What business coule me and my wife start in a marina to interest boat owners.

If you'd dress up in a bird of prey costume and dangle at the top of my mast, screeching loudly and flapping your big false wings in order to keep the starlings out of my rigging, I'd pay, say, £2 a day. The downside being that it's only seasonal work.
 
Maybe it's worth saying what we actually do pay for. For me, it's:

The yard every season:
- haul-out and spray off
- engine and generator winterisation and service (really only to keep being part of their system: if I were to do it myself I expect they'd have less sense of responsibility than they have since they've serviced it from new)
- anti-fouling (because the paint is actually a reasonable proportion of the cost, and because I hate doing it)
- re-launch

Private contractors
- sail washing and repair (every year for the white ones)
- rigging inspection and help tuning (once every 4 years or so, and he's a rigger with all spares to hand)
- valeting the interior (every year)
- polishing the hull (nearly every year)
- cleaning the teak decks (every year)
- service wash of the sleeping bags and other bedding (every year)

The reasons to get someone else to do things are:
- boring jobs when I can be doing more interesting ones
- ones which need high capital cost, ie equipment or space
- ones only plausible on a fine day, which can't be assumed in winter since I live miles away and can only make weekends
- ones requiring skills I don't have.

Of these only the cleaning seems possible to do semi-casually.

PS: This may sound a bit snotty, but if you are running a business, however small or untechnical, customers do care about the spelling, grammar and punctuation of written materials such as advertising, quotations, reports and invoices. The subconscious thought process goes something like this: right = meticulous, errors = sloppy.

PPS: I pay my bill much faster than the man who does the polishing/cleaning sends it to me; I usually have to chase him for the invoice!
 
Last edited:
What about getting a wetsuit and brush or some other system and just giving boats a bit of mid season clean up on and below the waterline. Have a contract per boat per season. If you pick somewhere like Gosport with a few marinas nearby you could service more boats from one marina.
 
greggron said:
What about getting a wetsuit and brush or some other system and just giving boats a bit of mid season clean up on and below the waterline. Have a contract per boat per season. If you pick somewhere like Gosport with a few marinas nearby you could service more boats from one marina.
Click to expand...

Wasn't there a system designed for shallow diving especially for hull cleaning ? I forget the name, Shallow Water Breathing Apparatus - SWBA or similar. I can see loads of problems with elf n safety bods at marinas though, and insurance might be tricky, what if a log paddlewheel was claimed to have been damaged by some git trying to get out of paying or trying to make a lucrative claim ...
 
greggron said:
What about getting a wetsuit and brush or some other system and just giving boats a bit of mid season clean up on and below the waterline. Have a contract per boat per season. If you pick somewhere like Gosport with a few marinas nearby you could service more boats from one marina.
Click to expand...

You'd be competing with RS Divers (who ain't cheap) but who do have all the licences, the agreements with marinas and who run a legit H&S operation (two divers in the water, and a third hand in the RIB).

http://rsdivers.co.uk/sail-and-power/services/

Still no sign of life from the OP!
 
chinita said:
Particularly in the Med.

I have long believed that a mobile electrician operating between several marinas would be a nice little business.

So often people arrive to find some gizzmo or other not working. What they want is an English speaking, reliable and reasonable person to come to sort it out.

Not even instantaneously, just to arrive when they say they will arrive.
Click to expand...

You are probably right.
Every electrician / gizmo fixer I have ever come across in marinas is always very busy.
They rush hither and thither fixing niggling problems that are simple but baffle most of us.
 
The market is there for all (well, almost all) the suggestions, including the standard services such as polishing, cleaning, etc; however, you will need to create your client base which means that you will have to work hard and be competitive; also you will need to show care because caring is quality and quality will keep your customers and keeping your customers means repeat business.
 
Something unique, enjoyable and repeatable.

One of my favourite stops when out saiing is Montague Harbour. shortly after anchoring my daughter and I row over to the Bakery Boat. its about the sise of and looks like an old tug. Actualy it was a ferry prior to coversion.
We order fresh cinamon buns for the next morning.
They are excellent. If you don't order they are sold out.
We row over when they open at 0800, I have a cup of coffee on the aft deck and chat to other boater's waiting to pick up thier buns.
then back to our won boat and wake the rest of the crew.
They do pies as well.

Only open Thurdsay to Monday. tuesday and wedensday they go for suplies

Not a marina. no idea how profitable. but the same couple have been doing for years and are very popular.
 
So with the disapearance of the OP the forum's collective view reduces to three basic options:

. Prostitution
. A burger van
. Bottom scrapping (not to be confused with option one).

What we now need is a venture capitalist to put up the money.
 
My boys in their teenage years made useful pocket money hull cleaning in water. justmask and snorkel rag and scraper. Most people were good payers knowing it was cheap so wanting repeat cleaning like once per month. But I am not sure they would do it for any money in UK waters. olewill
Twister_Ken said:
You'd be competing with RS Divers (who ain't cheap) but who do have all the licences, the agreements with marinas and who run a legit H&S operation (two divers in the water, and a third hand in the RIB).

http://rsdivers.co.uk/sail-and-power/services/

Still no sign of life from the OP!
Click to expand...
 
As to pitching up on time .......

Just about every task I have got involved with on boats has taken longer than expected. A hundred and one reasons from poor access to underestimation to lack of spares or original misdiagnosis.

Someone trying to make a living at it needs to book the whole day up but will frequently get dragged into twice as much work as originally expected. So the schedule falls apart. Of course you could only book half the day, charge twice the rates and meet every appointment but then ..........
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top