Electric Marine Rates and Terms Effective 2/1/07
Standard charges: (1) Time plus (2) Materials plus (3) Travel
Standard Charges: Time. $90/hour.
Standard charges: Materials We can often beat internet prices on new electronics. All brands. But we'll quote only if we're doing the installation as well.
Standard charges: Travel. It depends on where your boat is.
Terms: Credit card or cash. Simple. Download the C.C. form and fax it back.
We don't expect you to write a blank check. We prepare estimates. The Schedule: When can we do your job? Rescheduling appointments
If you are new to boating, why accurate estimates are difficult.
Corollary: We do not bid jobs. It's all T&M. We will competitively quote significant material, as noted above.
We can make your boat function reliably to give you peace-of-mind on the water. At least with anything the least bit electrical.
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Rates, Terms and Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know About How We Conduct Business.
Your assurance of expertise: National Marine Electronics Association ranks Electric Marine as a CMET certified dealer, its highest rating. Approximately 150 of the top marine electronic technicians in the US maintain current Certified Marine Electronic Technician status. David Sheriff received CMET certificate number 1021 on June 27, 2007. See the page on Experience. David, the owner, does all the work. Good news: you get the expert, not the trainee. Bad news: there is only me juggling everything and I have to charge enough to keep all the pins in the air. See the pages on Ideas and Bad Practice if there isn't enough here to convince you.
We guarantee our work and your satisfaction. See The Guarantee. Do we ever have to do additional work at no charge to make things right? Sure, but not very often. If we never invoked the guarantee, it wouldn't be much of a guarantee. You only pay for successful results. If we cannot find the problem, you don't get charged for the effort. And that almost never happens.
Liability insurance. $1,000,000.
Standard charges: (1) Time plus (2) Materials plus (3) Travel. You will receive a detailed invoice stating exactly what we did and how much we charged.
(1) Time: Hourly rate = $90.00 We work dockside or at another location of your choice. Time is calculated to the nearest 5 minutes from arrival at the harbor to departure. The minimum is two hours. Shop work is charged for actual time spent. I rarely take breaks of more than a few minutes, so that time is just part of the job. The rate is competitive with tradespeople of similar expertise. If the rate seems high, consider that most of the time I'm doing some overhead task to support the service and not billing. I work pretty intensely when I'm on the job and try not to waste your money.
If I go out for lunch or take a nap in the late afternoon, the clock stops. I tend to work at my desk in the early morning and start jobs around 10 am. I frequently work into the evening to finish things up rather than making another trip. I carry powerful lights, particularly when it gets dark early. Afternoon coffee and the very occasional nap is my concession to being 62 years old. It doesn't do either one of us any good to have me working when I'm really tired.
(2a) Major materials: Anything worth more than around $10 will be itemized on the invoice.
I can be competitive with internet merchants on most equipment. Call me before you buy stuff. Even if you want to buy it elsewhere I may be able to save you a lot of installation time by steering you away from things that will unexpectedly (to you) take a much longer time to install than an equivalent product from another manufacturer. Please don't call for prices if you don't want me to install the equipment. It's all a package. Sales tax? It's the law.
I carry around many, many common parts like wire, fuse holders, terminal strips, switches, circuit breakers, lamps and bilge pumps. Between my shop and my van the material is worth around $60,000 (in little bits and pieces that I hope no one will ever be crazy enough to steal. How would you fence it?). Having the correct part right there when it's needed adds value and has a substantial carrying cost. So I have to make a decent margin on these "little things." If you want to predict what I will use and buy the parts ahead of time I'll be happy to use them. Beware that it may take longer to install something you bought than the exact part I would have chosen for the application, so it can end up costing you more.
If I have to special order a part to complete the job I have to charge list price to cover my time processing the transaction (and the freight.) If I leave the jobsite to run to West Marine for a part, I'm on the clock. That's why I try to carry anything I might need. I show up to work, not to run for parts.
(2b) Incidental materials: covered by fixed fee, usually a $15 to $35 incidental material charge. Example: "Lot(s), Stainless Fasteners, tie-wraps, incidental wire, crimp lugs, butt splices, tape, adhesives and sealants, miscellaneous consumables." This incidental material charge allows us to keep track of sales tax as required by law where the wholesale material may be purchased "for resale only."
(3) Travel charges per day are fixed for each location and roughly correspond to our cost of doing business dockside at that location. Travel fee may be waived for short visits where we have other work in that harbor the same day. Travel charges partially defray our costs for gasoline, vehicle maintenance and depreciation.
Alamitos Bay: $60
Dana Point East: $85
Dana Point West: $75
Huntington Beach: $60
Marina del Rey: $135
Newport Beach: $60
Redondo Beach: $90
San Diego: $250
Shoreline: $60
San Pedro: $75
Wilmington: $65
Standard terms: (This is a little like buying things on the internet.) We require valid credit card information on file together with your signature authorizing us to charge your card for the work you authorize us to perform. Actual charges will be invoiced and charged to the credit card at the end of each day or as soon as practical after that. Invoices and receipts are preferentially delivered via email with fallback to snail mail. We protect your credit card information through strong encryption. How to: Download the credit card form and fax it back to us.
Why do you require credit cards? I have found it almost completely impossible to identify those few customers who are not inclined to pay their bills in a timely manner, if ever. This is a very small outfit. I depend on prompt and steady cash flow to live here in Southern California.
What if I don't want to give you my credit card number? We require a cash (or check) deposit for the amount of the estimate before beginning any work. We will promptly refund any excess should the charges came in at less than the estimate and we expect you to pay the balance due at the end of each day if charges are higher than the estimate.
Worried about giving out your credit card number? If you have a problem with a charge we made to your credit card we will resolve it to your satisfaction. As a final resort, you may dispute the charge with your credit card company and, if we cannot substantiate the validity of the charge, they will reverse the charge. I've never had a problem with a charge. Again: we protect your credit card information on the office computer using strong encryption. We shred the paper.
Written estimates are prepared in good faith and include an allowance for contingencies. We also try to estimate on the high side. However, electrical work on boats is performed to workmanship and industry standards, not to the estimate. We will call you and solicit guidance and financial authorization when it becomes apparent that the scope of the job is going to be significantly larger than anticipated. You can tell us to stop where we are or to proceed. If we can't locate you, we reserve the right to walk away from the job even if that means things will cost you more in the long run. In this day and age, we expect you to be accessible by telephone on the day we're working on your boat.
Boat electrical work often involves conditions which are unknowable until the work commences. Every boat is different. On a house you can reasonably expect 2 x 4 studded walls and wiring that met code when it was built. You can expect the factory built every car the same in a given model year. Also, the way they built it is the way you will find it. None of this is true on a boat.
It can be difficult to make a special trip to do an estimate. Remember, this is a one man show. I can give you a rough estimate over the phone based on previous experience with the kind of work you need. We may be able to refine that estimate if we meet at the boat and go over things with you. Once we're at the boat and you are satisfied with the estimate and otherwise like what you see, I might want to start right then and there to cut at least one trip out of the way. There is no obligation and I won't feel badly if you decide not to have me do the work. My self-respect is in fine shape and I have lots of customers who love me.
Backlog. Our backlog of orders is usually around two weeks. If your boat is in danger of sinking we will try to squeeze you in quickly. Once you are an established customer, we will go to considerable length to make sure your boat is ready before your next trip.
We will not competitively bid
jobs. It's unrealistic
and the least knowledgeable guy wins the contest. We do written estimates.
Our customers use us because they can rely on our working hard, doing the
job right and not cutting corners. 
The largest unknowable in an estimate is how long it will take to run wire from one point to another in the boat. Newer boats tend not to be constructed to easily allow for new wiring. The newer they are the more this tends to be true. Bottom pans with U-shaped channels are glued to the hull. This makes the composite structure stronger, but there may be no access from one point to another without drilling through each intervening obstacle. Factory wiring and equipment is typically installed as the boat is built and can become virtually inaccessible once things are closed up. Most people don't want to see the guts of their boat, don't want to see so much as a screw head. Wiring harnesses are hidden inside tubing or tight-fitting plastic loom. Holes through bulkheads are no bigger than they need to be, making additions following the same route problematic. Wiring is installed behind non-removable panels, built-in furniture and glued-on headliner. Cabinets and lockers do not come apart. Blind fasteners, pneumatically driven nails and the creative use of adhesives are the rule. Air conditioning units are often inaccessible without cutting open compartments and installing access plates. These practices result in a "good-looking," high strength-to-weight structure that maximizes user space and minimizes cost. That is what people look for when they buy a boat, not whether they will be able to fix or modify something five years down the road. This is particularly true of boats at the lower end of their price range, boats that give high value for their cost. But it applies to all newer boats. Manufacturers who stay in business cut costs through technology and maintain their profit margins.
People tend to expect that rework should follow the same rules. They do not want to see the wiring, even on the inside of lockers. My advice to anyone buying a new boat is to have the factory install everything you can think of. Putting it in later will be expensive.
Older boats (pre-1980) were typically wired after they were built so there are accessible raceways, wire chases and removable cover plates and panels. It was acceptable to show the heads of fasteners. Often you can fish around tanks and through hollow structures. Over the years, as the electronics and equipment were upgraded every five or 10 years, the old wires were simply abandoned in place. Chases and wire runs fill up and it may be nearly impossible to pull new ones without identifying and removing the abandoned wiring. Copper wiring also work-hardens and stiffens with vibration. The insulation loses plasticiziers and becomes less flexible. Older wiring was typically not finely stranded and flexible in the first place. Occasionally non-professional installers used solid wiring designed for buildings. The net result is that wire that could be pulled out of a bundle 20 years ago will not budge now. But the new wire still needs to go in. And so it takes time.
When you open up an older boat you often find hidden issues. Dry rot. Wire nuts. Improperly sized wires. Bad splices, twisted, taped and just hanging on. Non-waterproof splices and connections in wet areas. No overcurrent protection (fuses or breakers). Holes between sections that no longer line up. Sheet metal screws in fiberglass panels that have been inserted so many times they no longer hold. At least some of this should be fixed or it means trouble down the line. If its a potential hazard, like no fusing in something I'm working on, I'm obligated to fix it. If you have a problem down the line I don't want to explain why, as a professional, I didn't make it right while I was at it. On the other hand, I don't think it's reasonable to expect me to comb the boat for problems unless that's the assignment.
We all have been spoiled by the revolution in semiconductors and computers. Electronic products with incredible functionality are mass produced for stunningly low costs. Having worked in semiconductors, I understand how it's done. Installing those products correctly, however, is still dependent on skilled, local craftsmanship. I live in a decent neighborhood in Southern California too.
The internet allows sellers to offer mass-produced products in volume at low margins. Not too many years ago dealers used to get a reasonable margin selling products and could afford to install them for less. Now each segment of the business has to carry its own weight.
With all these factors taken together, it is quite possible to spend as much installing electronics as it was to purchase them in the first place. It seems crazy to to some people, but it's mostly because the equipment is relatively inexpensive for its capabilities. Competent personnel are your assurance that the job will be done right the first time, and generally prove less expensive in the long run.
A boat should be reliable. We will help you make and keep it that way. You should have the confidence that you can go out for a long weekend and spend your time with your guests, not worrying about the bilge filling up or the batteries running down or the windlass quitting just when you need to retrieve 300 feet of chain or the autopilot going crazy, the engines refusing to re-start or the genset sputtering to a stop. Peace of mind is possible, but you need to keep systems checked out and do the required preventative maintenance. If you have an older boat that has not had much attention in 20 years you can bet there are dozens of such issues waiting to hit you at the wrong moment. I take care of a number of boats like this and, once I have combed through them, they work much more like they did when they were new. When the next problem comes up, it can be fixed against a background of a boat that is otherwise working fine.
Boats that are run often, at least once a month year round, work when you need them. This is because seals, bearings, pumps and all sorts of things like exercise. You also catch problems while they are just starting to develop. Boats that just sit waiting for the two weeks a year you want to use them will develop problems that only show up out on the water. We can check the systems on your boat several times each year. It's not as certain as exercising all the boats systems every month, but it really helps. It also amazes me how many warning signs people ignore, maybe because they don't know who can fix it. Do you want to have fun with your guests or sweat because this time the windlass will not resume retrieving the anchor after you reset the circuit breaker?
David Sheriff, Owner
Electric Marine
CMET certificate serial 1021
714-396-7857