Am I out of touch?

Hermit

Hermit

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Hello,
I need new sprayhood (cover only no metalwork, 34ft boat)) and have been quoted about £700 from a solent based company. I haven't shopped around as they are local to the boat and I have been recommended by another company I trust - can anyone tell me if this in the right ballpark? I have, perhaps naively, thought it would be around the £400 mark.

Thanks

Rob
 
Hermit said:
Hello,
I need new sprayhood (cover only no metalwork, 34ft boat)) and have been quoted about £700 from a solent based company. I haven't shopped around as they are local to the boat and I have been recommended by another company I trust - can anyone tell me if this in the right ballpark? I have, perhaps naively, thought it would be around the £400 mark.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

Sounds about right.
 
£700, of which £117 is VAT, leaves 583.
£50 materials, £533.
5% profit on the pre -VAT price, £29, leaves £504.
20 hours labour for making, fitting and measuring.
That leaves £25 per hour for pay, overheads and employer's NI.
Pay is probably half of that, the rest rent, rates, bank charges, accountancy costs, heating, equipment, training, sick/maternity/holiday pay, insurance, cat food for the company cat, bad debts, etc.
 
Hermit said:
Hello,
I need new sprayhood (cover only no metalwork, 34ft boat)) and have been quoted about £700 from a solent based company. I haven't shopped around as they are local to the boat and I have been recommended by another company I trust - can anyone tell me if this in the right ballpark? I have, perhaps naively, thought it would be around the £400 mark.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...
No shortage of firms that can do this job. Get 3 other quotes and you will have the answer to your question. Make sure they all quote for exactly the same spec and service.
 
Try Quay Sails at Poole. I have had a sprayhood and other bits from them, they were consistently a lot cheaper than the 'big names' quoted for the work. The stuff they produced was excellent.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
£700, of which £117 is VAT, leaves 583.
£50 materials, £533.
5% profit on the pre -VAT price, £29, leaves £504.
20 hours labour for making, fitting and measuring.
That leaves £25 per hour for pay, overheads and employer's NI.
Pay is probably half of that, the rest rent, rates, bank charges, accountancy costs, heating, equipment, training, sick/maternity/holiday pay, insurance, cat food for the company cat, bad debts, etc.
Click to expand...

And materials will probably be way more than £50. Just Two metres of a quality canvas will be around that, maybe more.

I wonder if the OP would work for this kind of hourly rate?
 
npf1 said:
And materials will probably be way more than £50. Just Two metres of a quality canvas will be around that, maybe more.

I wonder if the OP would work for this kind of hourly rate?
Click to expand...

£25 per hour...bloody right I would! But then again, in the North East life is cheaper... So are spray hoods!
 
Magaz97 said:
£25 per hour...bloody right I would! But then again, in the North East life is cheaper... So are spray hoods!
Click to expand...

£25 per hour I estimated was the cost of employment, of which I estimated the employee got half of that as pay. It works out at about average salary, which I would guess is somewhere in the region of what a skilled sailmaker would earn in that part of the country. Happy to be corrected on any of those numbers.
 
Hermit said:
Am I out of touch
Click to expand...
Yes.

28 ft boat same job last winter £600 (including the 20% VAT). A superb job and I will be back to the sailmaker for more bits and bobs over the years. I do want him to remain in business and feed his family.
 
Hermit said:
Hello,
I need new sprayhood (cover only no metalwork, 34ft boat)) and have been quoted about £700 from a solent based company. I haven't shopped around as they are local to the boat and I have been recommended by another company I trust - can anyone tell me if this in the right ballpark? I have, perhaps naively, thought it would be around the £400 mark.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

that's expensive, £300 to £450 would be the norm for a copy of what you have. Try Aquashack in Carrickfergus, send them your old hood they will make a copy and return it, very cheap and quality too.
 
Is your boat easy to get to? On the hard? If so I would suggest trying a local firm and pointing this out to them. The boating industry works on an hourly rate and your boat could be on a swinging mooring for all they know.

A spray hood will take at least two visits to the boat to get a proper fit. The time spent at the sewing machine is probably insignificant compared to the driving and walking involved.

I made mine in a day. So for someone who knows what they're doing possibly half that.

But it took three goes to get it to fit. Three weekends and 500 miles driving! Never copy the old spray hood. I did.

There's actually not that much fabric involved. But a strange shape and lots of wastage for other projects.
 
I seem to remember someone flogging kits?
A good sewing shop will make one it a lot less than 20 hours, I think.
But there is a lot more time in measuring and discussing and so forth if it is anything other than a direct copy.
 
Depends on what you're buying.

We were quoted just shy of £1500 for a full cockpit tent (including metal work), but wilfully chose to spend £2500 with another manufacturer ...because we asked to see previous jobs and didn't want the slack n sloppy £1500 option.

Absolutely no regrets with our decision to spend more.

So look long and hard at the quality and if YOU can't see any difference worth YOUR money then buy the cheaper option.

That said, it does sound a bit on the high side.
 
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