Is DIY Dead?
The older I get, the less interested I am in crawling under a boat to roll on bottom paint. Scraping and sanding? Forget about it—I’ll hire someone, and work a little longer at the keyboard to pay the bill.
Maybe you’re not like me. Maybe your spine is still supple, your knees don’t creak and you’d like to save a few bucks by doing it yourself. Is this still an option, now that boatyards face a zillion environmental laws, with stiff fines and penalties for those who break them? You’d think not, since if a DIY-er pollutes, the boatyard pays the penalty—they pay twice, really, since doing it yourself also costs the yard some profit. But I found several boatyards, on both coasts, who are okay with weekend warriors doing their own work—some even welcome them.
Doing it yourself has always been a privilege, not an entitlement, at most boatyards, or at
