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Old 08-27-2009, 02:41 PM   #1
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Hi,

we chartered a Baniteau 50 feet sailing boat from XXXXX in Mallorca.

We experienced sevral issues that i hope no one would ever recommend during their holidays.

First of all we realised that, despite having signed a contract with Mr XXXXX sub-agent in Italy that set that we could leave the boat in Ibiza on saturday, Mr XXXXX said that the contract was invalid and that we should bring the boat to Palma.

Of course our flights were booked from Ibiza so we had to leave the boat in Ibiza one day earlier than expected (and paid for) sleeping at our own expenses in hotel in Ibiza...

Mr. XXXX demonstrated no flexibility at all and no comprehension.

unfortunately we did not have any alternative but to accept his request.

Moreover the boat itself had several issues:

- Auto pilot broke down (the piston got stuck and we could not maneuver). We had to waste 1 day (half day stuck and half day in harbour) waiting for a technician to fix the issue. He confirmed that this issue was due to bad maintenance from the owner (Mr XXXX). Once again Mr. XXXX showed no comprehension and give us minimal support and of course no compensation for the time loss..

- Battery charger: old and not functioning properly

- Electronic main sail roller: we had several issues to arm and disarm the main sail as the sail would get stuck. on average it took us 30 mins to open and close the sail.. everyone that sails knows that electronic rollers are more pain than gain..

- The picture of the boat on the website showed that the entrance to the 5th cabin (bow) had access form one of the other cabins. in reality one could only access it from the bow deck. the toilet in this cabin is right beside the bed (someone sleeping in there should be extremely careful about not hitting with his head while sleeping.

- Dinghy: well, not an important issue here.. funny that the dingy has a completely different name from the "mother" boat!

- Cockpit table: extremely small table, not suitable to a boat with 5 cabins accommodating 12 ppl.

- Depth sounder: electronic deep sounder not working

- Fridge 12 V: pump to "clean" the fridge not working, so after a week we had to take everything out and clean "by hand"

- Sink sea water pump in the kitchen not working

- 1 water tank not working

- 1 of the two deck compasses (the one on the left steering wheels) has a 15 degree mistake / difference from the one on the right steering wheel

Well.. i leave it up to you to decide if it is worth chartering such a boat (and with such a company!)... we pesonally would never do that again...



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Old 08-27-2009, 03:08 PM   #2
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The above post was edited by me in order to avoid the possibility of legal action being taken by the party named as the owner or owner's agent of the boat our member corrado chartered.

We have no reason to disbelieve the story as written but simply have obscured the name of the vendor of the boat. Anyone planning on chartering a Beniteau 50 should contct corrado to be sure that it is not Mr. X's boat.

The story itself is a tale of woe. It just goes to show that not all pirates are operating in the Gulf of Aden or thereabouts. The only advice I can give is to charter from a reputable company or on the recommendion of others. Of course, a charter is a legally binding document and therefore the charterer can revert to legal action - but who would want to? As a rule, only lawyers make money on that.

Aye // Stephen
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Old 08-27-2009, 08:14 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nausikaa View Post
The story itself is a tale of woe. It just goes to show that not all pirates are operating in the Gulf of Aden or thereabouts. The only advice I can give is to charter from a reputable company or on the recommendion of others. Of course, a charter is a legally binding document and therefore the charterer can revert to legal action - but who would want to? As a rule, only lawyers make money on that.

Aye // Stephen
Reading the post I think of a couple things:

This sort of story is why I don't like the idea of bare charters--no captain, no body on board who really knows the boat. This can be a big mistake when the folks handling the boat are not professionals such as a delivery crew who are used to dealing with the nuances of individual boats.

Clearly our CL member didn't have a great time, and sorry to hear of his woes. Perhaps in the future Corrado will consider chartering from a large, well known company rather than from an individual. Even so, stuff does go wrong.

Lesson learned for all CL members--think twice before you charter a boat. I can certainly understand the frustration Corrado dealt with during his chater: waiting on autopilot and dealing with electric furling for example or the depth sounder (I wonder if the sensor was fouled? did anyone dive on it to see? This is so common) and not knowing what magnetic issue on the boat was causing compass problems (could have been anything from a camera hanging off the binnacle to something below deck) and that a compass correction card wasn't stationed at each binnacle is too bad...other issues that Corrado brought up are things that I wouldn't even have thought of as issues but rather as just the way it is with a particular boat. I've rented enough boats to know that they're never quite right, unfortunately.

Good luck to Corrado in future chartering adventures.

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Old 08-28-2009, 05:10 PM   #4
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This may well be a case of "you get what you pay for" My family and I have chartered bare boats on several occasions from the US Puget Sound, Australia, and the Caribbean. Sure there has been a minor issue or two, but nothing we couldn't handle or that wasn't quickly addressed by the charter company.

The key is the charter company. We've chartered from Moorings, SunSail and a private charter that was referred to us. I'm sure that this is a more expensive way to go, but the boats were first rate.
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