelling is beyond horrendous but fortunately between Firefox's spell check, Office's spell check and the Dictionary.com bookmark on my toolbar it doesn't show very often.

Dictionary.com - Free Online English Dictionary

Occasionally I'll type something none of them can decipher so I have to resort to using the Thesaurus...

justinclay said:

As for the grammar, im not upset by it. This is a forum not a formal grammatical school. Forums were intended to feed off each others information and knowledge. I have little knowledge of some stuff and is the reason im on here. Also why i ask a lot of questions and for the most part people answer back with sincerity.

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Justin, I think it took a lot of courage to do what you did. 9/29/13 made 16 years of my feeding myself and being in business. One if my biggest complaints was the lack of integrity in my field by the dealerships I worked for. I felt back then that I could be honesty and still make a living- and I have. If you choose to start out on your own I encourage you to embrace the idea that "I'm not the cheapest guy around, but I am the best choice". Ultimately the customer base you build will understand that he will always get your best. And you will always tell him the truth. Not every customer thinks this way, but a lot do. Good luck!!

ancora said:

Here in Southern California a marina is a place to keep your boat and a boatyard is where you get work done. ...

Click to expand...

Same here.