Mahe 36: Original FP Mahe 36 Thread

[Scott730]

I'm the one with the delivery story, but first, Kev&JO and DtM not all Americans find the term "Yank" very indearing. "YEEHAA"? come on!!

I took delivery of my Mahe in June. My wife and I wanted to sail her with the Delivery Capitain on her maiden voyage. We were told to be at the port to pick the boat up, when we arrived, our Broker did not have us cleared thru port security (there were 3 boats being delivered, 2 Mahes and a power cat). When we finally got thru, my boat was hanging off the side of the delivery vessel about 50 feet over the river. We had to climb over the ship and literally jump off the railing to our boat as the crew rocked the boat back and forth so it would be closer for us! Boy was this a suprise to my wife, but she jumped and made it. Then it started to pour, we had a very nice French Capitain that helped prep the boat and change my equipment from French to English. About an hour into the trip we were surrounded by a C.G. cutter, police boats and a Helocopter. We were approaching a 65' bridge to cross under when we saw a "thing" fall off the bridge, listening to the VHF we learned it was a Jumper, hit the water about 1/2 mile in front of us! As we waited to proceed it stated to rain again. We lost our saleman who took off in the power cat, so our 2 Mahes cruised along trying to raise him on the radio. Within 30 minutes we found him heaved to and being boarded by customs. Turned out that no one cleared us to leave the port! Not a good thing! we all were boarded by agents with automatic weapons, the Major in charge informed me that we could of had our boats seized! We all cleared and were on our way again. we all stop to get fuel and my French Capitain left my boat and my salesman joined my wife and I. We had about 5 hours to our next port and I still didn't have all the equipment in English so I asked my saleman to help, he informed me that I should read the manual and preceeded to make sales calls leaving my wife and I to figure things out for our selves! Everytime we asked for help we got the same reply. When I insisted he help he started raising his voice and stated that he couldn't work with us and wanted off the boat at the next port, I couldn't wait to accomodate him. We arranged for the owner of the brokerage to take his place the next morning. We arrived at a marina very late and as soon as we tied up he was off to the bar. We thought we were done with him but he showed up drunk and wanted to sleep on board, when my wife said OK (She did not want to fight any more) he preceeded to drink a bottle of my wine and passed out!
The next morning arrived and the guy was off my boat, thank god! The broker showed up and we did an over night off shore cruise to our home port, it was excellent! The boat handled very nicely. She is now being outfitted with A/C, Generator and Bimini (you have 8" of clearance over the salon roof, and I did not form the bimini to the contour of the Salon roof, if you do you will have very little room to get out from under the bimini to port side). We are planning a month trip to the Bahamas this Fall. Can't wait.
FYI, the Furuno equipment has been a problem since the beginning. We have had the server replaced and now need to replace the Compass and wind component. Also, this system is not for sale in the U.S., therefore, all parts are shipped from overseas for replacement. So far Furuno has been very good about fixing things and getting us parts. Just a little nervious once it is out of warranty.

[IrieCat]

Who did you get you boat from? I live in Florida also.

[shadow]

Thanks for sharing that crazy story Scott730!! Sorry to hear about your problems but it was amazing to read! Have you had problems with that same saleman before or was he just new to you?? I've been fortunate enough to encounter really nice and helpful agents. But, I guess everyone is nice until they get full payment and then who knows..

[muskoka]

Scott,

One question - did FP provide drawings/diagrams with English translations?

My drawings are all in French - which is OK for the regular sailing bits but a real problem for the technical stuff like electrics.

Cheers

[kev&jo]

Hi Scott,

Sorry about using the term 'Yanks' absolutely no offence intended!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, we are in two minds about using the Furuno equipment and it will be interesting to see how you get on with it.

Kev&Jo

[jean1146]

Very entertaining scott......all my Furuno electronics had to be replaced.Thanks god the Furuno agent in Tampa was very good.Now I am having problems with the windlass,had to pick up my anchor by hand the other day.waiting for the weather to start cooling off,and the first cold front to move south so we can do some sailing.probably a trip to the Bahamas in April or so.we are very happy with the boat, I have not yet taken any decision on our Bimini,still trying to figure out the best way to do it.JC.

[Scott730]

All my documentation is in English except the diagrams, it is a problem, even the physical cables are labeled in french. We had to buy a french-english dic.. Also found alot of deadended cables and have no idea where they go or what they are for. I'd also like to mention that the 30 amp service panel (Hager) is not sold or supported in the U.S., so even though there is space for more breakers in the panel, I couldn't find any and had to add another sub panel to use for the A/C and any future needs.

[muskoka]

Yeah. Mine is all in French & I'm currently re-labeling everything. It wouldn't be so bad but for the fact that it's all nautical/technical terms which you're average French speaker probably couldn't translate either.

C'est la vie...

[Tropic Cat]

Scott,

No problem mon .... you just have to sail her down to Guadeloupe or Martinique for service. This could be a good thing!

[duggancci]

Originally Posted by mark

Hi Jean,

I am debating between the Mahe 36, and the Jaguar 36, although the advertised price of 199,000 on the Mahe makes it look very attractive, eventhough almost everything is additional. I would like to know why you decided on the Mahe, and I hope you have a good trip in France, and I hope you will have only good things to report..
Thank you,
Mark

We are looking to charter the Jaguar 36 - what is your take on the boat. Is there enough room for 5 people?

Thanks

[pguillemin]

Hello Mark
My name is Philippe and I am the president of WIllmarUSA which import the Fountaine Pajot in the USA and especially Florida
We sold the Mahe to Jean and Scott and 10 other one
We will be happy to show you the boat here in Fort Lauderdale
You can email to one of the broker here
harold@willmarusa.com

[jean1146]

I was talking yesterday with the FP importer about having a lot of growth and barnicles on my saildrives and was telling him that they probably used some cheap paint,his answer was (never use any antifouling paint on the saildrive because of the corrosion it is going to create).those are Volvo's.Has anyone solved this problem? I am having to go under the boat every week to scrap the growth.JC.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by jean1146

I was talking yesterday with the FP importer about having a lot of growth and barnicles on my saildrives and was telling him that they probably used some cheap paint,his answer was (never use any antifouling paint on the saildrive because of the corrosion it is going to create).those are Volvo's.Has anyone solved this problem? I am having to go under the boat every week to scrap the growth.JC.

I think what he meant was never put any copper-based antifouling on the saildrives. There is antifouling made for aluminum applications that don't contain any free copper. They used to contain tributyl tin, but that is no longer legal in the US. Pettit and Interlux make paint for this application.

Mark

[jean1146]

Mark thanks.There had to be an answer,my boat stays in a canal in Apollo beach in Tampa bay,for some reasons.the barnicles problem is horible.some one told me that the more water moves the more problems you will get,if you keep the boat where there is very little water movement there will be much less growth.

[Scott730]

JC
I'm having the same problem with my sail drives, really bad build up. There is an Interlux prop paint as Mark stated, I think it is new to the market (one or two years old) Anybody have experience with this paint?

Scott