Here's how to destroy a once wonderful industry. I Bought a new boat from Bosun's in East Falmouth…read morein 2015 and they gave me what seemed to be honest, good, friendly service for several years, for which I paid them a lot of money for those services. We also put several hundred hours on our boat and we just loved it. Then In 2018 that all changed terribly. Bosun's Marine said they winterized my boat's 2 x Yamaha 350 engines, the generator, the water systems, the head, and so on, and charged me for it all the typical several thousand dollars. But the truth was that they never did any of what they said they did to winterize my boat that fall. I live in the West and could not go East and see that what they said they did was actually done. I had to trust them. The next spring I then again paid for their getting my boat ready for the 2019 season, including Patrick, their mechanic, saying that he did a sea trial of the boat and all it's systems and that everything worked just fine except that one of the two Yamaha 350 engines blew up and was destroyed as he conducted that sea trial. The only part of what he said that was true was that he had blown up the engine that had not been winterized properly the fall before. We found out later that he had never even looked at the generator, head or any other systems on the boat that spring. That was all a lie. They did no such comprehensive spring sea trial, except to blow up one of the two Yamaha motors. They then said that my boat insurance would not cover the engine and so they said it would cost me something like $40,000 to buy a new engine, and that that was my only option. After putting on the new engine they then told me my boat was all ready to take and use for the summer. So I went to Bosun's and walked through the boat and tested basic things. The generator did not work. It seems they never winterized it or changed the oil in it the previous fall or in the Spring. This lying to me continued to go on for weeks. They kept saying things were all fixed when they were not, and they of course kept charging me thousands of dollars more. I met with Tim Leedham, Bob, Patrick and others and they just kept lying to me and saying they had done it all correctly the fall before and that these things just happened when boating. Once the boat was finally seaworthy, months later, I decided to put the boat up for sale. I could no longer work with Bosun's or boat at and around Cape Cod. Since I don't live on or near the Cape, and the boat was at Bosun's, I had them sell it. I lost over another $60,000 from what similar boats, models and years were selling for during the sale of my boat. Bosun's Marine and it's owners and service people destroyed our family's love for boating, trust in Cape Cod marine-related people and services, and cost us many tens of thousands of dollars beyond what was remotely reasonable. The employees who knew what was going on would not talk to me for fear of being fired, and just said that the Bosun's Marina was just not what it used to be, and that similar experiences were happening with other boaters who used Bosun's. The whole experience was just awful, terribly costly, and so very disappointing, especially the blatant dishonesty of management and other employees. It was just the worst possible experience! I would obviously not recommend Bosun's to anyone. For those still using Bosun's, read your statements of costs for services very carefully and watch out for their over billing, double billing and extra parts and services billings. Check that services really are done. Or, better still, take your boat somewhere else, to a reputable, honest dealer.
