Day Captains - Food for thought

Wow, I didn't know that Vancouver was such a cheap city to live in that someone can afford to live there and raise a family on $250 a week before taxes. BTW, I've yet to meet the captain or engineer who could or would wash and wax a 70' yacht better than a boat washer, but I'll bet a corporate president could do a real fine job of it.

$50 are you kidding me? Do you have a teenager washing your boat? The prices in Florida are not unreal. To wash a 70' MY to the rubrail the going rate is $2.50 to $3foot. So $210 on the higher end of things to spend 6 or so hours doing it. You're forgetting that in South Florida it's 93 degrees outside, you have to chamois everything and very quickly, the salt content of the air is higher and you have more fallout. Not to mention after you wash one boat, you're too tired to go on and do others. Oh, and the cost of living in Florida.

In Vancouver, washing a boat is much easier, it's much cooler outside so you can wash large sections before chamoising and get the boat done in 2/3 the time. The boats also have a lot less stuff stuck to them versus Florida.

BTW Sag, the prices here in Florida are much cheaper then the ones you listed for your area. Diesel mechanic (dealer) is around $100hr for example. Varnish around $30hr.

They had to have commingled funds or assets, thus piercing the corporate veil. Amazing how many people screw themselves without even realizing it.

You will NEVER find a small corp that hasn't co-mingled at some point to some degree (Ever taken a postage stamp home?). That's why self-employed is such a red flag for the IRS.

Sag is definitely at the top end of the scale, but you're dealing with people who will pay $100 for a hamburger. Florida has always been towards to bottom. It's a hard place to survive unless you work for yourself. Personally, if I had someone willing to wash a 70 footer for $50 I'd be worried about him selling my electronics (or my family) to suplement his income. If he has to squat with 60 others in a 1 bedroom house he's not concerned with going to jail.

At $50 for a wash down, you can be sure the boat washer does not have insurance. If he falls off the flybridge and breaks his arm who will pay the medical bills? If the boat washer pulls his hose accross the dock just as someone is walking there, and they get hurt, who pays the bills?

Perhaps one of the reasons why the US is still in recesion and Canada is not, is, some people value washing a boat the same as a mechanic tuning up their car,
When you see people with multi million dollar yachts having to sell them and banks repo'ing them, it tells you something about how much they overpaid according to true value.
Just my 2c, and the guy who washes my boat is not a teenager and a neighbour American had no problem paying him similar to wash his 60 footer.
This post is not meant to flame, just an observation of the facts...

Is your boat washer a legal, tax paying resident or is he just stealing work from your neighbor? Is he just grabbing some off the books work so he can stay on welfare and I can actually pay his living expenses and subsidize your boat wash? Is this the going rate in your area or is he a scab stealing work from local guys who actually try to pay their bills without going on the dole. If he falls into these categories in this area YOUR name would go out (as well as his) and you'd go to the bottom of the list and be way overcharged for any needed work. I'd for sure put IRS onto him and that would fall back on you to pay what he didn't. Saying that an American ex-patriot is also too cheap to pay a living wage doesn't make it right. We have them here too. If your boat washer is legit he could earn more, work less, have steady work and medical benefits working at McD's. I'd wonder about his motovation (running from cops?) The cheap could be very expensive.

Well. if you think 10.00 hr is too little for boat washing, then the most successful auto company in the world is also paying too little "Toyota" perhaps you would prefer the Government to subsidize the US auto industry so they could become more lazy and inefficient and have their exec's overpaid, just like the banks and many many others who have gotten the US and many other Countries into the mess they are in by overpaying for inefficient and un productive labour and products. If someone decides do work outside the usual system and work only for cash then all he is doing is what millions of others are doing. I would rather pay him cash than have him on social assistance, after all, the tax is being paid by me. This is not scab work as you suggest, this is free enterprise , something you feel is unworthy.
The market will either look after itself or be subsidized by taxpayers like me. GM and Chrysler are perfect examples of Management and employess screwing the Company into bankruptcy and then getting the true hard working taxpayer to bail them out. The proof of the pudding is staring you in the face.

This statement makes my head hurt.

now my head *really* hurts.

Nor is mine, however your post is based on opinion, not fact, and couldn't be further from the truth, so I felt compelled to reply and add my $0.02 USD

Have a nice day!

Actually, $10 an hour with no benefits is substandard even when a company provides 40 hours of work per week (as opposed to the 5 hours e/o week you pay this guy for and then don't care if he eats the rest of the week). If you are paying him cash he most likely is on social assistance unless he lives under a bridge and that tax is also being paid by me except that I don't get a clean boat for it. If he is not charging the prevailing rate for the area it is indeed scab labor which is a very dangerous thing for both employee and employer. The wages paid to the GM workers is not what got them into trouble. It was the premiums charged by insurance companies and pension fund administrators for the benefits that enabled the workers to have a roof over their heads and a doctor for their kids. I have yet to meet a line worker who lives in a McMansion or owned a 70' yacht. You still haven't mentioned what the prevailing rate is to wash a 70' yacht in your area. I remember Vancouver as being a very cosmopolitan city with a high standard of living. Has it changed?

Well I live in Canada and I have to tell you that I pay a retired couple $50 a week to wash my 44 Viking and that is considered very resonable in the former automobile capital of canada.
I know for a fact that Vancouvers COL is one of the highest so if I were you I'd keep that boy (note I said boy) happy.

That's for a couple supplementing their pensions on 1/3 the boat and you evidently know you have a very fair deal. If I were paying someone $50 to care for a 70' yacht I'd invest my savings in a real good alarm system.

How easy it is to judge without being in possession of all the facts !!! and the American was not an ex pat, just enjoying his 3.5 million brand new MY, obviously slumming in Vancouver.

He can afford a brand new $3.5m yacht and he would take advantage of a poor man and have him work all day in the hot sun or lousy weather for...I'm still waiting to hear what the prevailing rate is in Vancouver....so I'll guess about the same as here which would be about $250 for a 70 motoryacht....which makes it 20% of the prevailing rate. Guess he feels that he pulled off a pretty schrewd business deal saving $200. Heck he should have some kobe steak to celebrate. That is very easy to judge.

Well, if it's a brand new $3.5 million MY, why doesn't he have a fulltime Captain like his insurance would require, unless he has A LOT of experience.

I would be embaressed to pay someone $50 in Vancouver of all places, to wash a 70' MY. Then again it takes $5 of the wrong cleaner to damage $10,000 in paint or teak in about 30 seconds sometimes. You get what you pay for. If you're paying peanuts, then you're getting Monkeys. You sound like one of those types that gets off in succeeding in life at the expense of other's sweat.

Heck, the last time I was in Mexico, I paid a Mexican $40 US to wash a 35' Cabo FB which takes a 1/3 of the time to wash then a 70' MY and that was 2 years ago. My fulltime Mate in Belize made $125US a week and his sole job was keeping up the exterior of a 45' Cabo Express back in 2005.

That is quite possible in Vancouver from what remember.

Where does it say there isn't a Captain involved?

What is the difference if it is new or used if it is worth $3.5m as far as the insurance goes?

Sagharborskip:

Lets back it up here Skip.

To start with yes they are retired and do it because they want to.
I did not set the price they did. In fact they give me a bill and I pay it, not once have I ever questioned it.
I originally chimed in because I thought the gentleman from Vancouver is getting an "exceptional" price but I'm now wondering if your recruiting for a boat cleaning union.

I find it interesting that a "full service" provider such as yourself would even try to compare yourself to some individuals who for whatever personal reasons wash boats for a living(and I use this term loosly). The last time I checked there are tons of people out there who would be happy to make $10 an hour for no brain work like washing a boat. Tell me would you pay someone $20 - $30 an hour to wash your car ( I assume it's a BMW).

Please don't compare your world in the Hamptons to the rest of the normal country.