New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

[JohnDoeNut]

My friend and I are avid SCUBA divers in the North East. We both have hundreds of dives logged in very deep, very dark murky waters. Both of us live within a mile of the ocean and in very close proximity to many large marinas.

He came to me the other day and like everyone nowadays was looking for ways to earn some extra money to supplement his income. He proposed we start a side job cleaning boats in the water, and performing other boat related in-water services.

At the expense of sounding very ignorant, is this something that is in demand? Are in-water services performed by divers something boaters have a need for?

I want to play the devil's advocate when I speak to him again about it this week.

 

[Beefer]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

Down here in FL there are quite a few in-water boat cleaners. I don't know how well they do, but they're here. I think they also do things like recovery of items that fell over. It couldn't hurt to try it part-time, and see how it goes.

 

[lowkee]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

Best bet, look for a forum about it. There is a forum for everything nowadays. If all else fails, pay someone who runs a cleaning business far away (no chance for competition) to show you the ropes. Maybe offer to help him a few times using your own equipment for free just to learn how it works.

Another avenue you may want to explore may be contracting with the local (and not so local) police and rescue depts as a rescue and recovery diver.

Also, not knowing where you live, if you live near the NH coast, try Wentworth Marina in Portsmouth. You have the highest pocket of money there and they may offer your services for you if they like you. At $10K year membership fee, you can expect a decent fee for your work.

 

[capt sam]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

as stated it's a good business here, mostly word of mouth but guys I know that do it are always busy. I would think given your area it may be a good untapped market.

 

[JohnDoeNut]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

Thank you for the replies; great info.

I live in Connecticut, on the Long Island Sound. If you're not familiar with it, the water is pretty gross.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

suggest you check into the polution aspect of it. especially if chemicals are used. also if the marina's allow it.

 

[JohnDoeNut]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

suggest you check into the polution aspect of it. especially if chemicals are used. also if the marina's allow it.

Great point, thanks!

 

[dingbat]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

My wife had a friend who made a pretty good living at it for several years. She and another girl wore bikinis as a gimmick. Both where 8 or 9s on a scale of 1-10 to begin with so the bikini gimmick certainly proved to be a good marketing success.

They even went as far as to hire a couple of high school girls in the summer before giving up the whole thing when she got pregnant with her first child.

 

[haskindm]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

I had a friend that did it for awhile. There does not seem to be any real money in it. He did it for "beer money" and perhaps pay for some scuba equipment he would not ordinarily buy. If you do it with that attitude, it may be a neat way to make a few extra bucks. If you try to quit your day job and make a living at it, you will probably be very disappointed.

 

[smclear]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

I lived in the Ft. Lauderdale area for about 10 years back in the mid 80's to mid 90's. I worked at Pier 66, Bahia Mar, and at Harbourtown Marina. I am also a certified diver and would clean boat bottoms for extra $'s. I only cleaned the bottoms. If memory serves, I was getting $1.35/ft. or approx. $80 for a sixty footer. Typically, it would take me 2-3 hours to complete. Pretty good extra cash since I owned my gear and a tank of air cost less than $3 at the time. The best day I had I think I ended up making ~$600.00. There was a SORC race that day and once one sailboat saw me cleaning a bottom, they all wanted it done. Thing is, they all just came out of the yard with clean bottoms to start with. Crazy sailors, give me a stink pot any day. It's not bad money, but the work is hard and you're not in the best environment. For one, if tide was out, there was less than 3 feet between bottom of hull and bottom of channel. Not to easy to work in with full gear on. Secondly, the water in most Marinas stinks. Not too many boats really do get their holding tanks pumped at the fuel dock. Most just dump in their slip. And then you get to swim in it I quit doing it myself when a worm slithered out of my ear after one job.

There is a demand for this type of service. Most boats loose a ton of efficiency once even the littlest skirt starts growing on the bottom. At the time I was down in Fl. therre were several businesses that did this type of work full time. Best of Luck.

 

[Backyardhockey]

Re: New Here - Friend Wants to go into Business Cleaning Boat in Water...

Yes, Sailboat races! Find every yacht club in your area and figure out when the important sailboat races are. You will go from boat-to-boat as everybody wants an edge. Also, consider golf courses.