Did this about 3 years or so ago as a car mechanic and it seemed fairly well received. Have been doing marine since then. Working mainly on 25-60ft pleasure boats. Some bigger, some smaller.
[AMA] I'm a Marine Mechanic
brendanm on 28/06/2021 - 16:40
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Not possible at the moment in this market. Energy density is too low with electric, so range is terrible. There are electric boats available, they are just slow with poor range.
The chance of shock from the extension cord in the water makes it too risky
How is work-life balance? Are you happy with what you earn?
Better than working on cars. I work 7:30 to 4:00 mon-fri. Money is better than in cars as well, there is a massive shortage of marine mechanics for some reason.
thanks and was there anything that inspired you to be one?
Sick of doing the same thing working on cars all the time. So much basic servicing and brakes. Wasn't getting a payrises where I was, while also not being appreciated, so thought I'd go for something different. It's been great, love learning new things, and it's generally much bigger jobs, diagnostics etc.
Break Out Another Thousand
Very accurate, this sort of stuff is B.O.A.T.T though.
honest mistakes you have made when repairing a boat, but didn't tell the customer
None. If you mess up, it's so much easier owning up to it. Everyone makes mistakes, why turn a tiny thing into a massive one lying about it.
bullshit but nice answer
Not bullshit. An example - maybe a few months after I started, I was drilling holes for a solenoid box for an anchor winch in a sailing cat, was drilling with a bit of tape wrapped around the drill bit as a depth guide. One of the four holes went though into a cabin. Let the owner know, he was fine with it, told him we could have it filled with resin and gelcoated to match, instead he was happy to just fill with Sikaflex, as the colour matched anyway.
If he hadn't been told, and randomly discovered a patched hole in his cabin wall one day, right behind the new soleboid box, he probably would have been very upset.
Own up to stuff, and give a solution, and generally people are very reasonable.
@brendanm: 100% this. If my guys come up and tell me they broke something or damaged something, it's much easier to deal with compared to them hiding it and a customer noticing it 4 days out from picking up their car.
Is there such a thing as a boat wrecker in Australia for body parts?
I've seen many ads for outboard motors but trying to find parts for early 2000 Quintrex boats seem non-existent?Not really, as they are all so different. What sort of stuff do you need?
Window frame for a runabout, told by Telwater to take the whole frame to a reseller and the other option being to get an ally welder to make one up
Yeah, it would likely be specific to that exact model and that year, the odds of finder another are quite low. They are right, easiest option is to get a new one done. Has it corroded out?
@IIGnomeII: Oh, it would be pretty mangled then I imagine. I'd say getting one made is going to be the only real option.
How bad are corroded exhausts on bowriders really? Seemed quite pushy at last service to get it done ASAP, but when said will consider other quotes due to the hefty price, they backed off and said it should be fine to last you till next service…
Very bad. I've replaced countless engines due to water ingestion from people leaving manifold/riser replacement too long. Pulled out a Mercruiser 5.7 today for just this reaaon. Every 5 years or so is a pretty good rule for replacement.
People balk at the price of the exhaust parts, yet if they don't get replaced, not only are you up for the cost of the exhaust parts anyway, but possibly for an engine as well.
Hmm, that echos precisely what they said too, but no idea how bad condition it actually is. Might just have to bite the bullet next service then. So far Mercruiser 4.3 has been chugging along perfectly fine, zero issues.
You don't know when it was last done? Did they take the riser off and look, or make the call based off external corrosion at the joint?
@brendanm: I don't know when it was last done or even properly serviced, so did a major tear-down engine, transom, bellows replacement etc service in Feb and replaced tons of parts, cost about $2,000.
Stopped shy at the exhaust though as that was similar money alone. Taken it out on a dozen runs since and it's been flawless every time but there's always that niggle…
do you play golf with Titleist balls?
What is the Fiat/Peugeot/Vauxhall/Jeep of boats and what is the Hyundai/Toyota/Kia/Mazda of boating…
What do you like about working on boats compared to working on cars. (ie: … is better than working on car type jobs)
What do you like about working on cars compared to working on boats. (ie: …. is worse than working on car type jobs)Biggest engine you have worked on in boating?
What is the Fiat/Peugeot/Vauxhall/Jeep of boats and what is the Hyundai/Toyota/Kia/Mazda of boating…
Very difficult to answer to be honest. Boats are all "custom", even production boats. You also don't have the boat manufacturer making the engines, or any of the parts a lot of the time. Things like Bayliner get called crap because they are a budget boat, but they use the same engine as one costing twice as much. Price is dropped by using cheaper wiring, switches, slightly thinner fibreglass, not finishing hatches etc as well.
The closest comparison would probably be high tech diesels with pod drives as the "Peugeot" (Merc Zeus drives in particular", and Cummins/cat engines with shaft drive as the "Toyota".
What do you like about working on boats compared to working on cars. (ie: … is better than working on car type jobs)
What do you like about working on cars compared to working on boats. (ie: …. is worse than working on car type jobs)To be honest the only thing better in cars is being able to put them on a hoist, and get to most normal stuff relatively easily. Servicing in a lot of boats as very much an afterthought.
Most other things are better on boats, the problems are bigger, the fixes are more interesting, even figuring out how to replace engines or parts can be a challenge.
There's also the advantage of sea trials, where you get paid to just cruise for 3 hours or so.
Biggest engine you have worked on in boating?
Probably c18 cats off the top of my head.
Planning on upgrading our Force 21 with a mercury racing 1350.
Any problems with these motors?
I assume you would be going twins?
Not into a Force 21 hull
I actually assumed you were joking.
@MS Paint: It seems like a wildly excessive amount of power for a 21 ski boat, but don't have much of an idea about the performance/ski boat side of things.
It seems like a wildly excessive amount of power for a 21 ski boat
I guess that's why people do it 😀
Just need a shit tonne of ballast in the bow.
Do boats (at least the newer ones) have their version of OBDII for easy diags?
They all have their own proprietary protocols. Some will provide fault info on their own screens, they also have "gateways" that transfer engine data to fishfinder/chart plotter.
Diagnostics can be quite interesting due to all the "stuff" they have connected.
I had my fuel gauge replaced on 2003 60 hp mercury. Under floor 60lts tank in a quintrex boat.
Dealer said old fuel had caused it to seize up.
Took boat for a run and after 30 minutes motor stopped. No fuel.
Dealer said fuel blockage. Replaced lines and said spent 5 hours “trying “ to clean tank. $650 more.
Dealer said 90% sure he got all the gunk.
Hasn’t inspired confidence.
Was there a better way to go about this.
Are there specialist fuel tank cleaners?There are specialist fuel tank cleaners, however they generally dislike petrol, and charge a tonne.
It's generally fairly easy to get the floor up and remove the tank on that sort of thing.
Depending on age and type, the file line can delaminate internally and block things up.
Do you have a water seperating fuel filter between the tank and the engine?
Thanks for that. I have a filter. Changed at first job, then another new one 5 days later.
I’m just dirty because everything was working well before they changed the fuel gauge. I’m now carrying a 15 litre emergency tank.So you never had a problem prior to them touching it? Seems a bit weird for sure.
When I was a mechanic in the 70's working on cars, there used to be water getting into car fuel tanks when they fill up with fuel either from the placement of the under-ground tanks or through condensation in either tanks. Either way, we used to get rid of the water by putting a bottle of metho to a tank of fuel, so I would say it would be 1 liltre to 50 litres. I never thought about working on marine motors, I just worked on Holdens like the A9X Torana :)
Dreaming of a 40' yacht… get out of paying rent, travel the seven seas, become a marine dweller.
Then… I was told NSW does not allow people to reside on their yachts.
Mooring fees at this particular marina were 11k a year.How come I see people living on their yachts? Why are they allowed?
As far as I know there is no law against being a live aboard, though I haven't looked. Plenty do it.
The buying the boat is generally the cheap part, if you can work on it yourself, upkeep is very expensive. A general rule of thumb is approximately 10% of the original purchase price per year in maintenance, less if you are lucky, more if you have a major failure. As they get older, maintenance only goes up.
It looks like Noosa River is the place to be !
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-25/anger-at-eyesore-live…
Was there a transition process from Light Vehicle to Marine? As in doing a course (or two)?
Or was it "on the job" training and the employer giving you easy jobs to start with?
Have you been a boaty yourself?
All on the job, am about to get formal qualifications through RPL at the moment. A couple of easy things for a few weeks, then thrown in the deep end. One of my first jobs was repowering a 55ft sailing cat.
I've had jetskis for years, sold them to buy a house a few years back and bought a boat after that. You almost have to have one here, missing out on a lot of great spots if you don't.
Which brand of tools do you use / prefer?
Were most of your existing automotive tools transferrable to the marine world? Any new specific tools required?
A lot of older inboard engines are just marinised automotive motors. Did this help the transition a lot or are most of the engines you work on marine specific?
I use a bit of everything. Snap on and Wurth for ratchets and sockets. Tool pro for expendable screwdrivers, vessel for good screwdrivers.
Everything was transferable, all specialised tools are provided in the workshop.
A lot of older inboard engines are just marinised automotive motors. Did this help the transition a lot or are most of the engines you work on marine specific?
They all are really, Mercruiser is pretty much the only one who makes their own "made for marine" stuff. Volvo use gm stuff for their petrol stuff still. Volvo diesel is marinised truck motors, same as cat, Cummins etc. Mercruiser diesel is VW stuff these days.
It's all the bits that go along with it that needed some learning, outdrives, different shaft seals for straight inboards, cable steering, hydraulic steering, electric steering, pod drives, etc.
Do you need to know more general boatbuilding skills as well, eg to repair parts of the boat you need to cut into for mechanical fixes?
Luckily not, we have a couple of shipwrights we use to do any significant repairs. Fibreglass is not fun to play with!
electic boats?