Outboard service and repair
Scheduled maintenance, diagnostics, fuel systems, cooling, lower units and powerhead work on the major four-stroke platforms.
Mobile marine service / Tampa Bay
Your boat does not
need to go anywhere.
Hauling a boat to a shop costs you a weekend before anybody has touched it. We work at the slip, the lift and the dry stack, and most of what goes wrong out here gets finished the same visit.
22Years turning wrenches
40+Marinas covered
84%Jobs finished dockside
5Techs on the road
Triage
Tell us what it is doing.
This is the conversation we have on the phone forty times a week. Pick the symptom and you will get the same answer we would give you, including whether it is honestly a dockside job.
Usually one of
- Fuel delivery: filter, pump, or a season of ethanol in the tank
- Ignition: coils, plugs, or a failed kill-switch lanyard circuit
- Security or neutral-safety interlock not satisfied
What we check first
Fuel pressure at the rail, spark on all cylinders, injector pulse, and the codes the ECU has already stored.
Fixable where
Dockside Almost always fixed in the slip. Fuel and ignition parts ride in the van.
Usually one of
- Impeller past its service life, or a chewed one shedding vanes
- Blocked pickup, thermostat stuck shut, or a salted-up heat exchanger
- Failed sender reporting an overheat that is not happening
What we check first
Water pressure under load, impeller condition, thermostat, and whether the vanes that left the pump are now sitting in the block.
Fixable where
Dockside Do not run it to the shop. An overheat under way is how a $400 impeller becomes a powerhead.
Usually one of
- Fouled or failing fuel injectors
- Restricted filter or a collapsing pickup hose
- ECU pulling timing because a sensor is reading out of range
- Gear case or prop damage that only shows up under load
What we check first
Live data on a sea trial, fuel pressure under load, compression, and stored fault history rather than the current code alone.
Fixable where
Sea trial This one needs the boat moving. We run it with you aboard.
Usually one of
- Stator or rectifier on the engine side
- Charger, isolator or a failed switch
- A battery at the end of its life dragging the bank down with it
- Parasitic draw from electronics that never truly power off
What we check first
Charging output at the engine, voltage drop across the bank, and a draw test with everything switched off.
Fixable where
Dockside Electrical work is the most common dockside call we take.
Usually one of
- Hydraulic fluid low, or air in the helm after a leak
- Seized tilt tube or support-bracket bushings
- Failing helm pump or a weeping cylinder seal
What we check first
Fluid level and condition, lock-to-lock feel, and where the resistance actually starts.
Fixable where
Dockside Bleeding a helm takes time but it takes it at your dock.
Usually one of
- Shift cable adjustment or a cable at the end of its life
- Lower unit: water intrusion, worn dog clutch, failing bearings
- Digital throttle and shift fault on newer platforms
What we check first
Gear oil condition first. Milky oil answers the question before anything comes apart.
Fixable where
Depends Cables and adjustment are dockside. A lower unit that has been run wet usually is not.
Independent
Nobody upstairs needs us to sell you an engine.
A dealer service department answers to a dealer. That is not a scandal, it is just the shape of the business, and it is why a second opinion on a repower quote is worth having.
We do not sell boats and we do not sell engines. When the honest answer is that a repair is not worth doing, we get paid the same for saying so, which is the only arrangement under which that answer is worth anything.
- Diagnostic fee credited against the repair
- Labour billed from arrival, not from the shop door
- Written scope before anything comes apart
Services
What we get called for.
Inboard, sterndrive and diesel
Raw and closed cooling, heat exchangers, transmissions, shaft and coupling alignment, and the annual service that keeps a survey clean.
Marine electrical
Charging systems, house and start banks, bonding, corrosion, switch panels and the wiring somebody added in 1998 without telling anyone.
Electronics and navigation
Chartplotters, radar, autopilot, transducers, VHF and NMEA 2000 networks that were never terminated properly.
Systems
Bilge and livewell pumps, macerators, windlasses, thrusters, generators, trim and tilt, and steering.
Pre-purchase inspection
An independent mechanical opinion before money changes hands, written down, with compression and fault history included.
Platforms we service
- Yamaha
- Mercury
- Suzuki
- Honda
- Evinrude
- MerCruiser
- Volvo Penta
- Yanmar
- Cummins
- Garmin
- Raymarine
- Simrad
Listed because we work on them daily. Manufacturer names are the property of their owners and appear here as a statement of what we service, not as a claim of affiliation.
What it costs
Published, because the alternative is a surprise.
Starting rates. Every one of them moves with the engine, the access and what we find, and you get the number before we start rather than on the invoice.
| Service | How it works | Starting at |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic call | Flat, and credited against the repair if you go ahead. | from $165 |
| Shop rate, dockside | Billed in quarter hours from arrival, not from the shop door. | from $145/hr |
| Scheduled service | 100 and 300 hour service, quoted per engine before we start. | from $420 |
| After hours and weekend | Same techs, same van, honest surcharge. | from $215/hr |
On the road
Last month, roughly.
Dispatch
Where is the boat, and what is it doing?
Those two answers are enough for us to tell you whether it is a today problem or a this-week problem.