Frogwatch wrote:

I'd like to pay someone to do the bottom job but my sad experience is
that nobody does it my way and I have been unhappy with everybody
elses work.

Over the years I've found that it doesn't pay to have someone else do my
boatwork. I learned that with bottom paint when I paid a yard to put
two coats one, and I supplied the paint. It turned out I was on board
while the yard worker put a coat on and then started removing the
masking tape. They were going to do one coat, and then keep the extra
paint. They then delayed putting on the zincs on the saildrives until
the hour before launch, when it was discovered they had the wrong zincs.

From then on I decided the I could screw up just as well as the yard
bozos, and for a lot less money! One by one, I found I could handle
jobs that seemed daunting before. For example, I had a major yard
replace a saildrive seal while traveling - they seemed to do the job
properly but the prop fell off a few months later! A few years ago I
changed the other one myself, saving hundreds plus no aggravation. I
had trouble getting marine refridgeration help, so I got my own license,
gauges, and 134a tank and I've taken care of business since. Same with
canvas work and minor glass work. In fact, the only thing I paid
someone else to do in the last 6 years is the rigger who pulled the mast
- its a little hard to do without a hoist, and he only charged half
because I helped him pull three others at the yard that day.