Cost of professional anti fouling 31ft - this is high right?

[RedBaron]

Hi all,

I'm going to be in Shetland Islands in a few weeks and hull is desperately due a clean and new layer of anti fouling. I'm being quoted £2,000 to have the job done by a yard there (£1,000 for lift out and re-launch, £1,000 for the actual anti-fouling job, including materials). Sailboat is a 31 footer. Feels bloody high!

On threads like this one I'm seeing folk paying <£500 for a boat this size. Is getting work done in the Shetland Islands just extremely expensive (I keep hearing how Scotland is on the cheaper side for boat work) or are my expectations unrealistic?

Thanks!

 

[upcountry2]

Way over priced, lift in/out will vary dependant on the yard as will labour rates.
but the price you have been quoted is extremely high even by south coast standards.
but they may have you over a barrel because of your location.

 

[Mister E]

They don't want the job. Either other work for regular customers or something.
A lift out should not be £1k

 

[srm]

Its a long time since I was in Shetland, but the yards there serve the fishing fleet and commercial vessels and were never interested in yachts. The price is probably a polite way of telling you to go elsewhere.

The tide range in Shetland is not very good for drying out, but if you can get south to Orkney you can probably dry out at Pierowall on Westray where there is a drying grid used by the local boats and do the work yourself. Further south in Stromness (Orkney) there was a nice concrete pad at the bottom of a slip, just past the marina, used by local dive boats and yachts. There is power and water available there. Last year there was redevelopment along the waterfront so it may be as well to check if it is still available.

In both Orkney and Shetland yacht ownership is very much a DIY commitiment. If you want work done by a yard you need to go down to Inverness on the mainland or the west coat.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Totally agree with above on a 31' boat even an expensive lift out/in you would not pay that price there has to be somewhere else much cheaper, ask a fisherman they know

 

[Poignard]

It might be worth getting a price from a diver to give her a scrub.

 

[RedBaron]

Thanks folk - much appreciated! I'll be heading from Shetland down to Orkney Islands and then over to the west coast (Hebrides, Isles of Skye and Mull, etc.). Any of you familiar with the yards there and have any recommendations?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

It’s only a bit less than we paid on the south coast to have our 30ft tri stripped back to bare hulls and copper coated.