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I am having a very serious problem with my marina and would like to know if anyone can offer advice on how to deal with the situation.
My boat, Mako 248, is located in a marina in the Long Island Sound (Western). It is a Yacht Club. For TODAY, I will leave the name of the marina out of the post. In any event, I lost my job due to a purchase of the company I was working for back in January. I made a decision at that time to make plans to move the boat elsewhere and dry rack it for the summer...Lift-in Lift out which will cost me half the price of my slip. Being the good guy I am I decided to let my current marina know so they could rent my slip to someone else and not get hosed. I could have said yeah I am staying and had them launch the boat and take off without giving them notice. I did the right thing and told my current marina the situation and they said they would have my boat ready to launch on April 15th. It is now May 12th and the same idiots I have been dealing wih at this place keep putting me off and refuse to give me a hard date on when the boat will be ready. I basically only need my two outboards tuned up so I can cruise up to the new marina. Every week it is the same story. You should also note that my Mako stayed in the water for the entire winter and was not even shrink wrapped until mid-January. With that said, I should have been one of the first to be launched this Spring with no excuses. They are hauling boats in that were land stored every damn day. Lord knows the problems I might have from them not wrapping the boat up earlier.
At this point I want to get it the hell out of there. I decided to head down Thursday night and see If the motors will fire up and plan to leave on Saturday. I am wondering If that could cause me a headache further down the road since the motors will not have been tuned or if I have any legal rights in this situation. Unfortunately I am new at boating and do not know how to do this myself. I repeat, these guys will not give me a date as to when the boat is ready and I think they are sore only because I am leaving the marina. My last action is to call the owner of the marina tomorrow because I can not believe this is how he would run a business.I appreciate any feedback.
I was going to write something about procrastination but decided it would be better I do it next week.
one thing I learned about Marine Mechanics is that they are going to follow the Money when they can get it. You are not coming back and I guess this is probably part of the package, why dont you tune it up yourself? or if it was just wrapped then get is started, run it to the other marina and pay them to do it.
you may procrastinate and get them to do it but if you look at the cost of lost time it may not be worth it
If the motors were properly winterized, the lower unit oil was changed and they were fogged. If they ran at the end of last year, there should be no reason why they won't run now. They will probably smoke a bit while burning off the fogging oil and that is why they should be run PRIOR to any "tuning" . Run the boat to clean out the fogging oil, change the plugs and filters and you should be all set. If the lower unit oil was not done in the fall, do it now.
If I were you, I too would take my business elsewhere. That being said, make sure to look at the rules and/or regulations of your current marina. I am a dock master of a public facility and we have no control over people leaving us to go elsewhere. BUT - I know of private marinas that, "once you sign a contract into them, they have the rights to do all the work on your boat AND until your contract is up, they can actually sue you for allowing someone else to work on your boat." It would be stated in the information you received after signing your lease. Now to everyone reading this, I know it sounds extreme, but I had a friend last year that was threatened with a suit after he had some warranty work done on his boat from the dealer he purchased it from!
If you are not bound by a contract, I would leave before they got the chance to work on the boat. You don’t want them to start "finding" all kinds of things wrong with your boat and motors!
If they ran fine at the end of last season and your paid in full it's real simple,
1.Go down to the marina.
2.Get in your boat.
3.Start it up and leave.
When you get to the new facility check to the see that the lower unit oil was changed and install new filters and plugs.
Dave
I am amazed on a daily basis how hard it is to get service from an idividual or marina when they make their living by "providing" service! It is not only the marine industry, it is everywhere! I have a hard time trying to "give" people money! I am a "purchasing" agent for an export company and it is amazing how hard it is to buy from some people. Getting service is another issue and it is worse!
Having to make two or more phone calls to get a response to do work on your boat, car or whatever, is UNACCEPTABLE , but common, every day practice!
In my opinion, the problem with marinas is they are making so much money, they know if you leave, someone will take your place!
I would not let them service this boat, and I would get the boat out of that marina NOW! If you are concerned about moving the boat on the water, have someone put the boat on a trailer for you, and truck it to the new marina where the engines can be serviced properly. It is sad that some marinas act in this fashion. Most of the time you WILL NOT run into this issue. Most marinas are VERY professional. Lots of luck with this issue. Please keep us informed. -----Greg
Your waiting for a tune up? If it was winterized it doesn't need any work. Just drive it to your new slip, change the plugs and fuel filter. Tune Up is just a marina's way to sucker more money out of you.
Goind down tomorrow night to fire the engines up. All goes well I am taking off on Saturday to the new place. Will get the plugs, lube and filters there. I will let you know how it goes.
THANKS TO ALL FOR THE ADVICE.
I was going to write something about procrastination but decided it would be better I do it next week.
to simo...I am not an attorney but how can anyone force you to use there repair service? does that mean that you cant work on your own boat? If warranty service was done and a law suit was filed, i think I could defend that in court[Previous legal contract with manuf.}If they force you to use them then they had better be good or they had better have a on staff lawyer.
RickO, I would tell the ownership exactly why you are leaving and see what their reaction is! They should not be allowed to treat people badly without anyone telling them so. I do believe in the "don't burn any bridges" philosophy and it might make you feel better telling them exactly how you feel. Then if they get shi**y, tell them to jam it up their A&&! Management needs to know what is going on as he or they may not be aware of the situation. I have experience with a few of these marinas and most of them don't care as they are making way too much money and they know someone is probably waiting for an opening so they can bring their boat there.
Sorry to hear of your negaive experience, IF they did winterize the engines then you should be OK.
Was the fuel treated? Start the engine and slowly go where you are going. When you reach your destination you should change the spark plugs with new ones. If the engine was fogged the old ones may be fouled. Check your filters (water separator, fuel, etc.)
Take the boat to the new place, you did the right thing and they thumbed their nose at you all winter so you owe them nothing.
Don't reveal the marina and don't reveal where you are going. Just get the hell out of there.
This happened to me the first year I had my boat.
Their not true to their word only your $$.
Sorry you lost you job, been there a couple of times, ain't fun.
Good luck
you say the marins is in the western sound,north shore or south shore .which harbor hempstead or manhasset or on city island or conn. side.i dock in hempstead harbor,i'd be curious as to where there is a rack service.sorry about your job but sometimes when one door closes another one opens.best of luck in finding other employment
never eneough, Some (not all) marinas have in their contracts that they are the only ones that can do repairs on the premises. The boat owner is certainly free do do his own repairs elsewhere though.
not trying to beat a dead horse...I would have a hard time allowing a marina to tell me not to work on my own boat or having warranty work done. I can see not allowing a competitor to come there to do work{on a regular basis}.How could they not allow warranty work to be done on a large non trailerable boat?I guess this must be a northern thing,I cant see the good old boys from the south putting up with this attitude. A good question is if you reht space for storing,and\\or dockage of your boat,do you not have the right to use that space for the use and maintaince of your boat?
It must be a northern thing then. Marinas up here will rent you a slip with their contract terms. Those terms are not negotiable. The boat owner is free to rent the slip under those terms, or not. Most marinas around here are pretty full.
The full service marinas tend to prevent outside repair work. On the other hand there are marinas without any service facilities at all. They tend to allow you to do anything you want to your boat. You could probably take a welding torch to your gas tank at one of these places. If she blows and takes all of the other boats with it, then that's the way she goes.
I am moving up to Norwalk CT. They have rack storage up there and very reasonable on the wallet. Fishing around the Norwalk Islands should also be good, lots of structure.
Best,
Rick
I was going to write something about procrastination but decided it would be better I do it next week.
Having a serious problem with my marina 
. Run the boat to clean out the fogging oil, change the plugs and filters and you should be all set. If the lower unit oil was not done in the fall, do it now.
, but common, every day practice! 
