Boat washing at most marinas runs on handshakes. Somebody's guy has a guy, the guy is good, and for two years nothing about the arrangement needs explaining. Then he stops answering, or moves inland, or you go to sell and cannot tell the buyer who has been on your deck every other week since 2024.
None of that is an argument against hiring the guy. It is an argument for asking four questions first.
Ask when, not how often
Every other week is a plan. The second and fourth Tuesday is an appointment. The difference shows up the first month things get busy, because only one of those is something you can check against a calendar.
Ask what happens when the day slips
It will slip. Weather, a boat ahead of yours that took twice as long, a gate that would not open. What matters is how you hear about it. A text that morning with a new day in it is a schedule that bent. Silence, and a boat that did not get washed, is a schedule that broke without telling you.
Ask what you get afterward
The answer you want is a record: the date, the person, and a photo. If the answer is that you will know because the boat looks washed, then you have no way to tell a wash that happened from one that did not, and neither does anyone who reads the history later.
Ask about access and backup
- Are they already cleared for your marina's gates and docks.
- Who shows up when they cannot: a named substitute, or nobody.
- How you reach them on a day when something is wrong.
The last one sounds soft and is not. A washer who answers texts within a day is a different service from one who answers within a week, and you find out which you hired at the worst possible moment.
Ask for two numbers, not one
Recurring washing is usually priced by length and by frequency, and the two move together: a boat washed every two weeks costs less per wash than the same boat washed twice a season, because there is less to take off each time.
So ask for the price per wash and the price per month, and then ask what happens to both when you are out of town for six weeks. A quote that only exists per wash tends to become a surprise once the schedule slips.
Then write it down
Whoever you hire, the part that outlasts them is the record. That is the job KEEL does: you invite the washer, they confirm each visit by text, and it lands on your boat's timeline with a date and who did it. When they move on, the history stays with the boat instead of leaving in their phone.
