Portofino
Well-Known Member
Arranged to fly down for weekend in Nice to help chum have A/C inlet fitted to hull of Targa 37.
Job arranged for Sat morning.
.....and "the plan" is a solemn promise to blast around in the sun on the Sunday.
Owner wanted to be be onsite while job was done plus do a few fettling jobs that if the boat was in UK, would of course have been done ages before, but who wants to do jobs having flown all that distance, spent all that money on a flight and got up at some unearthly hour.....
There also always appeared to be a number of not fully justified bills awaiting in capitainerie as well
We arrive at the crack of dawn and make ourselves known to lift operator, reminding that we have arranged lift and block off months ago.
Several times during day wander round and ask lift operator ....err when ?
......soon comes the answer.
Late in the afternoon we are ashore but the hole drilling man has long ago departed.
The hole drilling man does not work Sundays.
We fly back home leaving NICE at 00.00. Nice !
There’s a predictability about that .
Should have
1- Friday haul out after checking Fr bank hols .
2- chosen a yard with engineers on site for the hole
3- choose a yard with on site shop for yard job paraphernalia,like sea cocks through the hull fittings etc
4 plan B , - Hire Car on the trip ? - your own drill and suitable bit purchased form Fr equivalent of B+Q - that’s gotta be cheaper than a re dunk and re- arrange ?
You’ve not said if your mate e- mailed yard explaining the gravitas of the lift timing re rendezvous with the fitter .
“ 3 months before “ is no good .
Another advantage of a fully functional yard is the quotes are kinda spread bet with regards the labour time .
Guys come and go , do a bit here and there working on other jobs in the yard while waiting for special tools , parts to arrive or gob to set ,or a mate if it’s a two man job .
It’s not like one guy who had to travel and then nip off in search of correct unforeseen bit , then literally wait for paint / gob to dry etc .
Charge out is €70/ hr but they actually do a fixed price quote , eg 3 hrs to remove and refitted 4 new gearbox hydraulic hoses and replace the oil with fresh .+ parts .
Like I said a guy turns up in the yard removes them - then about 2 days later another returns and refitted them and changes the oil .
At haul in one of the guys requests to come on a mini sea trail blast round the bay to check for weeps n leaks .
I tend to round up all these jobs when the boats out for a week at its annual .
Quote before hand for the planned work and if anything else unexpected happens I pop into the office and ask,they send a guy ,if it’s just a simple 10 mins ( correct tool needed) they don,t bother invoicing .
Yard has a white board in the office with the boats ( about 20 up to 100 ft ) written on ,the time of haul in , and the jobs to be done .
About a dozen engineers just get on with it after a 8 am briefing and coffee , with the manager .
Manager wonders round the yard deploying the troops .
It all gets done and they are keen to finish to get you out as another boat bit like a hotel had booked your space .