DIY Boatyards - Southern California

[Iron E]

I'm looking to split some work between a Boatyard crew, and me.

I'd like to do some deck painting, mast painting, and rigging, while I hire the boatyard to sand/paint the hull and examine/replace if necessary my rudder bearings

For those of you located in SoCal:
If you wanted to put your boat on the hard for (Approx) 3+weeks in a working Boatyard, where would you go.

I'm trying to gauge my time and costs because Option 2 is that I have my boat transported to my home 150 mile from San Diego and do all the work myself over the Winter.

Thanks, in advance

[Tayana42]

I understand that Marina Shipyard in Alamitos Bay, Long Beach ((562) 594-0995) now allows owners to do DIY work. I don’t know about costs. And they do have all the tech workers for what you want to contract out.

[alaskanviking]

I hauled out for some major work, summer 2019. Driscoll's boatyard in Mission Bay. I hauled out again Feb 2020 to put on the truck to move to Norfolk.

I don't know much about the yards north of San Diego. likewise i haven't been to the yards in Mexico. however i do know that the Mexican yards were bought out by one of the San Diego boat yards. i hear the labor isn't too different however the materials all come from San Diego at San Diego prices so that part has gotten more expensive. Military personnel aren't allowed to go into Mexico with out some major unlikely check in the boxes, so that should tell you a lot as well.

there aren't a lot of DIY yards in San Diego. Marine group wont let you do DIY. That leaves you with Driscolls San Diego, Driscolls Mission Bay, Koehler craft, and nelson Beaumont. there is a newer yard south, that sounded like a true diy yard, but there's the added expense of having to truck the boat there from marine group Chula Vista. cant remember the name, I'm sorry.

a lot of the yards have started playing games and don't do work on your boat anymore. they do bottom paint and nothing else. they have a 3rd party contractor do any work so they can charge you laydays, and not have to worry about liability. the contractors i seen them use or experienced weren't very good and overcharge as much as possible. very frustrating. many of them will charge you double laydays for the boat and mast. driscolls mission bay played that. they charged $175 for the boat and another $75 for the mast per day, so $250 a day. then priority is shifted to the commercial fleet, mega yachts and expensive racing boats, so it takes a longer to get work done.

nelson Beaumont does a lot of work for the Military, cheapest bidder. i have seen their work, and wouldn't recommend them. i have not been in their yard so i don't know if its the same people there.

the yard south, told my ex-wife he wouldn't do any work for her boat because women should operate boats. when i was looking and getting quotes, I got the sense that the owner was a "know more than you" type and was really put off by him. they were cheaper but the complications of having to truck the boat there was too much of a pain. not a lot of cheap boat movers in San Diego.

I've heard good things about Koehler's Kraft however they are a small yard and hard to get in.

Marine group has 2 yards in San Diego, but will not allow you to do any work. i have seen them do good work, but they are not not the cheapest.

personally, i have seen the prices rise considerably in San Diego over the years. haul out for a 42' is in the $1000 range with power wash. $1500 to include bottom paint. a lot of boaters don't get hauled out as often as they should because of the costs. my old marina you could see several nice older boats slowly degrade over time as they are priced out

if you have the option to bring it home, or truck the mast home, that is a significant cost savings and well worth it. I highly recommend doing so. at the end of the day i was highly frustrated by the whole process. very dissapointed witht he amount and quality of work i received for the money i paid for it. i spend a little over $50k and the general attitude was it was chump change, and barely paid much focus on the boat. i felt i had to really monitor the workers as they would grab them for other boats, really shorting my progress. i almost felt i had to log their time because i kept getting the feeling i was paying for more time than i was getting. i am pretty happy go lucky, but they had me going to their office to chew some ass a couple of times. i definitely would have chosen a different yard had i known how things would work out, however looking into things after, it didn't sound like the other yards were much different especially that time of year. cost me $16-17K just in lay days for ~ 3 months. In Norfolk it was $3000 for 3 months.

[Iron E]

I'll shoot a call to Alamitos, Tayana... Thanks for the tip

and Yes, Alaskan... the work in San Diego is sketchy. There is a working dock I know of, but, I need to put this thing on land for a spell.

[Training Wheels]

Probably your best bet would be Ventura.

[shadow]

I'm glad and surprised that you've heard of good things with Koehler craft.. I've had a horrible experience there and no less then 12 other boaters that I know of within a few yacht clubs have even worse experience with them.. I would avoid that yard like a virus... There should be a few yards inland where you can store and do work.. Will try to find some for you.. best of luck though

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by shadow

I'm glad and surprised that you've heard of good things with Koehler craft.. I've had a horrible experience there and no less then 12 other boaters that I know of within a few yacht clubs have even worse experience with them.. I would avoid that yard like a virus... There should be a few yards inland where you can store and do work.. Will try to find some for you.. best of luck though

That would be greatly appreciated Shadow... Thanks!

[CLady]

Windward Yacht Center in Marina del Rey for DIY.

[kkotsur]

Ventura harbor has two yards that let you do your own work, a mix of yard and you or the yard does it all.

[JRM]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

Probably your best bet would be Ventura.

Ventura Harbor Boatyard for sure. Call and ask for Mike. They've put up with me doing tons of my own work. Going so far as to let me do the sanding and fairing on my mast in between having them spray primer and top coat.

They'll do as much or as little as you want them to. When they do stuff, it's done well with quality workmanship.

Disclaimer: my boat is in the yard now, so I may have some confirmation bias.

[shadow]

Great news JRM.. Still waiting for my contacts to confirm with me.. They are currently sailing so not sure when their reply may happen... As you all know how this works..

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by JRM

Ventura Harbor Boatyard for sure. Call and ask for Mike. They've put up with me doing tons of my own work. Going so far as to let me do the sanding and fairing on my mast in between having them spray primer and top coat.

They'll do as much or as little as you want them to. When they do stuff, it's done well with quality workmanship.

Disclaimer: my boat is in the yard now, so I may have some confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias, in this particular case, is great. Thanks for the tip

[ChrisTheWrench]

Originally Posted by shadow

There should be a few yards inland where you can store and do work.. Will try to find some for you.. best of luck though

Howdy,

Any chance you found out who those yards are? Driscoll is currently quoting at $2.50 per foot per day for monthly, plus the mast.

[George_SD]

1) I was going to DIY on my boat, but after looking at what they would charge me for DIY and that it would only cost a little more to have the yard do the work, i decided to let them do it.


2) I used Koehler and would not use it again as I had pretty bad experience.

They dropped my topping lift during haul-out, then needed to fish it through the mast. While doing it they broke my wind instrument on top of the mast. Then told me it was broken all along (i showed them pictures and videos at their dock before haul out to prove it wasn't). They refused to fix it initially, so i did it myself and only reached out to me after I left a negative review and wrote to the owner.
During haul-out and splash down they walked all over the deck in boots covered in some grease that I couldn't clean with any chemicals and hard brushing. Took me a full polish and 5 washes to get most of it out.

The foreman/crane operator was rude and argumentative. He literally turned around and told his crew to not help me cast off (their dock is in a very narrow space where I had to try and reverse against the wind in between expensive boats) and that's after all the other grief they caused.

[ChrisTheWrench]

Originally Posted by George_SD

1)
2) I used Koehler and would not use it again as I had pretty bad experience.

That's too bad. Unfortunately not the first bad review Ive heard about them. I do enjoy walking by there and peaking through the gates/over the wall to see some of the boats they get through there. Even with the bad reviews they seem crazy busy, guess thats the SoCal reality...