"Marine" prices.

[Baddox]

I needed 2 sets of 2 O-rings to service a heat exchange on a Nanni engine. Dealer price.... £39 per pair. Engineering firm price <£5 for all four.

[Poignard]

Having seen some of the stuff in local chandlers, I'd be just as leery about the quality; too much of their stainless steel comes from an anonymous source in China. If it matters, get a known make, preferably made in the EU

I bought this s/s shackle at a chandlery:

Defective ss shackle (4) - Copy.JPG

[superheat6k]

Not so recent now, but VP wanted £1,600 for a new gearbox oil cooler for my TAMD60C engines with Twin Disc gearboxes.

So I did some research and applied some practical engineering to fit a Bowman cooler, with necessary hydraulic fittings and mount brackets to make the finished job look like original kit, I even calculated the internal surface area of the Bowman slightly increased on the original VP.

I bought two kits of bits for both gearboxes for a tad under £200 for BOTH engines. They worked superbly and being made of decent cuprous nickel no longer required the anodes which caused the failure of the crap VP item in the first place.

[thinwater]

charcoal filter for the dirty toilet tank - modified with a screwfit union for £20 and bought charcoal pellets for cheap as opposed to replacing the filter every year at £140 +
pay roughly £5 per year on charcoal.

Jon

He probably just cut it in half and used a union. This can also be done using what we call a no-hub in the US.

Do remember to tamp the carbon in with gentle tapping and to insert a piece of foam to maintain compression. If the carbon settles the filter will bypass on one side. This is a good reason to open the filter on one end!

http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/20...nt-filter.html

Starbord+Hatch%u0025252C+Air+Filter+II+low+res.jpg

[thinwater]

Webbing and fabric. West Marine sells tubular climbing webbing for 10 times the price of any climbing store, exact same material.

But always watch the quality. This is not always the case.

---

I posted 100 of what I feel are "best buys" on my blog. It starts here. I hope this helps.
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/20...chapter-1.html
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/se...bel/100%20best

[Elessar]

Having worked in a chandlers for a short time ,I was amazed at the mark up on some of the items 200% to 300% was not unusual .

What do you think the mark up was last time you had a bottle of wine in a restaurant?
Always remember mark up is not profit, merely contribution.
I have no problem paying for the service a chandlery provides.
It’s the marine parts suppliers that are the problem. Starter motor for me £250, the exact same one sprayed green £760.
That’s what we should be worried about not the chandlers.
But the chandlers could help themselves by stocking the black starter motors in the first place I guess.

[colind3782]

Maybe we should start an 'Alternative Sources' forum???

It could save our community a lot of money.

Great idea!

[Allan]

Webbing and fabric. West Marine sells tubular climbing webbing for 10 times the price of any climbing store, exact same material.

But always watch the quality. This is not always the case.

---

I posted 100 of what I feel are "best buys" on my blog. It starts here. I hope this helps.
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/20...chapter-1.html
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/se...bel/100%20best

I'm just off to do some work at our yacht club so haven't had time to look. Would it be possible to cut and paste something onto this thread?
Allan

[Stemar]

What do you think the mark up was last time you had a bottle of wine in a restaurant?
Always remember mark up is not profit, merely contribution.
I have no problem paying for the service a chandlery provides.
It’s the marine parts suppliers that are the problem. Starter motor for me £250, the exact same one sprayed green £760.
That’s what we should be worried about not the chandlers.
But the chandlers could help themselves by stocking the black starter motors in the first place I guess.

A restaurant is a very different thing from a chandlery. You're paying for somewhere to sit, people to prepare the meal, provide dishes & glasses and all the rest that goes towards a good meal out. I knew someone who ran the restaurant in a good hotel once and he said that if the ingredients for a meal cost more than 1/3 the price you're charging, you're going down.

A chandlery is more like an off licence. I expect a bigger markup in the chandlers than in the offie, the market's a fraction of the size, but I don't expect to pay 3 or 4 times the online price.

Equally, I'd expect to pay a bit extra for a coat of green paint and a Volvo sticker - how big is the market for Volvo Penta bits compared with Ford, and just having a part in your database has a cost, before you actually carry stock - but not 3 times the price.

[Dino]

I ordered shaft seals for a Vetus 80Kgf Bowthruster from the Vetus shop. €18.50 each. When I stripped down the thruster I found that there are two shaft seals, one facing each direction. Called into a local bearing shop and I bought 4 for €8.

I also got the same place to make up new fuel hoses. They reused the existing fittings and I got the correct ISO pipe. €30 for the 4 new hoses.
Volvo Penta wanted around €380.
The same place sell a full range of Baldwin Filters.