[JiffyLube]

Originally Posted by chucklesR

I try to do it all myself. I'm pretty good with tools, my hands etc. I once hired out a bottom paint at a local marina. They did a suck job, loose paint still left on the boat and just pasted a new coat on top. But they didn't charge a penny more than estimated. I then had them do my power boat's bottom and the job came in at 500 bucks more becuase they had to grind out the barnacles they had not seen, fair enough.
I bring in experts that allow me to watch when I don't know how to do it. I also only use bonded, insured businesses for issues that involve safety, and I include heavy electrical wiring in that; do it wrong and the boat burns or someone gets hurt. The contractor that installed my electical add-ons last year did the job as estimated, a couple of hours late (my fault probably as I was on board watching and talking to him).

In short, I've never had a problem that I would call a problem.

I know I drip varnish, miss spots and make mistakes. I see and feel every run, drip and fish eye I lay down, even when you don't see it I know it's there.

'Professional' just means you get paid to do it, it doesn't imbue some demi-god like ability to be mistake free. It doesn't even mean the pro is more knowledgeable about the job although with a specialist it should.
I do expect a certain level of efficiency from a 'professional' simply because they do the work more often and know the tricks of the trade.

Enlightened amatuers who love to work on boats (I'm one) do a better job, or at least try to, and when it's our boat or even a friends we do the best we can. I actually have more experience helping friends grind / sand / paint etc.. on their boat than I do on mine.

Now if you'll pardon me, I've got some fish eyes to fix in my interior varnish. I forgot to clean the teak with acetone before laying a unthinned first coat

I will never say that an owner or an enlightened amateur cannot do as good of a job as a professional, as I've seen many jobs done by owners as good as a professional could do. The main difference between an owner and a professional is, a professional has to be able to do the job fast enough to make a living at it. Among professionals there are other defining characteristic that they share besides putting out a a good job as fast as they can, and they are integrity and honesty. There is also an unwritten code of ethics among professionals, which also means that the good guys know who the other good guys are...Pros do not generally associate with hacks. A professional should also be as knowledgeable or more knowledgeable than the people that hire him, mainly because he has dealt with these situations many more times than the owner, and he is genuinely interested in solving the problem. Pros talk to their peers if they have a problem that is stumping them (which is usually not often), and exchange bits of information that they learn or know about. I'm talking about the real professionals, not the unskilled workers workers that unfortunately there are more of. Professionals also tend to be specialist in the work that they gravitate to, so it's important to pick the right person for the job at hand. Just like in construction contracting, I'm sure a yard tries to put together the best team of professionals they can...but pros are hard to come by. With parents pushing all of their kids to go into college (even though the kid may not be college material), and the high schools and colleges not offering good shop classes, the trades are not replenishing their work force as fast as the demand for these types of workers. So what are you left with, lots of unskilled labor, and not enough mentors to go around.