How do I Get Out of the Yard ?

[IdoraKeeper]

Well, now Idora is up in the yard and has 2/3 of a paint job. Work has unaccountably stopped. More boats have shown up and you would think they would like to get me out of the way. But NOOOO.....now she sits there waiting to be finished. Catch22, can't get scheduled for the travel lift till she is done and ready and can't get finished cause there is no deadline.

Any have some wisdom regarding how to get hourly workers to finish a Job? It's kind of menacing in a way..she is wood and needs to be back in the water.

Todd

[imagine2frolic]

That sounds completely unreasonable. What does the yard have to say about why it is happening? I hate to type this, but if the yard is BSing you. It's time for a call from a lawyer.

When I had problems with a business partner a wise sage advised me if you want something from someone. You need to advise them how they will profit from doing what you want. Without mentioning your own needs. BEST WISHES on resolving the problem........i2f

[IdoraKeeper]

I think that the problem is that they profit more in the end if they do nothing now. The weather has been a factor but not enough to really stop the job. Heck, if she is up there long enough she will have to be re-caulked before she goes back in. My Dads' boat literally took on so much water in the lift that they had to get 3 fire pumps to lighten her enough to pull her back out and fix the dammage caused by the delay. Considerable unnecessary expense.

Todd

[imagine2frolic]

Maybe advise them how THEY can avoid that expense?.......i2f

[boatman61]

Standard struggling B/yard ploy... say it'll be done then get halfway and stop... your going no where and your likely paying ground rent.....
get some more boats in and do the same... when the yards full go back to the 1st one...
Boss is happy.. a yard full of stranded cash..

[IdoraKeeper]

Thankyou boatman. Full yard equals a sense of security i guess. Heading up there now to see if anything is happening.

[sarafina]

start wetting her down? every evening? every morning? Keep the bilge a bit damp?

Get a paint brush out and get going yourself? Make a pest of yourself so they WANT you OUTTA there....

sometimes its allabout being the squeeky wheel...

[David M]

Have you sat down with the owner of the yard and discussed this? If and when you do, do it in a non-threatening manner.

[smurphny]

Boatman has got it right. They may not even be doing it consciously but are trying to make as much money as they can as quickly as possible. Building contractors do the same thing, trying to stay above water before going belly-up: cash first, work later. The squeaky wheel principle works. Sometimes you have to be more than squeaky, turning into a roaring maniac to communicate with some folks.

[minaret]

Many people staple burlap sacking to their hull below the water line and wet it down at least twice daily. The burlap stays wet and keeps the bottom hydrated. Another old trick for woodies going in the water is to attach a big old coffee can or similar punched full of holes to the end of a long stick. When they put the boat in the water and she starts sinking on ya, you fill the can with sawdust, the finer the better, and shove it in the water down around the turn of the bilge. The sawdust will float up along the hull and get sucked into any seams that are taking on water and then swell up. This works really well, Ive seen a boat go from 3 gas pumps to the onboard bilge pump in 10 minutes like this.
As far as getting the yard to move it along, all I can say is the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Call several times daily until you're such a PITA they just want you to go away. Hassle the boss endlessly while treating the workers nice, it's the way to go.

[Adelie]

Tell them you will seek damages if the splash is delayed so long you have to take extra measures to keep the boat afloat. Next time put a delay penalty in the contract that they have to cover pumping costs past a certain date.

Park your car outside the Yard, mount a pole with a camera and start recording. Tell them it will be evidence of stalling if you do seek damages. It's questionable whether it really would be admissible in court, but they wouldn't know that. And even if they don't think it so, it will prod them along, because you will be recording any mishaps with other people's boats and as a disinterested party it would be more admissible. Just a thought.

[zeehag]

water is all good=-- but it needs to be salted.....

[hummingway]

If you can or you have someone else who can I would think Sarafina's suggestion of getting on it yourself, or at least politely explaining that you are going to have to since your boat needs to get back in the water.

[smallyachts]

I would be hesitant in making too much noise or being too big of a PITA.

In several dealings with yard owners and managers I have found the vast majority to be pretty easy to deal with up until someone starts being a nuisance.

They have you over a barrel. If you are paying a daily fee for the yard I have seen them go from very friendly to downright becoming aholes, the longer the boat stays the more they make, the more noise you make they start considering the daily fee your cost for being a PITA.

And I have seen an instance where the owner suddenly found his unfinished boat in the travel lift, bungs pounded into the thru-hulls and being dropped back into the water. This was after the owner of the boat threatened to sue the yard for not finishing a job.

Not sure how the lawsuit came out, if it ever did, but I do know that the boat sat chained to a dock in the water at the boatyard for a couple of months without benefit of a finished bottom before it was finally brought back into the yard and finished.

Find out what the yard managers or owners favorite drink/food/or other vices. In one instance a case of scotch to the yard manager suddenly moved a boat from the end of the line with no one finishing the job, to a boat that was out of the yard in a matter of a couple of days.

Just make sure you are dealing with the yard manager or owner and not one of the workers.

The bottom line is to carefully read the agreement that you signed to have the boat hauled and blocked and any work to be done. If you are having the yard do the work make sure you have a anticipated/scheduled completion date that the yard signs off on. Then depending on the location/state/country you have a signed doc that most yards will do their best to adhere to. If at all possible you should also stipulate in writing (that the yard signs/initials) that you are only paying for lay days where work is being done on the boat, no work, no charge for that day.

There used to be a couple of yards in this area that were notorious for these types of shenanigans, happily they are no more, sadly they were replaced with dockominiums and condos.

[smurphny]

Having owned many old wood boats, if it's going to be more than a week or two, don't saturate the boat with fresh water as Zee mentioned above. Rot gets in old wood pretty quickly. The sawdust idea works BUT leaves sawdust in the seams which will dislodge and cause leaks later. It's good to do to isolated spots (with a cupful on a stick) that you'd be recaulking soon and to identify where leaks are coming from but you don't want to get sawdust in all your seams.