Quote:
Originally Posted by ndutton
Getting back to standards, imagine what boats would be like without them. How many previous owner nightmares have we dealt with? Without the standards that would be the norm.
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I think that's the issue - complete and utter lack of not only compliance with the standards, but of knowledge of the very existence of the standards. It's been my experience that your average Joe Boatowner doesn't comply with ABYC standards in making do-it-yerself repairs to his vessel in part because he's blissfully ignorant that ABYC even exists, let alone what its standards require. And even if he knows ABYC exists, he's not going to spend the money it takes to either become a member or get copies of the applicable standards. Or even if there is a way to get the standards cheaply or even free, he's not going to make that effort, and he's not going to take all that time to read the damn thing and try to parse it and understand what it requires, let alone go to the trouble and expense of actually doing what it says.
So your typical boat owner goes ahead and makes whatever repairs or mods he thinks are good, based on his own gut feel, past experience, what the guy in the slip next to him says, or what some guy who he knows who's owned a boat for years tells him, or whatever - regardless of whether an ABYC standard applies or what it says or anything else.
It seems to me analogous to your state's building code and local ordinances. Joe Homeowner thinks he's a handyman do-it-yerselfer and decides to rewire his garage, or renovate his kitchen and do all the plumbing himself. Does he even have the slightest clue what "the code" requires? And here, it actually IS a legally enforceable requirement. The guy is not even going to pull a permit from the municipality to do the work, let alone follow the code. He's going to go to Lowe's and buy himself a Bernz-o-matic torch and some copper pipe and stuff and start drilling holes in floor joists, based on what he saw some guy on an HGTV show do.
Seems to me there are "levels" of boat owners. I submit that merely by being here and actively participating in this type of discussion, those that are here are at least slightly above average, because we're at least seeking such knowledge and trying to learn what's "right". I know that a hell of a lot of boat owners don't go to the internet to search for such information. They just ask the guy behind the counter at West Marine or their local boat supply dealer or whatever - or just go to Lowe's and look for hardware that looks right and goops and stuff that say they're waterproof.
So yeah, we're ahead of the game, I think.
There's my 4 cents....