There are a lot of occupations in this old world that look like fun to those of us on the outside. Rock and roll, automobile racing, charter fishing, just to name a few. If you look beyond the gold records, championship trophies and world record taxidermy you’ll discover that there is a business component to all of these that reveals the ugly side of making a living: Production defines success. You’ve got to sell records, win races and catch fish in a consistent manner to stay viable. Everybody knows the ones that do, and nobody gives a damn about the ones that don’t. Running a boatyard is a business, even though it might appear to be a fun way to keep the wolf away from the door, but peel back the embellished press releases and the offshore glamor shots, and you are staring at the unvarnished truth: Working on boats is a competitive enterprise with slim margins.
The boatyard business is
