Bay Area Decommissioning Costs?

I will be decommissioning an Ericson 38 in the Bay Area and could appreciate some information regarding what this should run. I was already quoted around 1600 which is absolutely absourd in my opinion. I know that commissioning the boat in Everett, WA will be under $400. The marina that I received the quote from wanted 1200 for the decommissioning plus ~400 to pull it and place it on the trailer. They said it would be about 14 hours at $88 an hour.

If anyone in the area has been through the process or has a contact for doing it, please let me know. It's important that she get packaged properly for the trip to Seattle. Also, people deserve to make a living; it just seems this is really high.

thanks in advance
Shaun

What does the decomissioning involve? Removing stanchions? pulpit/pushpit? binnacle? If all of those, I can understand the price, and would wonder if your commissioning quote took into account all that work. However, if they're basically going to pull the stick, haul the boat and slap on a coat of wax, then it seems a bit steep.

How long a sail is that? Would you consider doing it by water? You can tell yourself you're getting paid $2000 for the trip (and that doesn't even include the cost of the trucking!). Steaks everynight! Heck, you could even afford to fly me out for crew!

Maybe not so absurd.

I don't know the exact boat, but depending on how well equipted she is it doesn't sound that absurd. What does sound supisious is the number for putting it back together at the other end.....

The 38 without the comptition keel should be able to be shipped without removal of the stanctions, winches etc. However I might pull the stanctions anyway to avoid damage to them. So you have probably about a man hour worth of work there.

Does the boat have a dodger? That has to be removed. Carefully folded and placked away etc. Couple of man hours there.

The mast has to be removed, the standing rigging secured, the mast padded and wrapped. There are at least 7 man hours here. Figure the mast prep alone is probably close to 6 man hours plus two man hours to pull it. Taping the turnbuckles for easy measuring by the commisioning folks on the other end etc. Radar cable removal? Wires need to be marked for recommisioning on the other end, etc.

The securing of the stanctions making sure that they don't rattle and chafe on the trip up if they have been removed 1 man hour.

Are they going to shrink wrap the front of the boat? An hour or more there, probably two people. (Hard job to do by yourself). So two more man hours.

Any other gear that needs to be removed? It all adds time to the bill. Windvane? Solar panels, roller furling and sail, roller furling lines.

Also the truckers specify that all tanks have to be empty to transport. Is the yard going to have to empty them? At least a man hour there.

Then there is the haul, and placing on the trailer. This often takes a bit of time to get right too. Not long but a bit. Extra man hour in addition to life driver.


The standard yard rate down here in Alameda is about $85.00 an hour, so they are in the ballpark there. Most of the people in yards don't move that fast either, they are at work. Unless you work for yourself you tend to only move as fast as is required to keep your job. The people at all of the boatyards, one excepted, have been the same. So my 14 hours is probably a little light in figuring as I move fast because I do work for myself.

38 foot boat, haul is about $300 minimum.

So we have about what they quoted you in time if we add my thumbnail guesses up.

I once decommisioned a boat with a ton of systems took us over 16 man hours without counting pulling the mast. It was a pacific Seacraft with every concievable bell and whistle on it, some of them with corroded fastners. And packing all of the stuff in the interior such that it would not be chafed in the ride up the coast. It does take time to do it right. We won't even talk about the 6 man days to decommision my e-46, because I was being anal retentive and making sure that everything was removed just so, all of the screws labeled, etc...

Recommisioning, a sinch. Unrap the mast basically cut the wrapping being slightly careful not to hit the mast with the blade. Step the mast, reconnect the rigging, splash the boat, and tell the owner to come motor it away.

Guy

In this case, decommissioning means pulling the mast, preparing the mast and boom for transport, and hoisting the boat. I'm not sure if they will let me do any of the work myself, so I'll need to find a yard that will. Up here in Everett, I figure 1.5 hours to get the mast in and 3.5 a foot to put it in the water. Since it was just bottom painted, I'm not going to do anything on the bottom. All said and done, I'll be under 400 to put the boat in up here. Part of the issue with the yard(s) in Alameda is that they spec that you need a certain amount of people to do a job. In the case of the mast, they figure 2 people at 6 hours @$88. With all do respect, close to 1000 to pull and package a mast seems a little over the top. The transporter at Dudley said he would work with me to make sure that things are package properly, but so I could do it myself and just have the mast put on some horses. I don't mind paying for services and people deserve to make a living, but they at least have to work for it. We purchased the boat on short notice so I didn't exactly budget for this expense. That being said, I'm trying to be practical on what I spend to boat bucks on since I'm sure there are going to be some surprises! Also, I plan on putting on a new pentax main and possible a pentax 153 shortly after it gets up here (ouch) if I can swing it. I'd rather put the money into improvements that services. Hopefully the yard Loren mentioned will let me do the packaging of the mast and so on.

shaun

Shaun:

I think the yard in Alameda is more realistic then the one in Everret! We moved our 38 from Seattle to Long Beach, I did what work I could, but the yard bill at each end was about the same, $ 1500. Allowing 1.5 hrs to put the stick back in isn't realistic. Attaching spreaders, standing rigging, electrical wires, radar and whatever takes time, always more than it seems it should. It will take more than 1.5 hours to wrap the spreader ends with protection! I don't think I would rely on the Dudley driver to help you pack and wrap the mast. He might help secure it, but wrapping, I don't think so. A nice mast in Alameda can look like it has been through a war upon arrival in the Northwest if not pack carefully and properly. A SS halyard or shroud rubbing against the mast along the interstate will eat through the paint before the driver reaches high gear.

Your boat is a huge investment, one which will bring limitless pride, I wouldn't take any shortcuts with the transporting of it.

Good luck with the move.

Don Taugher
E-38-200 Running Free # 263

Shaun,

Last year I trucked my boat into Alameda and had Nelson's yard handle the splash down. They were very accomodating to allow me to do much of my own re-rigging and found their rates more reasonable than most.

One bit of advice regarding the bottom paint. We put new bottom paint on before shipping and found that it rubbed off where the pads touched the bottom during the trip out. You might need a touch up before splashing in.

Charlie

Don,

I don't believe my email was clear enough. First, I will spend a day with my brother preping the mast for transport and have no worries regarding our ability to adequately package it. Dudlely will be responsible for packaging it on the trailer only. As for the 1.5 hours to put the stick back in. I'll put the boat into it's slip sans mask. Then reconfigure the mast. The 1.5 hours was the time to insert it into the boat and perform the task that require a hoist. That being said, I think 1.5 is more that sufficient since we did a ketch rig in that amount of time.

Since I do have the ear of a fellow 38-200 owner, I would appreciate guidance on how to access the fuel tank since I didn't have the chance when I visited the boat. I'm having the tank polished in Alameda and would like to help the company ascertain where the inspection cover is on the tank and how to access it. There was a cord mechanism behind the companion way stairs that I started digging into, but then realized the engine was under the sink.

Can you help me out with respect to accessing the fuel tank.

thanks
shaun

Decommisioning your boat

Svendsens will let you do all the work yourself except pulling the mast and setting it on cradles. You could pack it to you own specs and take whatever you need off the boat and protect for transport. Good luck, and us bay area sailors are now poorer one Ericson 38. Ryan

2nd to Last Message in the No Cal List-Thanks for your input

At this time, my boat is likely north of Portland and more likely, in the Seattle area. I would like to thank those of you who responded and shared your opinions and experiances regarding the decommishining costs.

We had 3 great days of sailing between 24~26 of Feb. Friday provided light to moderate winds in the 10~20 knot range; more than enough to get up to Sausilito and back to Alameda in a casual 5 hour sail. Saturday was a repeat with slightly higher winds that included a nice trip between Sausilito and Tiburon up to the last marina, followed by a nice sail out the land's end 4 mile out the gate and back to Alameda by way of Pier 39.

Sunday, if you remember, was really ugly. We waited for the 1:30PM update to ensure we didnt' end up in the 50+ knots they were calling for. After confirming it was steady in the 25~35 range, we headed up around Angel Island and back (in some of the strongest rain I have ever sailed in, and I"M FROM SEATTLE) to Alameda to prepare for the decommishining.

The cost for pulling the stick and haul out was ~$700. We packaged the mast and shrink film and bubble wrap and removed all the standing rigging. It was a lot of work, so their original pricing was not out of line given the scope of the work. It took 2 people 6 hours for the hole job, but the driving rain (and I do mean driving) didn't help. It was still a lot of work.

I'll be unpacking the boat tommorow and will give you an update on how she arrived up in seattle. In the interim, I would like to say thanks to those who responded on the list as well as directly to me back channel. Guy, thank you for your input and I was really close to calling you up. I had my brother with me and in the end, we covered the job nicely.

best regards
shaun

Decommishining Costs-Alameda

This will likely be my last thread on this forum since I've officially landed back in Seattle with Sorcerer, the E38-200 I purchase in Alameda. At the end, the cost for decommishining was just shy of 600 dollars. We removed all the shrould wrapped up the mast ourselves using our our supplies, so this cost reflects one night of moorage, the time to pull the stick including two people for approximately 1/2 hour, plus putting the boat on the trailer. I was not around for the loading part, but it was done very nicely and the boat and rig arrived in tack in Seattle. Dudley Transport charged us 2800 for the transport up and they did a great job!

Greg, the yard manager at Mariner in Alameda was very helpful and all in all, it worked out nicely. The cost to put it on stands in then in the water was about 300 dollars at our marina, and another 150 to step the mast (I hour of crane time). That being said, it was less expensive to have the work completed up here in Seattle, by Mariner Boat Marina was very fair and helpful.

Thanks to those who provided input and thank you Guy for your offer to come down to the boat, sorry I didn't take you up on it since it would have been helpful. For the other folks with an M40, I'd appreciate it if you could look at my link on fuel bleeding and respond back.

Signing off and Heading North to the Pacific Northwest Threads.

thanks once again.

shaun