Another bottom paint question

I was scheduled to have Stella hauled in a couple weeks and bottom painted at a local yard. I’ve painted other boats in the past and have no desire to do this one. (Plenty of wood and paint work coming up above the waterline.)

I’ve recently been reading about Pettit Ultima SR60 and was able to get a good price at Jamestown. When I told the yard I wanted to switch from the Sea Hawk they originally quoted, they said they don’t allow customers to supply the paint in case there’s a warranty claim.

Fair enough, I said, you can buy the Ultima from Jamestown at the same price I can get it. They came back with: we only buy from our distributor, we need to make at least 20% on the cost of paint and our price is $100+ more per gallon than the price Jamestown quoted. (They quoted five gallons in the estimate.)

Now, I have no problem spending money on our boat, as my wife will gladly attest. But 500+ extra bucks on paint is money I can direct to many other projects. I’ve cancelled this job and am currently looking for other yards on the upper TN river.

So, is this standard practice? Any thoughts on how I can make this not seem like a total waste of money?

Well they want to make so much on a given job so they mark up the paint price and then keep the labor price down. If they sell the paint for less then the labor would just go up.

Pretty normal. Smaller yards will sometimeslet you do that, but most yards not. They are not out to benefit you, but rather themselves. They are a business and adjust their pricing accordingly. Thats why they are still in business.

Comodave said:

Well they want to make so much on a given job so they mark up the paint price and then keep the labor price down. If they sell the paint for less then the labor would just go up.

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The labor price hasn’t changed. The only additional cost is for the more expensive paint, which they insist on buying at a much higher cost than is readily available to any and everyone else.

But that is how they are making money. You can either pay a higher price for the paint or pay more for the labor. Either way they want to make X dollars on the job and it has to come from somewhere. Or find another yard or DIY. Personally I like doing it myself. That way I can control the quality of the job and also the price.

Interesting. I once supplied the Jotun Seaguardian paint I already had, and the Yard, which had an all inclusive price per foot for antifouling (lift, cleaning, 2 coats of paint etc,with extra for excess shell fouling etc) gave me a very fair credit for the Altex 5 paint included in their set charge per foot.

Comodave said:

But that is how they are making money. You can either pay a higher price for the paint or pay more for the labor. Either way they want to make X dollars on the job and it has to come from somewhere. Or find another yard or DIY. Personally I like doing it myself. That way I can control the quality of the job and also the price.

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They were making money with their original quote, which included Sea Hawk paint. They did not increase their labor fee. I would even be OK paying them a 20% markup on the Pettit, if they bought it from Jamestown, but not a $100 per gallon increase because they choose not to buy it at a discount.

The distributor might charge more for the paint because he provides some warranty. Jamestown provides no warranty, they pass the claim to the paint manufacturer who;s response will be you failed to apply it correctly.

Just as a curiosity, what was the labor cost for the job?

The other part of the equation is that there is probably an additional incentive for them to push you toward the Sea Hawk paint. As a friend of the boatyard I use, I'm privy to some of the buying programs. There is a spring program (around Christmas) to lock my boatyard into paint commitments. It can include additional price incentives, receive now pay later, or free gallons with every so many purchased. If you want to buy, pay for it, and receive it in January, there are real deals to be had. Finally, the discount may be different from the manufacturer for different brands of paint. Lots of wheeling and dealing between manufacturers and distributors when it comes to product volumes and pricing.

Not trying to say the marina is gouging you, but they may have made a major effort to lower their operating costs (reduced paint cost) to maximize their profit. You were fine with the job price with the other paint, so they sound reasonable. So, changing paint requires them to increase the price to maintain the original profit as they may not get any deals on the paint you want.

Ted

O C Diver said:

Just as a curiosity, what was the labor cost for the job?

The other part of the equation is that there is probably an additional incentive for them to push you toward the Sea Hawk paint. As a friend of the boatyard I use, I'm privy to some of the buying programs. There is a spring program (around Christmas) to lock my boatyard into paint commitments. It can include additional price incentives, receive now pay later, or free gallons with every so many purchased. If you want to buy, pay for it, and receive it in January, there are real deals to be had. Finally, the discount may be different from the manufacturer for different brands of paint. Lots of wheeling and dealing between manufacturers and distributors when it comes to product volumes and pricing.

Not trying to say the marina is gouging you, but they may have made a major effort to lower their operating costs (reduced paint cost) to maximize their profit. You were fine with the job price with the other paint, so they sound reasonable. So, changing paint requires them to increase the price to maintain the original profit as they may not get any deals on the paint you want.

Ted

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Total labor is about $1800 plus haul out, so everything non-paint is about $2,200.

I may be totally off base with this—and your explanations are reasonable, Ted—but I was able to sub paint and pay for the true difference last time I painted. But that was at a larger yard that may have had more buying power. I’ll be talking to another yard next week and see if I get the same story.

It definitely varies between yards. Some take the attitude of "we'll do whatever is reasonable as long as you're paying us for it" and others are more fussy and stick to "we do X, Y, and Z. If it's not on the menu, it's either much more expensive or we won't do it"