Are all marina's crazy?

[irwinsailor]

Our marina ( I guess it is now our former marina ) sent a bill and if we paid it by March 1 we would receive a 5% discount. My wife sent a check for what they wanted and it was less than what we paid last year. Kewl! Anyway they called and said that we owed more. My wife said I sent what you asked for whats the problem. It is not enough they said. Who's falt is that ?she said Your's they said. How? Our rates are in the office. My wife said why didn 't you send that rate? Because you needed to get the rate sheet from the office. WHY? You should have sent the correct rate. Send more money or we are sending your check back and giving your slip to someone else. I received our check. DUMB! This marina is no more than 50% full. We are the largest boat there and we pay in full in advance. I just do not understand this place. Oh well we will keep the boat out langer and do more work before we head south.

[Skylark]

Hi I-Sailor, are you still in the same marina?

I was very glad to escape without any damage to my boat!

It was actually an interesting place. A new drama every day it seems.

[irwinsailor]

The boat is there. It is on Dan's side. They are the dumbist bunch I have ever seen. They now have one more slip for someone! So that should be 71 slips for rent of the 140 they have.

[alexleclainche]

I know where you are coming from! Our last marina, not by choice, was terrible! We were stuck there needing repairs and the rates were ridiculous for what the marina had to offer. It was a thousand dollars a month for our 37 foot boat that was located in a dump. We were limited on the work we were allowed to do in the yard. You were forced to use their crew for contracted work, and if they didn't have someone for the job and you needed an outside worker, 10% was added to the bill. We had a new mast stepped and all new rigging work done and they tried to convince our workers to charge us a 10% yard fee for being outside workers. They said EF YOU! We were out as soon as possible! So much bull, what a nitemare!

[alexleclainche]

Oh, and I forgot, they were half empty to!

[rebel heart]

So far, a lot of people I've done business with in the maritime world seem to be a few beers short of a six pack. Shotty workmanship, bad accounting, and poor service seem to be the name of the game. I'm blessed with a very professional marina, although we pay out the nose for it.

[Troutbridge]

Same all over the world.

[never monday]

I have several marinas that try to charge me an entrance fee or a percentage of my bill.
I don't work there. It's a shame this is the prevailing attitude. They seem to forget that boat money, for most people is play money. We (the marina and I) earn it at the customers will and good grace.

[Seadogg]

Jeeze, Gunner, that's a drag. Guess they're just so rich they don't need any more money!!

So, you guys are getting ready to head south? Sweet!

Hope we can get together before you leave.

Nick

[Vasco]

It's too bad you don't have a club you can join in your area. Yacht clubs, especially a self help club like the one I belong to is the better way to go. The members do most of the work themselves from building docks to upkeep of the clubhouse. This is all on a voluntary basis. When I started sailing I joined a club because I figured I would sail at least five years and if I amortized the initiation fee over five years it would end up cheaper than a marina. Twenty five years later I'm still there and it's much cheaper than a marina. Also being in a club, there is an element of camaraderie that you will not find in a marina not to mention all the help and advice you get as a novice from the "old timers". If you've got a problem there's usually someone who's had that problem and fixed it. I don't know what happened but it seems I've gone from a "new member" to an "old timer" or "old member" in what seems a blink of the eye. Time really flies when you're having fun.

[schoonerdog]

Perhaps this board should have a database of marinas and peoples experiences with them, allow the good marinas to get credit and the bad marinas to go out of business and become then good marinas.

[44'cruisingcat]

They're not all crazy. The one at Abel point (Whitsundays) is stupid.

[defjef]

There is no shortage of greedy assholitos in the marine industry.

I hate marinas and stay out of them only setting foot on their docks for fuel and water.

jef
sv shiva

[David M]

Boats, ships and the maritime environment in general seem to attract some of the strangest and flakiest people...and I don't mean anyone in here. I think most in here would agree that if the same personalities were attracted to aviation, we would have planes falling out of the sky all the time.

[Amgine]

I think some of us willingly identify ourselves as more than a bit flakey. (I expect those who fly would be just as willing but I don't know.)

I agree with the comment that we should talk about marinas which are good, or bad, and help those which excel to continue in business. And there is a place here to do that; this message is in it. Maybe at some point, if we all talk about our favourite and least favoured places, it would be worth moving the discussions into a wiki or other database.