On Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:40:06 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

in another way...

Today we were talking with Charley, a guy who'd shown up at the side of our
boat a few days ago, looking for fiberglass work, having had 37 years of
experience in boat layup and repair. As Lydia was off the boat at the time
he knocked on the hull, I deferred speaking with him at length until she got
back.

Fast forward, as he's now working on a large boat which had been very poorly
sanded by the yard, leaving lots of divots at the same time as taking off an
inordinate amount of fiberglass.

A friend in the yard who I'd met on the internet during the very early
stages of our boat searching, predating seeing any boats at all, yet, comes
over yesterday asking if I'd met Charley, saying that he was WAY
overqualified to be in this yard, and, better yet, was putting on the same
fairing compound as we were going to be using.

Off we go to see what's up, and get an idea of how this stuff works. This
morning, we chat him up and ask him to come over and look at our boat, sort
of to look over our shoulder. I noticed that our guy who has been helping
us was at the boat, and preparing for work.

While we're showing Charley, the one who's applying AdTech, the epoxy
fairing compound we'll use, to the other boat, what we'll be doing to our
boat in the course of the repairs, our helper walks (well, sort of
half-runs) by and says, "Do you want me to leave now?"

WTF??? I say, "Of course not - what do you mean?" No comment, but instead
he hustles to the bow where he always puts his tool bin, hoists it and
nearly runs back to the car where his wife is still sitting, as she usually
does when she drops him off. Another quick trip to fetch his lunch and
drinks cooler, announcing loudly that he's leaving.

Protestations to the contrary from the three of us under the boat while this
is giong on have no effect, and he's gone.

A short while later, while I'm off doing something else related to our
goings-on, he shows up again, to fetch something he's forgotten, and blows
up at Lydia, who's cutting fiberglass patches in prep for our work today -
an activity he had been participating in each morning - when she,
short-fused as she is, yells at him for leaving that way.

"You owe me for two days' work (we paid him in full on Monday for all the
work he'd done to that date, and all the materials he'd bought), so I'm
keeping the grinder/buffer and the (10 bottles of $15) wax!"

He went on to say, "Good Luck! Cuz you're sure as Hell going to need it!"
as he stomped off. WTF???

Phone calls to his home, his and his wife's cells go unanswered. So far, 10
hours later, there's been no response to the email I sent to his wife (who
was as baffled by his behavior as we, according to Lydia, who was talking to
her during all that going on).

So, as he seems to have unceremoniously resigned, we seem likely to take
advantage of Charley, who came back later today for further consultation as
to what we should be doing before he arrived in full gear.

From watching him on the other boat, while he's more expensive than our
prior helper, he's also VERY much more qualified to do what he does, not to
mention a great deal faster, and may well end up costing less - never mind
the boo-boos we won't have to address :{))

For the morbidly curious, I append the letter I sent to his wife's email
addess after all this was under way...

I hope I am not too far out of line, and I don't want you to see any
hint of condesension in this, but I go on the theory that publishing
an E-mail is a good way to **** someone off and I go out of my way not
to annoy a compleat nut. I am afraid to. Free advice, worth every
penny you paid for it. I realize I wasn't there.

You tale makes me happy with my 22ft aluminum boat. I can live with
the original well weathered 1979 paint. I have three grand in the
boat, including a head gasket, a grand installed. My unimployed son
did the work.

Casady