Barnacle Bill Magazine March 2016 issue 3 | Page 11

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als and labour and it cost what it cost. I eventually detailed our delivery costs with a modest 15% mark up for
profit. The yard took this to the owner who’s attitude was ‘why are you bothering with this minutiae, I want the
work done, stop penny pinching and commission the work’. The yard, a large and well known operation, was
terrified of being seen to be overcharging the customer who, actually, wasn’t worried about reasonable costs
given that his toy was a 100 year old 100ft long wooden yacht. Yards need to manage their customer’s expectations and explain to them why the charges are what they are. If this involves adding £200 per week to the bill
to pay for a skilled apprentice then so be it. That apprentice will become a boat builder and will ensure that the
skills are still available in 10, 20, and 40 years time.
You would think that traditional shipwright and boat building skills would be in terminal decline, when, in fact,
there is great demand for these skills and a necessity to bring more trainees into the sector bu BV