Archive for April, 2012


Posted on April 9, 2012 - by

A friend’s take on Washburn’s Boatyard and Huckins Yacht

Copied this from an email a friend sent. Ron and Nancy once owned a 46 Nordhavn, “Duet”, We first met them in the Abacos and have stayed in touch,

They have the boat fever again and are searching for a N50 Nordhavn.

Their experiences and opinions of these two well known boat yards:

We really like your new site!  We agree, there is little, if any, accountability in the marine business.  I was a software project manager during my formative years, and do not understand why it is so hard to estimate a project and deliver on time and on budget.  It seems to me that if you can’t estimate it correctly, then you don’t know how to do it.  But that’s just me 😉
We only had two major sets of work done on Duet, one at Washburns in the Chesapeake, and the other at Huckins in Jacksonville.  Washburns did OK. They maintained our Naiads, for example, and did a competent job on that.
Huckins was a different story.  Duet was there for cabinet work and the installation of a new cooktop and dishwasher.  We picked Huckins since they build wooden boats, so we figured they knew wood 😉  Boy do they ever!  Their work was flawless, on budget and on time, the first time.  They even redid the teak finish three times at their own expense as they weren’t happy with it.  We couldn’t tell the difference, but they wouldn’t let it go that way.  I would recommend them, for wood work, to anyone.
 Thanks Nancy for sharing your opinions of these two Marine Service operations.  I would like it if more boaters would send me their personal experiences with the companies as they cruise. I promise to post them unedited.
I too have heard very good things about Huckins and plan to stop by there on our way north this year. My son actually worked there for a while and he said pretty much the same thing. They not cheap, but do an excellent job.
Here’s to safe and happy cruises.
Cheers,
Bob