Thanks Scriptissima. You're headed down the right path for me.
I'm basically trying to find out what the marine-based industry is like down there. My perception is there are probably ton of boat-repair shops in a coastal city or region, but I've got no clue how big they are in terms of employment or work volume. And what kinds of businesses might be around to support the cruise lines?
What's the tourist season down there? Is there really an off-season where shops ramp down their employees for a few months? Thinking of some of the wave-runner rental places and things like that.
I'm also wondering about the the guys who run the harbor or marinas for some of the boat clubs down there. How likely is it that someone would be a harbor master for one place?
Where are the more exclusive and expensive places in Pinellas County? And the less-exclusive places, for that matter.
I can't tell you about the Gulf Coast with 100% certainty. But when we bought our boat it was in Ft. Lauderdale, and we moved it to Riviera Beach and stored it there for a few months. We had a fair amount of work done on the boat, and dealt extensively with a number of marine vendors. Having owned several sailboats and lived on one for the last three years...tell me if I ramble on too much.
From talking to friends in FL I think things work the same way on the West coast as East, but there may be differences. The state laws, insurance regulations etc. are probably the same.
Most of the marinas we dealt with there did NOT employ many service people. They employed people to lift and move boats, and maybe wash the bottoms. Bottom painting may be by the yard, but everything else you needed a subcontractor. Most charged daily by the foot for storing your boat on dry land. Several required you to buy ALL the materials your subcontractors used at the Marina store - which of course was over priced compared to West Marine, Marine Discounters, etc. There were actual penalties you agreed to pay if you did stuff like provide your own paint for the subcontractors.
But if you wanted say, engine work done, you had to bring in your own guy. Same if you wanted other mechanical work; boat plumbing, electronics, refrigeration, etc. Very few companies were multi-disciplinary, so the Engine guys only did Engines, the water maker guys only did that. There were many individual subcontractors out there. "One man shops" working out of their trucks, the one we worked with was reasonably priced but unreliable in terms of deadlines, he cause all sorts of problems by taking months to complete a total of 40 hours of work. Didn't return phone calls promptly, lied when he said he was working on the boat, etc.
While guys like this are, hopefully, the exception they are by no means uncommon.
There are a LOT of disciplines that marine vendors could come under, including:
Engines
AC/Refigeration
Painting / Bottom Stripping
Riggers
Electronics
Electrical (different that electronics...really)
Watermaker specialists
Boat Cleaners
Carpentry/Cabinetry
There are a few other "services" that aren't necessarily fixing things on the boat, e.g. "Pump Out" services may be provided by a marina or a private service even. This is to empty the holding tanks on your marine sanitation device. This may be free if the locality has Fed grants, or cost a few bucks.
We stored the boat at Cracker Boy Boatworks which worked under these rules. There my well be "full service" marinas like we were used to in New England but none of my Florida sailing friends knew of any. We kept the boat there while the work was (supposed to be) getting done, then moved it to the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina next door.
Most marinas will have a bar/restaurant attached to them. This may be wholly sublet, though some may run it themselves. I don't know much about this one, but the "Voodoo Buckets" and Crunchy Grouper Sandwiches at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina were first rate.
You have two sorts of marinas down there. Places like Cracker Boy, that are essentially service yards. They have waterfront access with a "Pit", and a Travel Lift. The Pit is where boats drive into, the Travel Lift (google for pictures) can drive onto both sides of the put, put straps under a boat and pull it out. They can handle pretty big boats, some of them are for 80 ton boats are larger (at 53' our sailboat weighs about 26 tons). A Service Yard like Cracker Boy won't have slips, or it may have a few, and won't maintain moorings. They focus mostly on storing, hauling and launching boats. Alternatively, instead of a Travelift, they may have rails or use a ramp and a trailer/truck to launch/haul boats. I do not know how common this is in FL.
A more full service marina will have docks and slips for boats to stay on and may even have mooring balls offshore they maintain, and a launch service to get you to them. I never visited one with moorings in FL, but I am sure there are some around. The slips may be rented out to full time local residents, some are available for "transients" moving through the area. Often permanent Resident slips are rented to Transients by the marina when the Resident has their boat elsewhere.
Full service marinas in FL may also have indoor storage for smaller powerboats. They have three or four tired racks and a large forklift that can pick up a small (20'ish) power boat out of the water and store it in the dry rack. Generally arrangements must be made to have the boat moved in advance.
Yacht Clubs are a different beast, they are generally a social organization that *might* have slips and moorings. They may or may not have other facilities - pumpouts, boat ramp, boat storage, Jr. Sailing. The services are usually for members only. They are very similar to marinas in some cases (slips, moorings, food service, etc.) but aren't open to the public. Some are very easy to join. In most cases Clubs offer "Reciprocity", so a member of one club will be allowed the privileges of members at another club, access to transient dockage, moorings, access to the bar, etc.
If you want to know about Marinas in the Tamps St. Pete area I'd suggest you check out
Active Captain, it is an "Online Cruising Guide" that lists most of the marinas and marine services available, with reviews and details. You can also scroll around the bay geographically. You may need to join the website before you can use it, but it is free. I'm not sure f the Waterways Guide series covers Florida or not, but that's another resource.
Looking at charts of Tampa Bay the water looks very shallow there, and there are some bridges to contend with. For example I couldn't really consider taking my boat into Old Tampa Bay. It is very shallow, and there is a 43' high bridge there that doesn't open. (We need 80' minimum, but would prefer more) So it would be small sailboats and power boats only in there.
It looks like a very busy harbor with lots of shipping, restricted channels and shallow water outside the dredged channels. It looks like there are some artificial canals and marinas around Ybor city. You've also got Boca Ciega Bay, Isle of Palms, etc. etc. on the barriers of St. Pete. Those seem to run all up the coast. Boca Ciega alone looks like it has at least fifteen marinas around it.
Harbor masters, etc. all tend to be municipal or state run. You will also have a US Coast Guard presence - they do NOT rescue boats with mechanical problems unless lives or the vessel are at stake. There are private companies - SeaTow, Boat/US, etc. that will handle these sorts of non life threatening emergencies. The latter tend to be subscription/member based. They will tow you if your are a member for a charge, if you are not a member the charges are not so reasonable. By way of comparison, we needed Boat/US to pull us off a sandbar that filled in a channel that was normally clear. I think it cost just under $1,000 - and we got the member rate.
So if your engine fails and you are two miles off shore, the boat isn't sinking and no one is hurt and you call the coast guard they generally will ask you if you have a Seatow or BoatUS subscription, and give you the number for one of them. Those guys may have one or two people on board usually.
Some marinas cater more to Super Yachts rather than small boats, they may do things differently - e.g. have mechanical employees of their own they bill out.
Good luck, hopefully that was helpful and not to rambling. I know I wandered into general marine industry stuff, but its germane.
