Boat and ship builders and repairers: pay and what the work involves

Occupation 5235 · Skilled trades occupations

Boat and ship builders and repairers

Boat and ship builders and repairers construct, install and repair wooden structures and fittings, and shape, position, rivet and seal metal plates and girders to form the metal structures and frameworks for marine craft.

How people enter it

Entrants typically possess GCSEs/S grades. Training is usually via apprenticeship including practical experience and technical training. Apprenticeships and vocational qualifications in boat building and relevant aspects of engineering and construction are available at levels 2 and 3.

What the work involves

examines drawings and specifications to determine job requirements
uses rules, scribes and punches to mark out metal plate with guidelines and reference points and cuts plates using appropriate tools
uses machine tools to bend, curve, punch, drill and straighten metal plate as required and positions and aligns metal platework or frame for welding and bolting
rivets together metal plates and girders, seals seams, smooths welds, fixes metal doors, collars, portholes, tank and hatch covers
selects and measures appropriate wood and cuts, shapes and drills to specification using saws, planes, chisels and other power or hand tools
aligns and fixes prepared wood pieces by screwing, nailing, gluing and dowelling to form decking, small wooden marine craft and their interiors and fittings
maintains and repairs woodwork and fittings

Also called

Boat builder · Fitter (boat building) · Frame turner (ship building) · Laminator (boat building and repairing) · Marine engineer · Ship’s joiner · Shipwright

What it pays

Measure	Hours	Basis	Period	Value	Source
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	6,900.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	7,800.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	9,900.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	—	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020) Not published: Estimate and confidence interval not available since the group sample size is zero or disclosive (0-2)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	2,000.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	9,900.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)
5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	None	2026-03	1,000.00	ONS, Annual Population Survey - employment by occupation (SOC 2020)

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Region	Measure	Hours	Value	Period
East	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
East Midlands	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
London	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
North East	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	1,100.00	2026-03
North West	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
Northern Ireland	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
Scotland	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	2,000.00	2026-03
South East	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	1,600.00	2026-03
South West	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	3,800.00	2026-03
Wales	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	1,000.00	2026-03
West Midlands	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03
Yorkshire and The Humber	5235 : Boat and ship builders and repairers	None	withheld	2026-03

Common questions

Does pay for boat and ship builders and repairers vary by region?

ONS publishes regional pay for this occupation where the survey sample supports it — 5 of 12 cells on this page. The rest are withheld by ONS, and are shown as withheld with the reason, rather than left out.

Where do these pay figures come from?

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published by the Office for National Statistics. Figures are shown exactly as ONS publishes them — we do not adjust, model or fill them in, and every number on this page carries the series and period it came from.

Classified alongside this

Aircraft maintenance and related trades · Rail and rolling stock builders and repairers · Vehicle body builders and repairers · Vehicle paint technicians · Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians