The Ericson Exchange - Tell us where you buy parts from

I do not do a lot of online shopping from back east due to West Coast shipping costs, package theft and potential return hassles. Although, I can't report any nightmare situations, either.

Seattle and Tacoma area:

Fisheries - competitive pricing and usually knowledgeable sales people. Usually lots of stuff on hand. Big catalog, but they hit you for shipping if you can't wait until their next regular order from that supplier.

I rarely go to West Marine because they're not close to home or the marina, but they have a big store near the Magnolia Bridge that is pretty well stocked. I've stopped in there and had good luck for various items.

Stoneway Hardware (Ballard or Wallingford) for any kind of fasteners, SS, silicon bronze, etc.

J & G Marine, Tacoma tide flats. I started using this shop a couple years ago because they are an easy drive from the house and a shorter drive from the store to the local tap room. Less on hand, but most stuff they can get overnight (from Fisheries) at slightly better prices (than Fisheries) if you pick it up.

We are moving the boat to Gig Harbor soon. Ship-to-Shore has a nice store on the waterfront and I'll soon see what their prices are really like. I've shopped some there in the past (kayak) and they are very helpful. This spring they will be able to get overnight orders (from Fisheries!) five days a week. There's also a West Marine Express in town where I bought a pair of binoculars on sale a couple years ago.

My go to places are below. I always check prices at each site.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/main.do
Check out their Gleam brand varnish. The easiest to work with I have ever found.

http://www.imarineusa.com/

https://www.go2marine.com/index.jsp

http://toadmarinesupply.com/
As I remember, bought some Yanmar parts here.

https://www.wholesalemarine.com/


If you are doing any NMEA 2000 stuff, I have found good prices on Amazon. The 'Lowrance NMEA 2000 starter kit' is plug compatible with Garmin cables, so you can use this kit for the backbone and spur runs. I also took the backbone cable from this kit and spliced the end of the Raymarine Seatalk backbone cable onto one end when I was installing the EV-100 very far from the other equipment. Needed a long run of backbone cable and Seatalk cables are expensive. Seatalk-ng is proprietary, so doesn't mate with other cables unless you purchase adapters, or make your own by splicing the wires.