CSR MARINE

We have brought our boat to CSR for years. They are not inexpensive but had a good reputation. The people are very friendly. However the attention to detail is lacking. Every year when we pick up our boat there's a little something wrong. It may be that they leave tools in the bilge, or otherwise don't clean up after themselves. Sometimes it's turning something off / on and forgetting to reset to where it should be. We've had to have them come to our dock a couple of time to correct a problem they'd caused - and to be fair they are VERY responsive. This year their error of omission was much bigger and could have resulted in our boat sinking. They were very responsive to our complaint in terms of sending someone to fix it, but it was totally unnecessary. The issue is not that they're rushed to do our work - it's a busy shipyard and we are never in a hurry. We just want the work done right. I really wish they would implement better QC inspection processes. I am not sure whether we will go back to CSR again because our confidence is sorely shaken.

Their sloppiness could have killed us!  Battery bolts on one of the two starting batteries were left loose, not even finger tight. The bolts are scorched and the lock washers are welded to the bolt heads (wrong end of the bolt for where lock washers belong), there are burn marks on the new battery box, this could have easily caused a fire while we were operating the boat.

This is a yard that has one of the highest labor rates in Puget Sound and you would expect that high cost to go with attention to detail.  But, there is more sloppiness to report before getting to the outrageous overcharges.  We selected this yard based on experiences we had with CSR in Des Moines 6 to 8 years ago.  It appears now that the owner no longer cares what the customers think and that most of the honest people who used to work for CSR have gone elsewhere.  With that said, here is a list of our complaints that we reported to CSR and that they have not bothered to respond to.

Some electrical connections on the engine were pulled out during the engine service and were left hanging.

Plastic sheeting that was taped down to protect our swim platform and back teak deck was installed only after the boat had been sitting and collecting yard dirt (including bottom paint) for a week.  This yard dirt was ground into our teak and fiberglass every time the workers walked over the decks.  The tape used to attach the sheeting was designed for short term use but, after 4 weeks, had to be scraped off with razor blades.  The teak may be permanently stained, the swim platform required strong fiberglass cleaners and hours of work for us to clean.

The ports that were to be re-bedded were left wide open even while the cleanup crew was spraying the boat down for delivery.  The estimate was 14 hours labor to re-bed 4 ports.  One port was re-bedded before the worker called to tell us the bedding was fine and that he would just clean up the seals on the other three.  He did nothing further, not even closing the other three ports.  For this, he charged us 10 hours.

The powder coating on our davit was damaged.  It will be very difficult to keep rust from occurring through the scratches without taking the davit in to be powder coated again.  It remains to be seen if the cable and pulley replacement the yard recommended was done correctly (we can only hope until we have a chance to use the davit).

The work on the engines (antifreeze, hoses, and heat exchangers) was estimated at a number of hours that seemed high to us during the estimation process.  The final bill had those hours rearranged a bit which obscured that fact that they ended up significantly exceeding the estimate.  In addition to exceeding the estimate, two coolant hoses on each engine were not changed out -- those were hoses I specifically pointed out to the lead mechanic who added 4 extra hours to the estimate due to the difficulty required for those particular hoses.  We were charged those 4 extra hours and then some.  Now we are left with those four 22 year old hoses that we will need to pay someone else to change out within the next year -- 4 hours for the hoses and 4 to 6 additional hours to drain and refill the antifreeze.  This is inexcusable.

Part of the battery work was replacing the battery boxes and trimming the lids since there was not enough room for the full length of the lids.  The lids were not trimmed, instead they were just jammed into place with edges buckled.  We paid for this service but I had to spend a couple hours customizing the lids myself after getting the boat back home.

There was one time and materials item on the estimate, the flow meter installation.  Before agreeing to this item, I discussed how much time would be needed with the lead mechanic.  He looked at the job and, with a straight face, said it would take two to four hours.  We were billed ten hours for this work plus over $1000 in parts.  I'll admit that this part of the job looks deluxe but at roughly 350% of the verbal estimate, I would have taken this work elsewhere and gotten a "good" installation instead of a "gold plated" installation.

For what should have been about 7 to 8 working days of labor, our boat was held in the yard for 4 weeks.  By the end of that time, we felt that we were in a hostage situation.  We initially had the boat hauled to check the bottom and discuss how much work we needed done.  Once they had our boat, we were on their time schedule, not ours any more.  It took a full week before we had the estimate for the work and they would not start any work until the estimate was complete and signed.  Once the estimate was signed, they started work on the engines and removed the heat exchangers.  After that, all engine room work was suspended for the next two weeks until the heat exchangers were returned.  By this time, we were calling the yard daily to try to get them to finish the work before a major holiday weekend.   We highly recommend that you do not let them lift your boat and put it in their yard.  Once the boat is on the hard, you are completely at their mercy and they don't really seem to care that you might want your boat somewhere else -- like afloat at a dock with friends.

Before taking delivery of the boat, we went through some of the items with the lead mechanic.  When I complained about some of the overcharges, he explained that he knew about every mechanic in the area -- the only way I could take this comment was as a veiled threat that we would get bad service from any of his friends in the future if we complained.  I'm not too worried, not all boat mechanics lack morality, I know some who are positively honest (and as a result, not as available as I would like).

After the first heat exchanger was pulled, I checked the boat over the weekend and found the bilge full of antifreeze.  This was rather a sloppy way of draining the antifreeze (not what I expected).  According to the lead mechanic, the bilge was cleaned out the morning of our delivery.  He didn't specify if they properly cleaned it up or let much of it run out the bilge pumps into Salmon Bay.  Two weeks later, we still smell antifreeze in the boat.  On the plus side, I have not detected any obvious leaks.

We paid the ransom to get our boat out of the yard.  From our past experience, I expected the owner to respond to the list of complaints that I sent to him a week later.  A week after sending the complaints to the owner's email, I called him.  He found the email and said he would look into it.  I then got the only response we have seen -- a note from the owner that he had forwarded our complaints to the people who did the work and who over billed us.  Since then, there has been absolute silence.  We thought the owner would try to make things right.  Once he forwarded our complaints to the people who caused them, we understood that no attempt would be made to address our complaints and no attempt would be made to refund any of the over billing.

We recommend that any boat owner avoid this yard.

This shipyard is AWESOME. When I first moved to Seattle and asked for recommendations everyone told me CSR was the best, and they were right.
They provide professional estimates and take the time to thoroughly review them. All work is documented (Nigel took lots of photos before, and after). They stick within their estimate and if something comes up are proactive in communicating. We have been using them for a few years now and I have the utmost faith in them and the work they do. If they find a less expensive and/or better alternative, they recommend it.
They treat our boat as if it was theirs - it comes back much cleaner and shipshape than when we drop it off. They are very flexible and willing to work with their clients.
They stand by their service and go the extra mile for us.
I plan to be with CSR for many, many years to come - I know thanks to them my boat will last for many, many years!

They're wonderful. They did whatever they needed to do. We had some work done somewhere else and it wasn't done well. We brought the boat back to CSR because we had used them in the past. They are professional and they did it in good time; I think they are a very good service. They know how to do things and how to figure out what's wrong. I absolutely would call them again.

They were professional. They had great quality of work and the explained everything.