Annual Service?

[Seven Spades]

Most people have their car serviced annually. When it comes to boats it seems that most people will book and engine service and get the rig changed every 10 years or so.

I am interested to know if any owners here have a yard go over their boats looking for faults/maintenance and then produce a recommended job sheet. Almost like a mini survey? If so who does it and do you trust that they won't suggest work that doesn't need doing?

I have just bought a boat that needs "catch up" maintainance this winter. The surveyor said that the jobs (mostly minor) should have been done during the annual service. But I don't know of anyone who admits to their boat having a professional annual service. Most of my friends either do their own maintenance or have specific faults repaired.

 

[RichardS]

As this is practical boat owner there probably won't be many on here who don't do their own engine servicing.

It's not going to be easy to find a commercial engineer who will give you a totally honest opinion about what needs to be done without over-egging the pudding so a personal recommendation would, indeed, be the only way to achieve that.

Richard

 

[Seven Spades]

No replies looks as though you are correct.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Most of us keep up with minor repairs and services as and when they arise. There isn't really a comparison with cars; they do far more hours and are far more highly stressed than marine auxiliaries. Just for example, one of my cars is 6 years old, and has done nearly 100,000 miles. At an average speed of (say) 50 mph, that makes 2,000 hours running - say 360 hours per year. It has a capacity of 1 l, and a power output of 60 HP. My boat's engine has a capacity of 1.3 l, and a power output of 28 HP. The car's engine is producing nearly 3 times the power from a given capacity. Clearly, the engine on my boat is FAR less stressed than the engine in my car! And the boat's engine does far fewer hours; I've just worked out that I did less than 100 hours bringing her from the Clyde to Titchmarsh, which was mostly under engine. That was an exceptional year; I'd guess that this year so far I have done between 10 and 20 hours. Other things are really a matter of simply keeping on top of them! I don't have a regular schedule of jobs to do, though some people do - I simply keep an eye open and fix things that appear to be wearing or in need of TLC!

 

[Skylark]

I bought my current boat new so in order to preserve its 3 year warranty I needed to have an annual inspection carrried out by the selling dealer. It was pretty superficial to be honest.

It’s true that a boat requires maintaining as she is used and also that some jobs are beyond the scope of owners’ abilities. That said, I think having a laid-down annual (haul-out) service schedule is a good discipline. I have a 31 item check list which I call “winter haul-out and laying up”. I include date of haul-out and next launch and a note of engine hours. I think it gives a very good history as I also make a note of all service parts and consumables used plus I keep all associates receipts.

 

[seaangler23]

I do everything myself (minus rigging) but essential for me yearly would be engine fresh water flush (raw cooled) oil, filters, eng anode, and impeller/gear oil every 2 years.
Everything else is a check over and done when required, still early days with the new boat so loads of jobs over winter to get it how we want it, a newish boat is a different matter.

 

[[70521]]

Most people have their car serviced annually.

Most modern cars don't allow owner servicing. The technology is designed to reduce the cost of initial production and maximize the sales of over complicated spare parts. £120 to replace a steering column cluster for a broken indicator switch that would have cost about £1.00. There is no way I would have a yard check the boat for issues. They have no idea what is normal on my boat and I need to understand the issues as they evolve. There are jobs that are beyond my experience and I will then use a yard to discuss, cost and do the job.

 

[maby]

I think it comes down to a combination of the age of the boat and the age of the owner. When we were young and our boats were old, we did our own servicing. Then, while we were still relatively young, we bought a brand new boat and one of the conditions of the "extended warranty" was that we should let the main dealer do an annual service. The current boat does not carry any such requirement, but I'm getting older - so more of the maintenance is being outsourced.