Boat cover questions

[jeepdoc]

Yeah I know whatyour saying Mike. Thats the way its been on interior work lately. no way are customers willing right now to pay what that labor time shows. Guess ill shoot from the hip dont think they would be willing to spend at 16hrs even at 50.00 an hour and 350 in materials. Maybe on a real nice boat that the cust actually cares about.
Guess ill throw it out there and see if he bites definately not giving away my labor like on the last full interior I  just did just not worth it

Thanks for all the info guys

[DBR1957]

18' boat is 2 passes/panels/blanks,  whatever you want to call them, w/seam
running front to back. Simple cockpit cover to top of windshield with regular dot
snaps already installed in boat can be done in 6-6.5 hours easy. Double that for
over windshield. Add time if you have to install snaps in boat.

No pole pocket. I use a snap patch w/ 3 female dot snaps. You put one snap on
and it's going to come off sometime. The customer will have 2 extras and won't
have to bring the cover back. Put snaps through two layers of scrap vinyl, place
another piece of scrap vinyl between the cover and the snap patch. Sew on in
6" circle pattern. Line snaps up w/center seam. I don't like to sew on square
patches because the corner stitch can cause some odd pulls in the cover and is
prone to cause rips if the pole is too tight. Some of you might not have had a
problem with square patches but I've seen it happen. However, if you turn the
square so it is a diamond w/corners along the center seam the it works fine.

I like and dislike pole vents. the wingnut on the bottom side can grab upholstery
and damage it. I always warn my customers about this when the request the
vent.

[Mike8560]

I used to love theese cover   Did them all day first was top of the window snaped on ,then everybody wanted over the glass and the windows rounded  and made it harder. I could fly thought them. We did ( me and my bro) did  8 one day some over the glass and a  bow cover on trailer in the yard was easy.  A couple were in the water at the dock.   Now I hardly see any.  But tit did one over the glass on a 30 ish formula last week

[Eric]

Both the boats pictured can be done in 8 hours. The material on both is weathermax 80. 92 Tenara thread, and make snap patch as DBR describes. Pictures are an example of 2 ways to do boats.


Eric

[Mike8560]

AtsTHAt's them Eric  ya just don't see them here in fl much.
In ant see what I's the two ways youndid them is it the direction of the fabric ?

[jeepdoc]

 ;D
Thanks to all that responded we will see what happens going to measure this weekend
Jeff

[DBR1957]

Mike the black one is a one piece bow/cockpit cover. The green one is
separate bow and cockpit covers

[jeepdoc]

Let me bounce a price off you guys and tell  me what you think

I figured 850 for a fitted snap down cockpit and bow cover incl materials too high too low? not too many shops around me to shop prices off of

Thanks Jeff

[regalman190]

Depending on how big the boat is, sounds reasonable

[Mike8560]

Sounds fair to me so
e owners may thinks it more then they want to spend if it's a cheap boat.  On a  good boat Ok You k kwnwhat a meen a newer sea Ray or formula. Vs a older star craft Or bayliner

[DBR1957]

A friend of mine at another shop had a good one. After giving a price a customer
would say something like, "The boat only cost me $4,000". His response would be,
"I'm sorry, I don't have any 1975 material and or anyone willing to work for
20 - 30 year old labor rates".

In our area $850 is a steal for an over-window cockpit cover and bow cover. If
you're working from home I can see it. But in a shop with a lot of overhead that
wouldn't cut it. You could almost double that price in our location.

Another thing to consider when pricing is how much an OEM cover would cost.
We offer OEM covers if we can get them. And we won't warrant them. In most
cases the cover you produce will be a better fit and constructed better than
a lot of OEM stuff.

I'm about to do an OEM install on a 26' with cost to customer around
$4,700.00. 3-bow bimini, windscreen, side curtains, aft curtain and over-window
cockpit cover. If we did everything it would be around $5,900.00. The customer
would get a better job, better materials and options. Of course we would have a
lot more time involved having to fit everything.

Don't cut yourself short.

[Mike8560]

What is your location dbr?
My customer are a bit cheaper y like an area  like at lauderdale or Miami.   My location is a lower cost area in got a lot
of Midwestern folks and alot from nh actualy ice run into a few that  were in my old area.  The west coast of fl in my area south o Tampa and north of ft myers is a berry reasonable place to love cost wise    House on the water can be had now for 100 to 200k

[Peppy]

Around here $850 would be for a cover from the windshield back on a 20'ish boat. Bow cover extra.

[DBR1957]

Mike I'm in VA just south of DC. So obviously we're in an expensive area.
Gotta charge what you have to in order to stay in business.

[jeepdoc]

Ok here we go for the bayliner I did the interior he wants a full cover made down to the rub rail.
The only problem I see (mabey just a brain fart) is the back boarding platform has a support that runs higher than the rub rail there making it a little hard for a drawstring to work there. I was thinking about anchoring the draw string on either side of the cut out for the support? any other ideas that work?

Im still pushing  for a snap on cover