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"Phil" wrote:

I have seen "little people" trash a restaraunt and mom and pop leave a buck
tip when they should leave a fifty.
Restaraunts are easy and I always leave 15%+. My confusion isn't a
restaraunt or the pizza delivery person.

What is considered normal job duties and what isn't. At a marina, is it the
dockhands job to help you in a slip when you call in? They say someone will
meet you at the slip and help you with the lines. Is that considered his
regular job and is part of the $2 a foot? Whether your boat is heavy or not?
I don't usually need help but they always send someone anyway and the guys
stands there waiting for something to pull on.

Well at our regular marina we don't get people helping with the dock
lines, and the marina sometimes doesn't send anyone to help with the
dock lines of transients even if you ask, so there's no problem with
tipping.

If we are going into a strange marina we usually DO need help. I
don't jump, don't throw lines very well, and while I suppose I could
handle the helm, I am scared to do it because our boat is big and
heavy and could easily trash or sink any boat that we ran into,
including some very pricey ones. And I don't want to do that.

Some dockmasters have very strange ideas about what we can and can't
do with our boat, which is 37,000 lbs, and has a modified full keel
(so is susceptible to current and does not turn easily), significant
windage and only has a 65 hp engine (at best).

We've had them tell us to turn across a significant current and come
in with the other side of the boat to the dock - forgetting to tell us
that there WAS current. And then in a trice we are being carried
helplessly down the fairway sideways. Sadists.

Or the face dock where they motioned us to come into a small space
between two other boats with the wind blowing toward the docks at 25
knots. If Bob had miscalculated it would have been bad. As it was
the boat slammed into the dock so hard (with the engine in neutral
after he lined us up) that one of our fenders was permanently
deflated.

Some marinas do NOT send people out to help and expect you to get into
the slip by yourself. Two that I remember particularly were
Lighthouse Marina just north of Ft. Lauderdale and Marathon Marina.
And some will send help only if you are pretty positive that you do
indeed need help, and then only if they feel like it.

Some marinas are really good about helping, and those are often the
ones where help is REALLY needed, mostly because of current. And some
are not good about it and in addition have unnecessary obstacles set
up to entrap the unwary. Like there's a marina which shall remain
nameless where the marina manager keeps his boat at the gas dock so
that the slightest miscalculation and we'd mash his boat. When he
could keep it just a few feet down the dock where it wouldn't be in
danger.

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
x-no-archive:yes "Phil" wrote:

What happens if you order just four pints? Is their a rule of thumb how
much
one can order without feeling like he should?
The whole tipping thing is way to confusing. I think they should just pay
everyone a decent wage and forget tipping and if your service sucks you
get
fired just like any other job.
I never even know who to tip anymore.

Yes it is confusing - that's why you need to know. In the States it's
usually 15% for waiters unless it's a buffet, in which case we usually
leave less. If the wait person has done a significantly wonderful
job, or if we've got little people who have spread cracker crumbs all
over the floor or something, we might up it to 20%. Bob's method is
to take the MD state tax (5%) and multiply by 3 and then round up to a
whole number (or down in the service was bad) - that way you don't tip
on the tax. Of course it doesn't work if the tax isn't 5%.

Do you tip the guy that works at the marina that grabs your lines for you
when you come in?

We do if he or she does more than just grab the lines. If he has to
wrestle the boat into the slip against wind and current (as we have a
full keel), or if he's out there in the freezing rain, then yes. If
he drops the lines or doesn't catch them and doesn't know how to tie a
knot then no.



grandma Rosalie