With Layline and APS closed, who do you mail order from

[Decay]

Defender is fuckin' great. Awesome store, my go-to. My only complaint with Defender is that their shipping (while fast and reliable) can get expensive, and seems to be priced in mysterious ways. Fisheries supply and Landfall are good too.

West Marine (the larger locations especially) actually do seem to have a lot of stuff, even good stuff, but some of it is literally TWICE the price at Defender. West Marine is fine for oh-shit moments when you NEED something same day but you walk in there knowing you're gonna get fucked.

And a big shoutout to any of the marine salvage junk yards like Mass Marine Parts. They will do mail order but the real value is digging through the hoard to miraculously find the oddball block you needed at a tiny fraction of the retail price.

 

[sunseeker]

Because of this thread I just bought some stuff from West Coast. They exceeded my expectations in every respect. They delivered faster than they said they would. 

 

[Snaggletooth]

 I got great service from Vela when I needed a pinch. 

Ime am hearre, Ime am hearre......  what am I ?  Chopte livere?                                 

 

[Laurent]

Not much of a help for you guys, but in Germany there is one good mail order shop, that is so much better than the (local) competition. They tick nearly all the boxes.

SVB has as great inventory, are very honest with their availability notices (in stock means sitting on a shelf in _their_ warehouse), have their logistics down to a point (when I order until 2pm it's delivered the next day), have phone support that is useful in most cases and will order/organize stuff they don't have in stock.

Prices are competetive as well.

Paul

And they are now the sponsor of The Sailing Frenchman !!!

 

[BlondeWithFreeBoat]

Ime am hearre, Ime am hearre......  what am I ?  Chopte livere?                                 

Snaggy's Sailing Supply - that would crush the competition!

 

[Grande Mastere Dreade]

Snaggy's Sailing Supply - that would crush the competition!

it's gotta have at least 10 different types of rum...

 

[Scrambler]

Defender and Hodges have been good to me. As said Defender’s checkout process sucks.  I call them on the phone.  

 

[MauiPunter]

I had the pleasure of ordering from McMaster-Car the other day for the first time.  Holy shit that website is almost perfection.  I wish Defender had that level of search ability on their products.  Or, I wish McMaster would start carrying marine hardware.  Imagine searching for a specific block or cleat with minute specific detail.  

 

[LakeBoy]

When a marine supplier has the revenue of McMaster-Car, they will have an equivalent web site.  Have to do what you can with what you have.

 

[Left Shift]

I had the pleasure of ordering from McMaster-Car the other day for the first time.  Holy shit that website is almost perfection.  I wish Defender had that level of search ability on their products.  Or, I wish McMaster would start carrying marine hardware.  Imagine searching for a specific block or cleat with minute specific detail.  

Try Fisheries Supply in Seattle.

 

[Schnappi]

I had the pleasure of ordering from McMaster-Car the other day for the first time.  Holy shit that website is almost perfection.  I wish Defender had that level of search ability on their products.  Or, I wish McMaster would start carrying marine hardware.  Imagine searching for a specific block or cleat with minute specific detail.  

I live in the middle of nowhere and McMaster still manages to get my order delivered the next day nearly every time.

And while not marine hardware per se, they do carry a lot of 316 fasteners.

 

[MauiPunter]

I live in the middle of nowhere and McMaster still manages to get my order delivered the next day nearly every time.

And while not marine hardware per se, they do carry a lot of 316 fasteners.

True.  I was amazed how quickly the stuff showed up at my door step.  Incredible.  And, yes, the 316 is what I was ordering there for a boat project.

 

[LionessRacing]

Paxtonco.com in Wilmington

 

[kurthoehne]

I had the pleasure of catching up with West Coast Sailing. Not only do they sponsor events and individuals, they also support my web site. That said, ask anyone in the Seattle small boat scene, and they've been THE source since they started. 

http://sailish.com/index.php/2021/07/02/west-coast-sailing-filling-the-gap/

 

[JM1366]

A few years ago the last store in my area that carried sailing hardware went out of business and got bought by a marina, so they don't really stock any sailing hardware anymore. West Marine is nearly useless. They stock twenty different types of dock line, and then they have like one spool of Sta-Set and nothing else. WTF, how many types of dock line do you really need?

Definitely sucked to see APS go, they were my go-to place for most hardware once the local shops closed up. Haven't had to buy too much since they closed, so I haven't quite figured out where my new go-to place is yet.

These days if I need something immediately I can either waste my time at West Marine, or spend a few hours driving to Zenda and getting it from Melges at considerable markup. At least they're helpful, unlike West Marine. 

Anybody buy from the Offshore Spars store? they seem to have a pretty good selection of line.

 

[Schnappi]

A few years ago the last store in my area that carried sailing hardware went out of business and got bought by a marina, so they don't really stock any sailing hardware anymore. West Marine is nearly useless. They stock twenty different types of dock line, and then they have like one spool of Sta-Set and nothing else. WTF, how many types of dock line do you really need?

Definitely sucked to see APS go, they were my go-to place for most hardware once the local shops closed up. Haven't had to buy too much since they closed, so I haven't quite figured out where my new go-to place is yet.

These days if I need something immediately I can either waste my time at West Marine, or spend a few hours driving to Zenda and getting it from Melges at considerable markup. At least they're helpful, unlike West Marine. 

Anybody buy from the Offshore Spars store? they seem to have a pretty good selection of line.

I've found that with global supply chain fuckups combined with US retail marine flakiness (some places are pretty good, some places are terrible), if I need something 'quickly',  I order the same thing from multiple vendors. Some shit shows up so late, that I've forgotten that I've ordered it and a month+ later, it shows up on my porch. It's like Christmas.

I came home from a regatta, and I found 3 backup tiller extensions had arrived while I was gone. I remember ordering one or 2, but jeeze, 3? 

Anyhoo, I've had good experiences with Offshore Spars, the only problem is that a lot of the line they sell only comes on spools of 600 feet.

 

[gcutter]

My spin on this:

1. IF you have a local chandlery or rigger use them first because you've got to support the locals, even if slightly more expensive

2. Used to use Layline and APS, but now Defender is my #1 for anything but rigging (see #3). I'm in Virginia and standard UPS gets me the order in 1-2 days maximum. I'd rather wait a day longer than go to Worst Marine for high prices, largely non-boating staff, and sending the profits elsewhere (see #1).

3. I had Defender do some halyards when my local guy couldn't get to them and not good - mistakes in line size, splices, etc. They did fix it without hassle but no good when you're in a hurry.

My thoughts, Greg

 

[WestCoast]

We bought the APS OD Rigging Department.

All the tools, equipment, products.
Kyle (APS owner) was gracious in transferring his knowledge.

--
First 6 months we built out a ~40' long rig bench, integrated workspace.
We hired, trained and tested our systems this year to build good systems.
Installed a custom ERP (software) that moves online orders directly to the build team.
It's pretty slick.

We did a limited roll out of all APS products in 2021.  Small scale, to make sure we could deliver what we promised.
We made some mistakes, learned a lot, and have a good team of 3-4 people working on dialing it in for 2022.
 

--
This winter, we're going through the APS catalog we didn't get to, boat by boat (J/22, J/24, M24, J70, Thistle, Lightning, etc etc).
Each product, line by line. Is it still good? Are good sailors still using it? What can be improved or done better?

We're sponsoring WCS Team Riders - often pro sailors - in each class, to understand what that fleet needs/wants for rigging.
That is giving us the confidence to deliver the product APS was known for.

It's a process.  A long one.
But, we're trying to do it like APS did.  Do it right.
Make it easy to order online quickly, and have it on your doorstep in days.
Put it on the boat and say 'great, that works just as I hoped'

Expect a significantly expanded catalog of products from us, for the most popular OD boats, Spring 2022.

 

[WestCoast]

Added pic from this Spring as we were finishing setup.



https://westcoastsailing.net/rigging

(I usually don't self promote here, but, figured it was relevant)

 

[Kevlar Edge]

Defender?