Last year I got very good prices from Cabelas sporting goods stores.
Their prices
on a dock ladder and outboard assist bracket were way below what West
Marine
was charging. You can find them at:
http://www.cabela.com/
They have an extensive general catalog of fishing gear, boating gear,
etc., and a
specialized catalog just on boating. I would not classify them as a full
service
boat supply house, but they are worth checking out. In my location just
north of Chicago, I am surrounded with West Marine stores. All the
independent yacht stores have disappeared. The closest competitor is a
Boater's World not convenient for me to get to.


Sherwin D.

wrote:

I am looking for a place to purchase sailboat hardware/accessories at
the best price. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Cate

My apologies for having to do this from googlegroups, where I can't
properly quote or see where it lands in the tree (I'm on someone else'
wifi, so don't get my nntp feed), but..

what everybody else said, except that WorstMarine will match anyone
else' price in most cases. In my case, they're very much closer to the
boat, and conveniently very near HD and Lowes, two other frequent
stops, so that's my preference, particularly on the boat.

My modus (it helps to chat up the store manager first so you don't have
to do this from scratch each time) is to find my pricing, on more than
one site, copy the URLs and the price from each of the several best,
circling the lowest, and print it out.

All they need is something to show the home office. Very significant
case in point is the two spools of 3/4 Maxibraid I bought for a bit
under a buck a foot, where list is 2.35, and "commissioning program"
prices saved me 10% on that. 303Protectant at 48/gal, instead of their
65, etc.

No shipping (but I had to pay tax), and if it's in stock, I walk out
with it. To get the rolls was an order deal, as was my large swim
platform, but it just came from the warehouse and that was it.

Hope that helps...

L8R

Skip

In article ,
wrote:

On 16 Mar 2006 08:07:17 -0800, wrote:

I am looking for a place to purchase sailboat hardware/accessories at
the best price. Any suggestions?

Yes. Serve your long-term best interest by patronizing your local
marine supply store so the entire market won't consist of a West
Marine monopoly.

Agreement here. Additionally, once you become a "regular" buyer (and it
doesn't take much) they'll automatically give you "commercial"
discounts. Has happened to me 3 or 4 times, now.

Only had to change stores because they were driven out by discounters,
who now charge premium prices and have a whole lot less of interest to
us in far larger stores.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/