LEOPARD quality and customer service

[alexxx]

hello all !!
the more i look, and the more i'm becoming interested in LEOPARD cats.... if there are some among you have had good or bad experiences with them, including the "after-purchase" leopard customer service, could you write your comments here?
i would also love to know how they perform as long haul cruising cats, and as liveaboards.......
thankxxx !!!!

[RRMontgo]

We own a Leopard 46 in charter in the BVI. It's a 2009 model we purchased in 2012 and moved from Moorings to another company. I would rate R&C's quality as very good to excellent. The boat is rock solid, and their other models we've seen also seem very solid. We plan to cruise it in a few years and have 0 concerns about it's ability to travel across oceans. I can't rate their customer service since we did not buy new, but their brokerage in FL provided excellent service when we were doing the purchase. We worked with Bob Ross.

Rob

[MikeFergie]

I have recently bought a leopard 40 from the mooring in the Seychelles and I called and got an email for Robertson and crane. They emailed me all the drawings I was looking for to add a generator water maker etc. found the very helpfull.

Regards

MikeF



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[Dulcesuenos]

I owned a 2001 leopard 38 and the guys at the moorings in Fl never hesitated to call back answer questions, send me technical manuals etc via email, their support is awesome.

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[alexxx]

thank you !! all this really helps
i' love to charter the new leopard 40, AND the 48, to compare, and to see how they perform
how is the downwind performance of the Leopard? any good experiences?
any slapping in tall waves?
cheers

[Dulcesuenos]

Our 38 Rarely made contact, even into decent seas. I imagine the longer waterline would always be preferred depending on budget.

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[ejlindahl]

Dulcesuenos,

I can't help but wonder why you changed to your current Athena 38 from the Leopard 38?

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by ejlindahl

Dulcesuenos,

I can't help but wonder why you changed to your current Athena 38 from the Leopard 38?

Family /health reasons motivated us to sell and seek out a less expensive boat to allow us to retire and go cruising sooner than later. We loved our leopard, almost went monohull, found a fair deal on an Athena, which we are learning to like. There are some huge differences between them, and we are learning to appreciate the Athena more each day.

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[dpddj]

Hi alexxxxxx. I looked at a lot of cats over a few years before finding one I was happy with (some were snapped up before I could sign paperwork). I have a 2006 Leopard 40, bought three years ago from an older couple in FL. They kept the visible stuff very clean but did little upkeep as far as other stuff. So I have been immersed in taking care of all the oddball things and have burrowed deep into the innards. Much of it could fall under normal maintenance but I have also done some improvements.

It handles very well and plans are to retire aboard this fall. The manuals are very good and have excellent system diagrams. I've not needed to contact R&C much but the few times had good results. There is a very helpful users forum on Yahoo.

Along the way I have found a few things that I just shake my head at. But then again, my background is engineering/boat building for some very nice companies so maybe I am spoiled.

The only few that really stand out are 1) they used a poor choice sealant for bedding the salon windows 2) why in the world would you put balsa core inside of a rudder 3) thru-hulls were of in my opinion inferior material and all needed replacement due to dezincification failure and 4) why would you built crap tanks out of aluminum? They corroded, leaked (yeah, I'm still trying to get the stink out of the bilges) and have been replaced with polymer tanks from TripleM.

A few years have passed since mine was built so it is likely most of these gripes have been addressed in new builds.

Would I buy another Leopard? Without hesitation, yes, and I recommend the same for others. Generally, I am very pleased with the Leopard. All boats are compromises and I am happy with this compromise. Go for it.

Oh, I do wish there was a big, overstuffed chair to fall into.

[alexxx]

hi DPDDJ
thank for your comments
it seems like you know what you're talking about, and glad to hear that when contacted R&C were forthcoming
how was all of the electrical system and wiring on your boat? did it give you an impression of a solid build and good layout?

[dpddj]

Alexx -
The factory wiring is up to snuff. I sometimes wished there'd been a little more tail on some when I was working on something, but otherwise it is laid out well, the wiring diagrams are good, and things are accessible. The only complaints I have is with after market stuff that was installed - not R&C doing.
You will note thru-hulls are not bonded together. You will find threads on CF praising/condemning the practice.

[alexxx]

thanks DPDDJ
forgive my lack of experience, i'm still a bit new to all this. And i'm French, so a bit of a language problem here
You're saying that the through hulls are not bonded together.
Can you please explain? what are through hulls in english, to begin with?
thanxx for yr help

[dpddj]

Alexx - oh, so you are French! That explains a lot. My wife is also, so I am subjected to abuse all the time and have become quite patient in my old age.
Thru-hulls are the penetrations through the hull that let fluid in or out of the boat. In other words, if you have an engine that needs cooling water, it will generally get it through a fitting that penetrates the hull and the thru-hull will have a ball valve inside that allows water in or out. GROCO MARINE PRODUCTS This is true for air conditioning systems, raw water systems, toilets (heads), and others.
Some of these are made of marine bronze and some are made of a polymer such as Marelon.
If you use bronze (and please be aware there are many grades of quality, many of them inferior such as I had) sometimes it is a practice to join them all together by running a #6 copper wire between each of them to a common bonding point. This is done to "reduce" corrosion as well as provide lightning protection if the system is attached to the mast. Again, there are a whole lot of opinions on the validity of either.
You'll need to get a lot of reading material as this is a widely contested topic.
Have fun.

[CliffL]

I owned a 2003 Leapord 47...great boat, very solid, very good performance. I had a couple minor issues that I went to the Annapolis Leapord broker for help with...very helpful. Not sure about Corporate.


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[alexxx]

thankxx DPDDJ !
i'll do the research !
one day at a time, now i know what a through-hull is....
thanks for taking the time to explain
cheers !
alexxx