I arranged for one contractor to haul the boat, paint the bottom, replace some thru hulls, put in a tranducer, buff and wax the hull and relaunch in an estimated 10 days. This contractor put my requests down on scratch paper. Another Contractor was to put in a bow thruster while the boat was out of the water and to install an auto pilot I already had purchased either in or out of the water. I had a written contract and work order. The engine people were to pull the turbo and after cooler, repair a leak, clean them, change impellers, change oil etc--all agreed to be done when the boat was out of the water--verbal order given to the gal at the service facility (but I had talked with the chief mechanic) I also "hired" an individual to be sure that work was done in proper fashion, to ABYC standards, and in a timely manor. He was to check the work several times a week and was to be paid on an hourly basis. I verbally went over all of the items to be done with him--from my master list. He also obtained a contractor to replace the shift and throttle cables. I went on by motorhome (dropping a tranmission in just about time to watch 9-11 from Van Horn TX) to Calif. Several weeks later I called to see how things were going--a bit slowly--the bow truster delivary was delayed by a week and nothing had been done on that yet, but the boat was all painted etc. I was assured that all would be done in another week. I arrived back in Clear Lake on about Oct 4th (after having the drive shafts fall out of the motor home earlier in the day in the middle of Houston--because the mechanic did not put lock tite on the bolts) to find the boat was not in the water! (when I say arrived I mean the Admiral, my 6' 4" son, three dogs and what gear we could get out of the motorhome in five minutes arrived in the motorhome dinghy--a 1987 colt hatch back). Well the boat came along about a half an hour later. It looked great! But no tranducer was put in, no auto pilot, the bow thruster was 6" further aft than it was susposed to be, there was no pipe under the thruster tunnel to allow water to pass from the forepeak area to the bilge pump (but the installation was done in an excellent fashion). Inspection plates on the swim platform (which was a hull extension had not been done). No engine work had been done. Lessions: I should have had a typed list of what each contractor needed to do--and given a copy to both the contractor and supervisor. I am not sure that signed work orders or contracts were of much value--since the person putting in the thruster was susposed to come back and finish the auto pilot--and never did reappear. However the biggest lession is that probably one should not have work done on his boat unless he is there to personally supervise the project. Solutions: The boat had to be rehauled--at the contractors expense to put in the thru hull transducer. I purchased another auto pilot (Sportpilot plus) that bolted on the helm of the flying bridge--and did not have to work on hydraulics in cramped spaces--impossiable with my back problems. Our departure was delayed a week--costing us a months slip rent...and oh yes I ran up a few hundred dollars worth of roaming charges on my cell phone which susposed had coverage in that area--but such is the cost of boating! Bob Austin