Sunshade Replacement

[capngeo]

Just visited the local loft today with my Genoa; the sunshade needs replacement. Got quoted $460 + $150 to remove the old one. I'm sure he'll find other odds and ends to "fix" and add in another hundred. What do you guys think about that price?

FWIW, I approved the cost already, as I didn't have time to shop around... just wanted to know if they were in line with other lofts.

[Island Time O25]

Don't know the cost at other lofts but I do know for sure that most lofts pay $12-15/hr to their hired help and loft owners/managers very rarely work on small jobs such as yours themselves. And I was told by one such former worker that the best deal would be to hire one of them on a side and get it done at a fraction of the cost as most of them have their own sewing machines anyway.

A few years back while visiting a liveaboard friend in FL I was present when one such moonlighting guy was measuring up my friend's enclosure which he ended up doing for $1,000+materials instead of the loft's estimate of $3,000-$4,000+materials. And materials were at cost, directly from Bainbridge, which also saved my buddy a bundle. In 5-6 years the enclosure needed just 2 little fixes and is still fine, other than the usual age related wear and tear.

[JPA Cate]

Most of our friend un-pick the old uv cover off themselves, before taking the sail to the sailmaker. "A penny saved, is a penny earned," kind of philosophy.

Actually, the darker the color you use for the "uv protection", the better it works: black, dark grey, dark red, cobalt blue all protect very well. The more glamorous shades, less so.