Tipping Dockside

I will say that in my experience your thoughts for fellow brokers and their well being is somewhat of a rarity.

I agree Judy. It tends to be the nature of your end of the industry. But, when you show someone multiple boats and they end up buying from someone else a week later, it is frustrating and time consuming. I'm sure there have been some customers that did that to other brokers and ended up buying from you as well. You also have the people that will never buy and waste your time looking at boat after boat. I once managed a Hatteras 58' Yachtfish and this one guy made an offer and then surveyed and seatrialed the boat (with a hull and engine surveyor) and it ran well and surveyed well. He then turned it down citing the aft deck was enclosed (he saw the boat before he made an offer). He did the same thing with 6 others on the market over the next year and don't think he ever did buy one. Could never understand why the guy would pay a bunch of surveyors and seatrial so many different boats and never buy one.

Exactly!!!!!!!!

I've also found sometimes it's the right type of tip. For example in Compass Cay (and other small islands) a batelco phone card is a much better tip than a cash tip. They have nowhere on the island to spend cash, but the phone card is a necessity which is sometimes hard to come by to keep up with loved ones. In other places, it's really nice steaks.......We once traded 2 cases of Prime NY strips for 4 5 gallon buckets of cleaned conch.....

I read through the thread that's ongoing relating to tipping dock hands and have a few questions.
We're hopefully* soon-to-be new owners of a 53' Carver Voyager that will be docked at a public marina for the season (June-October here in N. Michigan). We plan to be in and out on the weekends, exploring the great lakes.
What's the general protocol for tipping dock hands in (1) your home marina and (2) other marinas you visit? (assuming the dock hands provide some help with lines, fueling, etc)
We've chartered quite a few times in the BVI's and on the rare occasion we take a slip instead of mooring, I generally tip the dock hands $10-$20 per guy for helping us into a slip. Do we assume the same practice holds for other parts of the world - specifically the US? For our home marina, do you tip each time they help or give a larger tip/gift at the end of the season?
I don't want to set off a firestorm of whether you tip or don't tip, just wondering what the general consensus is for our particular situation and part of the country.

Thanks!
(*I say hopefully because we're scheduled for survey & sea trial later this week!)

Also see: http://www.yachtforums.com/threads/tipping-dockside.24749/

CottageGirl, I've combined the thread you started with the already existing one to keep all the info in the same place making it easier for everyone to find in the future.

Thanks Kevin - I read thru that thread and tried to dissect info from it
Ken - that's what I was looking for. Tipping once at the end of the season makes a lot of sense.
Thanks again - looking forward learning the ins and outs of "big" boating!

Actually that's not exactly what Ken said and the subtle difference is very important. He tips the one larger tip for their service throughout and he tips additional when they do things such as he described.

Now we're a bit non-traditionalist plus our "home marina" is also. We have docks at home but use a marina for storage when we're not home or not using the specific boat. Our crew handles the lines and docking and most of the work. Fueling is by truck. There is typically one dock hand, one maintenance person and a security guard working. There is no marina store or such. So there are two types of things done for us. One is direct assistance. One of the employees may help crew carry things in or out or assist crew in disposal of large containers. They get tipped at that time. The other is indirect. The rest of the time staff there takes care of the docks and grounds, makes sure the laundry rooms are well maintained, clean the gym, empty the trash, and do all those routine things. So, that brings about periodic tips of all employees there, total staff of 2 dock hands, 2 maintenance persons, 4 security guards. It's not end of season as we have no season. So it's twice a year.

So we tip $10-20 for direct and $100 or so periodically for indirect. We also have random acts of consideration. They may be tickets to something local or some steaks or a turkey or gift card. The fact we have multiple boats there influences us to do more.

It's a balance we try to achieve between recognizing specific services provided when they do such and recognizing the overall service we're getting all the time.

Thanks for the clarification!