That same job would cost about $700 today, and more if you have a lot of
other hardware in the water that needs to be cleaned and painted. And don't
forget the haul-out charge. One reason for the $700 is that a gallon of top
quality paint can cost up to $200 a gallon.

TT

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Wow...when I was a kid, I used to scrape, sand and paint the bottoms of
your typical 16-18' runabout for $25 if the "customer" supplied the
paint and the barnacles on the bottom weren't too thick. I could make
$50-$75 on a Saturday - not bad for a kid in the late 1950s. I preferred
the clinker-built hulls, like Lymans and Cruisers and Thompsons...easier
to hide sloppy paint work in the shadows of those overlapping planks.
You could have any color you wanted, so long as it was Petit copper red.

Of course, gasoline for my boat was 19 cents a gallon, or free if I hit
the pumps at my father's marina.