Hmmm. I'm not sure you want to give the responsibility for that job to dealers. The authorized dealer (a long-time Hobie shop), I bought the parts from, didn't offer to do the drilling and since I can't imagine they'd have the right jigs to make the drilling simple, that seems odd advice. In the best case, you're leaving to your dealers to ensure the quality of the job. Doing so is inevitably going to mean inconsistent results for your customers. (I also happen to know that our Hobie dealer's old hand with repairs and so on has just left the shop to take another job. I doubt if the new guy--a monohull afficianado who admitted to us he knew nothing about Hobies--would have any idea what to do.)

As an example of the kind of inconsistency that is bound to result from dealer to dealer, Hobie's site says a dealer can order parts and have them shipped right to the customer if you wish. When I asked our dealer about this, they assured me that Hobie wouldn't do that. Since it wasn't a big deal, I didn't push it. So, how is physical work like drilling going to be done consistently (a skilled job which would typically be done with specialized tooling) when some dealers aren't even aware of company policies?

I don't mean to be snippy, but saying "This is what a dealer is best at" is just odd-sounding. If that's so, why don't they get raw parts for the boats they purchase for sale? I think it really is worth passing along the suggestion rather than telling me to rely on someone who has no quality control, doesn't have the right tooling, and may or may not have the expertise to do the job right.