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I’m sure this comes as no surprise to fellow mariners but finding good, reliable contractors to work on your vessel is HARD! One gentleman we know, who shall remain nameless, offered us a variety of referrals for different contractors. While he, himself, is awesome and reliable, only one of his buddies has turned out to be so. The rest have been total flakes.
Let’s start with the squirrely electrician. And, he’s not only an electrician, but he’s also a captain, and is hired by folks to move their boats. He makes more money doing that so, if you’re scheduled for a repair, and he gets a call about moving a boat, you’re going to get bumped down the list.
We hired him to replace our electric panel, and to rewire the boat. It was going to be a big job, and quite expensive. The panel alone was $1700! I paid him up front for the panel. And, then began weeks of phone calls, and texts, and delays, and excuses. He’d ordered the panel. He hadn’t yet ordered the panel. He’d ordered the panel. I didn’t know what to believe. We pinned him down to start work on a specific day. He didn’t show up (nor even call). That happened again, and again, and again. He finally reported that the panel had arrived and he promised to come install it that week. I realized I’d been pretty stupid to pay him for the panel up-front!
Once again, he didn’t show. The next day, he actually called, saying he had a knee injury, and had to go to the hospital.
I was very angry by this point. I knew he was working at a local boat yard later that afternoon so I sent Captain Brian over there to confront him, and to get our panel. Brian found him working on another boat…on his knees – after saying he’d had a knee injury earlier that day that required a hospital visit.
He gave Brian the panel and we never saw him again. Brian and our awesome neighbor, Diego, later rewired the boat and installed the panel, and did a fabulous job! We now no longer have to worry about the old wires catching on fire while we’re sleeping. Shwew!!
NEXT: Coco LOVES storms! Rambo HATES storms!
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.