D C Automotive & Marine

$300.00 and four working days later, my boat still does not run. It is in the exact shape that it was going into DC Marine. Called Henry to tell him but he never returned my calls. No further steps or solution. Took the money and ran. Thanks for $300 worth of hopes for tubing.

Not recommended. Go anywhere but here. My outboard ran last year but not this year, so I left it with DC Marine. Henry, the proprietor, failed to get it anywhere near fixed despite giving him a 3 week deadline. There were no updates. I finally retrieved it 3 months later. I arrived to collect it a total of 5 times, being turned away every time. On the first occasion we received a call saying it was ready. On the fourth occasion I saw him run across the inside of his garage and close the garage door as I pulled in. I disputed the final bill, as Henry deprived me of the use of my boat for most of the summer, but he insisted on payment before releasing the motor. If he had just told me he couldn't fix it in time I would have been happy. I don't trust him and recommend trying anyone else before him. I am not in the industry, just a weekend boater who beluieves in honest workmanship.

I had DC Marine renew several aspects of my powerboat over the winter of 2009-2010. This included engine-work, rebuilding the exterior cockpit area (carpentry and re-covering), wiring changes, overhaul the lower unit, prop repair, changes to the engine access, hull repair below the waterline, and cosmetic work topsides.


Moreover I requested and got a late haul-out in 2009 and early launch in the spring, and was on-water for Easter Weekend 2010 (first week of April 2010) which was absolutely sublime weather-wise, a full month on-water before most folks.


Throughout the whole process Henry Copestake was a consummate professional. Work was done on-time and within budget. We had several conversations as a result of typical issues that always arise when you work on an old boat. There were no "surprises" and, more than once, Henry steered me away from work I requested that, in the end, wasn't necessary upon closer inspection.

5-stars, all around.

As a boat owner for some 40 years, I have had experience with servicing powerboats at several marinas. In recent years, I have spent a small fortune on repairs to our various watercrafts, in peticular an 18-foot runabout powered by an inboard Mercury motor. Finally I discovered DC marine. With just one visit to their repair shop, they resolved all the issues and the boat now operates as if new! Their service continues to be excellent and I highly recommend this marine.

Peter L.

I have dealt with DC Marine for three or more years and received nothing but professional, reasonably-priced service. Yesterday, DC saved my family holiday by dispatching a mechanic 60 km to my cottage where my cruiser had broken down on the second day of our holidays. Within 24 hours of my call, the boat was working again - after fairly extensive work that was performed right at my dock. If I had called any any other marina, the boat would have been towed away and out of commission for the whole holiday. I am very grateful to the crew at DC for saving our family holiday.

All these other slanderous reviews do not ring true to me and in my view were probably posted by a bitter competitor. DC Marine would never treat anyone as these reviews describe.

We to have had a bad experience, they worked on 86 OMC outdrive, said the upper housing was damaged from freezing because of not loosening the six bolts $1900 for a used housing plus labour to transfer the gears from our housing. They did not properly shim the shaft into the housing resulting in end play on the shaft. Two weekends were lost because of overheats caused by them leaving the impeller shaft into far ( manual shows a special tool to be used on assembly)so the impeller would slip. Instead of tearing down to repair a hole was drilled in the shaft and pulled out that way. This spring I'm having another mechanic go over it and has found teeth marks ( vise grips) were used inpart of their disasembly lacking the proper tools. Noticeable wear marks on the gears from improper shimming is evident. It didn"t help that a local Gananoque Marina had pulled the boat and sent drive to them so dealing with two parties only added to aggravation

I wouldn’t recommend this company to my enemies.

Having been in Kingston, Ontario at a marina with a dead engine, I called DC Marine as they’re “City Approved” mechanics to operate within this marina. The mechanic they sent, despite being courteous was extremely unprofessional and tardy – not to mention that he didn’t seem to know what to do. My issue at hand was somewhere within the ignition system.

Instead of showing up with the proper tools to do a full systems check – he took my unprofessional mention that I may have run down my starter. So he pulls the starter to have it rebuilt ($50 for the rebuild + his labour). Turns out the company that rebuilt it said that it was in (his words) very good condition and didn’t need a rebuild.

I had installed a brand new Edelbrock Carb (preset) – so this was not an issue (fuel was coming clean and freely). The engine would turn over, and the odd time would take – but wouldn’t hold an idle – then wouldn’t start again for hours. The mechanic then looks at the distributor and between taking the cap off and attempting to start it, the distributor would randomly “wiggle” a little bit. We both looked and saw the metal conductor on top of the rotor was bent (it was catching the post from the distributor cap if the cap was not properly placed back on). He claimed that my distributor was shot (an over $350 part, plus probably another $100-200 in labour). I told him I didn’t think so (we even visually inspected the distributor and could not see any deviation in it’s turning… though the mechanic claimed it must be so small that you can’t see it with the eye). Now I realize that this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The fact that for 2-days he had been working on my Chris Craft “Chevy” engines while calling them “Chrysler’s” should have set me off sooner.

The next morning this company calls me to ask if they should go ahead and order the distributor. I state absolutely no way – and that by replacing the rotor (a $4.00 part and 2-second change), the problem was resolved and my distributor was in perfect condition (the engine has 10hrs on it since a complete rebuild).

A friend of mine came to my boat and was able to diagnose everything within 45-minutes (should have called him first!). Not only that, but he brought his tools with him (instead of the hourly mechanic tracking back the entire dock system every time he needed a tool, sometimes taking 15-30minutes to return). The biggest find, was that through all the turning over and subsequent flooding of the engine, a very significant amount of gasoline had seeped into the oil pan – so even if that mechanic had me up-and-running, I probably would have blown my engine within a couple hours. We siphoned all oil, replaced with new oil, checked spark on every cylinder – replaced fouled plugs when necessary – and bamo – perfectly firing running engine that sounds fresh out of the shop. My friend didn’t even ask for a beer.

DC Marine’s total bill, close to $600.00… half billed to one credit card that they had approval to bill to – the 2nd payment, billed to credit card information that they had on file (which they should NOT have kept) from the previous billing. They had no authorization to bill to this card – and when asked where it was billed to (knowing already that they fraudulently charged my Visa) – I asked them where it was billed to. They said my Mastercard, and that an issue of it not going through before (it was near it’s limit after Round 1) was resolved because he had the wrong expiry date. Both the main person of this business and his receptionist stated this – both were now caught in an absolute bold face lie.

The one and only thing that was done that needed to be done was the repair of a vacuum leak on my manifold, that I brought to the mechanic attention. But even at this, when the mechanic left I specifically asked him if he wanted to take the fitting to ensure he could find the proper replacement part. He said “No, I know what I need”. The weekend passes by and who shows up early Monday morning to ask for that exact part so he can match it up?

All-in-all, I can justify 1 to 2 hrs max of hourly billing plus a PVC valve ($3-5 part) replacement, which should total around $150-175. But I’m stuck with $600 of B.S.

Feel free to call DC Marine if you’re in need of a marine-mechanic in Kingston, Ontario – but by all means – I’d suggest you do not.