Dana Point Shipyard is a great place. I was surprised to find this Shipyard so friendly and competent right in my backyard at Dana Point Marina. The craftsmanship is the best and the prices are fair. They did a great job for me and I will go to them in the future! The Manager, Jason is the most competent person I know and the office staff Sarah and Deanne are the friendliest you will find anywhere! Thanks Dana Point Shipyard! No need to travel to any other harbor! read more

Dana Point Shipyard - Boat Repair Near Me - Dana Point, California

I've never written a review but this one got me. My boat was in for regular outboard motor service and I asked them to check an inoperative fresh water pump. Jason called and said the pump was bad and needed replacement. We talked about 700$ to replace the pump. Not great but I said ok. When I got the bill the cost of replacement ended up being 1040$, almost 500$ was for diagnosis. 2 1/2 hours to find the problem. I'm pretty sure I could have put power to the pump and found the problem in 30 minutes. The part that got me is not only did Jason not offer to reduce the bill but when I asked why he didn't call me to ok the additional cost to replace it he said "If an extra 200 to 300$ is going to bother you maybe you shouldn't be in boating". That got me. Pretty condescending. read more

My review has to do with a business interaction with Mr. Morris, the owner of the Dana Point Shipyard. He provoked a confrontation and was out of control and irrational. He is a bully that does not care how he negatively affects others with his rude, condescending and disrespectful behavior! Mr. Morris has no business dealing with the public and I will never return as long as he works at the Dana Point Shipyard. Mr. Morris will probably respond and lie about this, but I know the truth. My Yelp review is not Fake, and I noticed that when the Dana Point Shipyard receives negative reviews you dismiss them as Fake reviews. I have no intention of contacting you again based on the way you treated me! The number of negative reviews the business receives says it all. read more

Unhelpful, dismissive, incompetent. very glad to take your money, but certainly you have to keep your eye on them to be sure that they do things right read more

Dana Point Shipyard gave me the highest price for my boat repairs! Thanks to Yelp I found Nauti Boat Services and I received excellent pricing, quality work and friendly service. read more

Steve, the proprietor of Dana Point Shipyard, reached out to me after my negative review and offered to make things right. By then, the boat was back on Catalina where it resides, so it was more cost effective to have the repair work done over there and that took some time. However, Steve made good on his promise and paid for the repair. All's well that ends well. read more

The shipyard is responsive but made several mistakes with my boat & were not clear about alternatives. They are also expensive for what you get. read more

Offered them loads of work. They couldn't handle minor jobs. Look and the Dana fleet and you will see none of them in there. Owner missed out on a $200,000 job because of their failure to have any sort of customer service. read more

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! NEGATIVE STARS. We brought our boat to be serviced at this place and it sat for months with little to nothing taken care of on it. Just crappy communication, left the boat in disrepair and still wanted payment. They essentially extorted a payment from us in order to get our boat out of their shipyard. RUN THE OTHER WAY! What a mistake we made leaving our boat here with these morons. read more

I've used DP Shipyard for over a decade, with good results...UNTIL NOW ! The other comments here reflect the same issues I will bring up. Yes, I know...Covid! Well, my boat was there 7 weeks! Yes, the shaft repair went to Wilmington for over two weeks, but not 7 weeks. I ended up calling Wilmington myself to see if the issue was them. Had I not called, I'm not sure I would have my boat back. The frustrating issue is the lack of good, prompt, communication. That in itself, would help significantly. After paying $12,000+ for the shaft repair and seals replaced, I thought this was quite expensive, but I did find the email Jason sent with these costs shown, so. my error in continuing with the scheduled work. Then I saw the expense that triggered this poor review. I had asked them to simply replace my two,existing underwater lights with the new ones I brought, as the boat was already hauled and the lights already wired. Can anyone guess what they charged for labor? Well, $1,056.00 !!! When I complained, Jason said it took them 8 HOURS to replace two small lights ! Oh, by the way, this was never quoted to me prior to the work! I wrote Jason an email and asked if he could justify the time spent, and I asked to be credited $700. Guess what, Yup, no reply (yet?) So, for $700.00 they lost a loyal customer for decades. Folks, be sure to get other quotes from up the coast. DP Shipyard needs to be competitive and is not the only Shipyard. read more

I've had Dana Point Shipyard work on my 25' Rinker express cruiser since 2011 and I'm happy with the work they do. They are not inexpensive, competency isn't cheap. They stand by their work and that for me counts for a lot. Small problems have been handled expeditiously and without dispute. Jason has always been honest, direct, and easy to talk to. Same goes for Mike. Dee Anne and Ramona in the office are very friendly and helpful and treat me like a valued long term customer, which I am. Recently they repaired my Volvo-Penta outdrive under warranty and it was handled seamlessly, even though I had the new drive installed at another shop. Whatever Jason did talking to Volvo-Penta factory people worked very well and the repair was covered. Anyone reading this should not take my 4 star review as anything but a very strong recommendation for Dana Point Shipyard. read more

By an odd coincidence The work was completed on my boat the day I posted my review. I got a call from Cody, who by the way is always very nice when we interact, to tell me they would have the work wrapped up the next morning. I found out that the work had been completed because a boat neighbor friend sent a text "I see you got your boat back! Congratulations ". It was nice of DP Shipyard to deliver the boat back to its slip and I appreciate that. They did a good job, the boat runs nicely again and they cleaned up the work area well. I know they're trying and I'm sure the pandemic has made things much more difficult as we all adjust. The boatyard was packed with boats, even the outside parking lot had a few, which I've never seen before. But the one thing that hasn't changed is how we communicate. Phones, text and email all still work. When a job takes a week, I completely understand I won't hear much from them. But when the saga begins at the end of July and the final page isn't until November, I expect updates weekly at the very least. Something like "hey, we're getting closer, we've got three more jobs in front of you." Something to get a sense of time. I got a voicemail from Cody today. They saw the review, which is good. I think my experience and feedback can be valuable to Cody and Jason, if they learn and make meaningful adjustments. The workmanship seems good. The mechanical issue is resolved. And, they aren't doing any worse than any other boat mechanic with communication and scheduling. The entire industry needs some serious help. You all know exactly what I'm talking about. Sorry this is so long, but I want to be fair because I don't post unfavorable reviews lightly. I'm much more apt to post a good review and just not return to a place with bad service as there are usually thousands of choices. With boat repair, not so much. Good luck Jason and Team. After careful consideration I'm upgrading my review a bit. read more

Jason and company were very professional and very clear with price and and what needed done, gotta love our Harbor- glad we have the Shipyard!! read more

I wanted to thank Jason and his team for proving a lot of these negative reviews wrong. I still went with Dana Point Shipyard due to some dock neighbors recommending them and I looked past the negative reviews during COVID, which nobody could catch a break in. Jason did a haul out, full bottom paint and an outboard replacement for me and delivered on time. His pricing was honest and fair and he went above and beyond to fabricate and fix a few things while she was out of the water. I would not hesitate to bring the boat back here in the future! read more

Nothing but five stars for the Dana Point Shipyard and crew. We've use them for a few big jobs and also for parts and they have been nothing but fast and professional and I feel the prices are in line with the area. Kudos to Dave who has done some mind-bending work on our ancient ocean boat. He's very knowledgeable with older boats and has also done some repairs on our freshwater boat as well. Always turned out great. Deanne who answers the phone and makes your day a lot better when you hear her pleasant voice has always provided excellent communication and customer service. She even helped track down a part that her place of business couldn't get in time and made sure we had it in 2 days! That's something that you don't see very often these days, and it inspired me to leave this yelp review. I should have left it years earlier. Great place! read more

I had a seriously cracked strut on my Beneteau 38 and did not trust the sea worthiness of it to motor up to Basin Marine in Newport where I've always gotten my work done. Having my boat in the DP Marina for over 20 years, I've heard some unflattering things about the shipyard and my one previous stay there was definitely a two star review. I was very pleasantly surprised by the entire experience that I had with this recent repair. Jason was very transparent with me, relating to me the struggle he was having to find this very rare part from Beneteau. He let me know up front that the job would take 8 weeks minimum (it took 9) and he was very open to communicate in clear terms how the job was progressing. He worked closely with my insurance company which, due to his detailed estimate, completely covered the cost of repair. The yard guys always wore masks while I was around (Covid) and showed extreme care for my boat when taking it in and out of the water. Not only that, but this repair took care of an obnoxious vibration at 2800 RPMs that I was experiencing before! Jason happily went on a sea trial with me to check out the proper running of the boat too. The bottom line is that DP Shipyard did exactly what I paid them to do, in the time that they said it would be done and in a very professional and well communicated manner. I really could not be happier about the outcome. read more

Horible place and horrible management they gave me appointment three times to diagnose a problem made me drive three times from san diego and did not keep it the last time they asked me to bring the boat in for 9 o'clock appointment I had to leave work and drive an hour and a half still did not keep the appointment, they dont respect their jobs nor their clients time even it they call you and schedule appointment themselves also there rates are very expensive I recommend to stay a way from those people and this boat yard read more

Very Pleased!!! My boat is the Rodbender - 27' Prokat. I had the Dana Point Shipyard Installer new Under Water Paint, fiber glass work, and trouble shoot a small leak. Outstanding job and I'm very pleased. I'm a business owner and the most important part for a business deal is communication. Knocked it out of the park! The price was a tad bit more than I wanted to pay, but the work came back at a 100%. I highly recommend Dana Point Shipyard. Outstanding job! read more

DO NOT TAKE YOUR BOAT HERE! We had a alignment and shaft problem on our boat and they have had it for 2 months! Newport harbor could have gotten it done half the time and price. They are charging 4K labor when the boat was just sitting there for most of the time. They jacked the price because before it was so much less. Also while the boat has been sitting there for 2 months it got a bunch of bird shit on it and they aren't even going to clean it. For paying 4K that's the LEAST they can do. We have had so many let downs with this place it's just not worth it. Almost every week for the last month they said we will get it Monday and it just got longer and longer. So disappointing! Save your time and money and take your boat to Newport harbor! read more

The diver who gave a five star review is getting his palms greased. Total joke. Hmmmm. Let's get more leads from DPSY. Horrible customer service. Roy Williams should be ashamed of himself. Completely lied to my boat partner on charging for labor on items that he agreed to not charge or charge minimally. Horrible communication skills plus quite careful to put nothing in writing or emails for documentation. How poor is it to send a bill at 4:41pm on a Friday with no explanation or phone call? No idea where the boat was left and not answering the phone...Great way to hide behind your inflated charges. It's a small boating community and I will make sure to spread the word. $420 to charge batteries when you verbally agreed to one hour. That is shameful and dishonest. That was just one line item that left us scratching our heads. read more

BOATER'S BEWARE: We had Dana Point Shipyard sand, prime and apply bottom paint. They did not allow the paint to dry before hoisting the boat back into the water and the hoist straps ruined the paint. Our bottom cleaner service says that 90% of the Dana Point shipyard painted boats suffer from the same rush to get the boats back into the water. On another occasions, they HAVE NOT held to thier word regarding pricing. They told me that they would charge me (10) minutes of labor time to hold a garden hose and wash an area off. PRICE $115.00 - Prepare an estimate for 4K of services (that our boat did not need) PRICE $115.00. They promised me that they would not charge me for layover days until the "end of the week". We took the boat out of the shipyard on Thursday - The PRICE for no-charge layover $250.00. The yard itself is a complete mess, spilling toxins into the harbor every day after day. KEEP IN MIND: There are 4 shipyards in Newport Beach that compete for your business providing extra customer service at competitive prices. read more

If zero stars were allowed that is the rating I would give them. If you have a small boat or small project do not come here. They will keep you in the wings waiting until the more profitable work is out of the way until they finally have an opening. But that could be never. In mid June I bought a 22 foot Tanzer and wanted the bottom painted and the swing keel rust ground away. They said it would take two or three weeks. And every two or three weeks they had another excuse for not completing it. One lie after another. In July it was 'the crane operator is on vacation but he's back in a week and you are next up'. IN late July it was an emergency with a 54 foot Knight Carver. Finally on August 22 I demanded the boat reutrned to me so I could have the work done else where. They said it would be completed August 29. When I went to pick it up, surprise, it was still not completed. I had to wait around all day for them to paint where the lift pads had been But the straw that broke the camels back...when we lifted the boat the swing keel was only half way completed. They never extended it fully so a portion of the top was still rusted. And they put a bolt in the that prevented the swing keel from being raised. Kind of hard to put it on a trailer with the keel hanging. So in the end I have to ahve another shipyard lift the boat and make the same repairs. I intend to write the Port District and suggest the public is better served by boat repair competition in Dana Point. read more

My experience with Dana Point Shipyard was not at all similar to the negative reviews I've seen posted. I have a 30 foot Hunter sloop and they treated me very respectfully and the job (haul out and bottom paint) was performed to my expectations, on time, on budget, etc. This is a midsize yard and everyone was friendly and accommodating to me, from the receptionist to the yard manager, Steve, whom a previous poster claims has "no concept of customer service." That seems a bit of a stretch, wasn't the case with me. I've had my boat hauled in Long Beach and in Newport Beach and the service I received at Dana Point Shipyard was every bit as good. read more

I have an older boat, and struggled with stalling problems the last six months. Went through three Harbor approved mechanics to no avail. Took it to the shipyard, and Dave Quast was able to figure out the issue immediately, and fix it for a reasonable cost. Communications with Dave regarding the repair were excellent, repair options were explained, and the final cost was fair. Highly recommend read more

I've read some of the negative reviews and it's hard to believe that my experience could be SOOO different. Everyone one I've come in contact with seems to be very customer service focused. They have been extremely honest about the repair costs. No one wants to pay a premium to fix your boat, but I would rather take it to a reputable place with certified mechanics and experts in the industry, than some 'fly-by-night' mechanic that works out of his garage from home. And after price comparing, they were actually lower on some things and definitely lower than other shipyards. I will definitely use Dana Point Shipyard for my next boat repair. And bonus, they do an amazing job on bottom painting. read more

I recently had my sail boat hauled out and bottom done, my 27' Ericson, abby was great, the fella that did the work on the blisters on my boat was very skilled, professional and compassionate about his work, I was blown away, at the precision of there work, I was quoted a price and it came in 100 bucks lower than his quote, very honest people, I was in good hands at Dana Point Shipyard, hell, I bought the Tshirt,!!!! read more

I was underway from Marina Del Ray to San Diego when I was having some issues with my outboard. I showed up when they opened and despite their busy schedule they came to the rescue. A mechanic who was in the parts room overheard my problem and he walked down to the boat with me. It was like having Nigel the expert onboard! He helped, adjusted, gave me info.... and sent me on my way. Great help when I needed it! read more

I want to say that the crew at Dana Point Shipyard have the best Customer service of any yard or mechanic we have used. Steve and Jason took complete care of us and our Breana Lynn Silverton. We had to do both v-drives and a transmission that works fantastic now. They took time to update us regularly with calls and emails. I would highly recommend if you need work on your boat, call them. read more

Total circus act. Misquoted my repair, tried to charge me $1500 more than originally quoted. Charged me to install a $2 part and didn't install half of it. A month later I finally got the part because I walked in and asked where it was and magically it was in the back and I had to install it myself. What did I pay these guys for again? Oh right, bad service. Avoid if you can. read more

I recently had my boat at the Dana point shipyard. The customer service was awesome and the perform work was exceptional. Thank you to the staff at the shipyard. Keep up the great work. read more

It is amazing how exact "both" stories are to mine. This place suffers from some major leadership skills. Management is ego and titles mostly. They cannot supervise a job. This place does not have qualified workers, except for the owners who mostly manage and delegate those non-qualifiers and a couple of competent crane guys. Half of their staff doing the labor looks like they are fixing jalopies and not six and seven $ figure boats. Go and see for yourself. Take a walk and a good look. Throw some simple boating terminology at those young folks, see if they know what you're talking about. And, oh, as far as seeing for yourself, you can go 24/7, just as their web site advertises. Their gate is wide open! You can grab a ladder and climb onto one of the boats being repaired there, if you are feeling adventurous or if you're a crook. Nobody will stop you. It's truly bizarre. The marina has locked gates to the slips, but the ship yard anybody can access. Unbelievable. Both myself and my friend were there twice. We both had a problem with the work done - with their shoddy scheduling practices (unbelievable that they know about it but do absolutely nothing to correct it) and with their having to re-do something a second (or a third) time once it's been pointed out to them. My boating mate ended patching up an area on his trim tabs that they were supposed to do because the boat was supposed to go back in the water that day when he noticed it and they were going to take care of it tomorrow! Their bottom paint reputation precedes them. All true. And as if a highly reputable, highly regarded place like yelp wasn't enough, the consensus from other boat owners on the marina is exactly the same: not a good place to do good work. Which is a shame. The owners should find the good sense to sell this yard to someone who can do a better job and serve over 2000 local boats efficiently. Most people do go to either Oceanside (ok, not great but still better than here) and Newport. The prices here are also by at least half a grand steeper, bottom paint-wise. Their clients are mostly older, retired gentlemen who don't read yelp and who don't take their boats out but maybe once or twice a year (98% of the entire marina) and new boaters who don't know any better. Ask any active boater in Dana Point and they will probably tell you what the three of us have told you. You are better off going somewhere else. BOATERS BE AWARE is right. This should not be allowed by the county. BTW, their listing on yelp should simply be Dana Point Shipyard, so more people can find them. Anchor Marine Company throws off any search and it is more difficult to find them on yelp. Everybody knows this place as simply Dana Point Shipyard, so that is what it should be listed as in here, too. read more

Had Dana Point Shipyard replace shift cable last week. Work was done on time and under quoted amount. Much thanks to Chris, Abby, Roy, and Steve. read more

Honestly, I do have to admit that in the past I would hear nothing but complaints from my boat owners ( I do under water maintenance) I personally have dealt with Steve, Jackson, Chris, Deanne the most, and have never had a rough encounter with them, to the contrary they have always gone the extra mile to help me, however now with their new crew member Abby I can't imagine anybody complaining about the shipyard at all. Abby is very attentive and happy to help her customers with a great sincere, friendly attitude. Good job guys! May God bless your business and your families! read more

Took my center console in to have a fuel pump issue looked at. Great customer service and even though it is mid summer, they still returned my boat in a timely manner. Worked with Brian and no complaints for me. Great job guys! read more

I recently hauled my 25 foot trimaran at this boatyard. It was my first time at this yard. I had her out for a month and did all the work myself (with some help from family members). I was given a quote prior to the haul-out and my final bill was exactly as quoted. My boat barely fit in their Travel Lift, as it's 18 feet wide. The four man crew who hauled the boat took extreme care and moved the boat at a snail's pace to ensure the boat was safe. They took extra care blocking her up. This was the best haul-out experience I have had in the 34 years of owning this boat (which I built). Every member of the staff was outstanding...professional and friendly. The office staff was helpful and professional. Parking was close by and plentiful, as were restrooms. It's difficult to find Do-it-Yourself yards in Southern California. I was glad to find this yard and could not be happier with the experience. read more