Hola!
I have been meaning to post this in order to help other sailors for awhile.
Sea Bird is a 45' full keeled vessel, which is a major benefit for us when it comes to hauling out here.
A few years ago we used a
haul out yard in Puntarenas locally known as Sami Manley...email address to the
haul out yard (and they speak English) is
talleresmanley@ice.co.cr,
phone numbers 011-506-2661-0871 and 011-506-2661-2523. We were very happy with their
service, the whole experiece was great, from meeting us at the point of the peninsula to guide us in navigating up the
canal, to hauling us out and providing supplies and manual labor as well as electricians, mechanics,
RADAR experts and everything we needed. This is who we will use again and again.
But last November we had a small leak coming in through one of the through hulls and needed to get hauled out ASAP. We have friends that also own a 45' sailboat and they said we should try this new place in Caldera called Sunset Eco Boatyard. Their website and facebook page looked great, and all new and we didn't have to navigate the
canal. So we thought we'd give it a try and call 'em up and make a reservation, which we did and the reservation was made for Friday, the 21st of November 2014. They knew that
water was slowly entering and that this was sort of an
emergency (we did a great temporary
repair with some rubber and
emergency putty, so the leak stopped,) but we had to cancel a couple tours to get the
boat out, get the jobs done and get back to tours. Since we were going to haul out to revise and
repair all through hulls, we were going give the
hull some new
paint too so we asked Sunset Eco Boatyard to have the
paint delivered there and ready for us. They said "no problema!" and we deposited $600 into their account to make the
purchase of
bottom paint. So we sailed into Caldera a few hours before our scheduled haul out time and two guys put on some masks and go underwater to check us out.
When they come up they decide to tell us that they will NOT HAUL US OUT UNTIL THE FOLLOWING MONDAY, the day we planned on sailing back to home base. I got on my
phone and started calling the manager who I made the reservation with and to who I deposited the
money too and he whispered, "Im in court, I'll have to call you back." He never ever EVER called back....
I had Sea Bird down there with 5
men ready to get to
work and they wanted us to SIT there and wait. We said hell no, give us our paint and we'll go somewhere else, which was Sami Manley ....where, without a reservation they gladly hauled us out that afternoon.
Sunset Eco Boatyard was unable to FIND our paint we had paid for before we even arrived, so we had to leave without it. They still owe us a refund for the paint, but they say that they're keeping the
money because it was a deposit for the haul out reservation...which they did not fullfill. It was not a deposit, it was for paint and it even said so on the deposit statement.
Anyway, don't use them. Go to Sami Manley or even the Yacht Club
Costa Rica Yacht Club if you want good professional
service on the Pacific coast of
Costa Rica.
I really hope this post saves a future sailor from having to deal with those clowns.
Pura vida
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