Yacht Delivery Death Traps.

[SurferShane]

Time for me to walk away from this post hoping some get the hint to avoid these owners and their offers to help sail their boats. Second time I have got caught up in one of these situations. I am NOT risking strike three. Same on here and other forums when people start passing blame and my down-under sense of humour gets me banned!

[RickK]

Just a FYI , I have never been on a sailboat but am buying a Pearson 365 for a berth in Florida . There I will take sail lessons and figure out my new home . As well as rig it with electric everything to make it easier to handle. There is a beautiful Dekleer in AK for sale but too expensive to get to Florida.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SurferShane

Maybe I need to re-word the title or hope people actually read the original post before commenting?

As above I never once held myself out to be a professional delivery Captain. To be blatantly honest the quaint little yacht I live on now does not even require me to have a Boating Licence. I have however spent my entire life around the ocean including time on various types of offshore fishing vessels, dinner cruise boats and over the past decade full time coastal cruising single handed on my old H28. I am also a respected surf lifesaver.

A "friend" wanted me to help him sail a yacht down the coast. A typical narrcistic control freak trap. First to show off his million dollar club yacht and secondly to have a scapegoat when things went wrong. Notwithstanding, I have lost people to the sea including one due an auto pilot failure on a commercial fishing vessel. Yes we had an auto pilot failure on this trip noting the control unit panel was unreadable. This owner's reckless demands really pissed me off.

I did argue the boat needed at least another week in port so I could ensure necessary systems were functioning and reliable. Of course the owner constantly over ruled me typically phoning the broker who sold him the nightmare for advice. In the end I was bluntly telling the owner "I don't give a f%%k what you think has been done" on the boat as far as repairs and survey went. I also tagged his mate the broker as "Don the used car salesman". Obviously I didn't care if he told me to pack my bags and leave, which I eventually did of my own accord. I have to say I now wish I took more photos of the issues.

Given the owner had no sailing experience and in my opinion had bought a boat absolutely unsuited to his lack of skills and medical conditions, I assumed responsibility for getting the boat to its destination safely. He also had a 73 year old lady friend aboard who I would not like to have been lost at sea. The owner did pay me, but I NEVER requested commercial rates or agreement. I find throwing money around like this is a typical narrcistic strategy. Also a way to lock you in from walking away. To be honest I didn't give a sh%t about the money. What I was looking forward to was surfing a big fast yacht down the coast. Did you notice my profile name? I REALLY DO SURF!

Sounds like a terrible experience. It's great you posted the story, which has a bunch of good lessons for all of us. Even when we've had our own bad experiences, it's useful to be reminded. Don't be offended if anyone is musing about having done this or that differently from you - that's how we learn. Surely you're doing the same thing.

Cheers

[boatman61]

Hi Shane... Bumma you had such a bad experience but **** happens..
Don't let the buggas get yer down, you were just unlucky to cop for a lousy combination of boat and owner.
Don't stick the experience as something to carry, just dust yourself off, chuck it in the nearest bin and move on.

Good to see you back on the forum..

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hi Shane... Bumma you had such a bad experience but **** happens..
Don't let the buggas get yer down, you were just unlucky to cop for a lousy combination of boat and owner.
Don't stick the experience as something to carry, just dust yourself off, chuck it in the nearest bin and move on.

Good to see you back on the forum..

Thanks.

I wish I was back with something positive, but I do hope this is a warning to anyone with a delusional "friend" who wants them to help buy a yacht and sail it back to their home port. Second time I have put myself in the same bad situation.

First time, the idiot didn't even realise carbon monoxide fumes leaking through cable holes into my quasi cabin from an outboard well could be lethal. The leak was bad enough to be triggering the gas alarm in the opposite side of the cat. While not as deadly, the sh#t story from the same trip was just as ridiculous. Needless to say I was glad to be left castaway on a remote part of the Queensland coast. At least I was alive!

Took me five years to be stupid enough to help someone again. This time I have no doubt I was the fall guy for anything that might eventuate relocating a boat he knew was a tired insurance write-off. Another narcissist who had to run out and by the biggest boat possible as a penis extension.

Anyways, I am back typing this from the comfort of my own little boat. I hope all is well with you.

[Hamish_ct]

Interesting and terrifying story.
As a general rule, even on a well-known friend's boat, I always carry a portable GPS and a VHF radio.
The situation you described is my worst fear of traveling on a friend's boat. What is even more terrifying about your story is that this "New" boat owner did not take advice from an experienced sailor. What is the issue with adding a few oz of biocide fuel treatment? there is only upside.

[CharlesV]

I read the thread as a novice to these situations and Im wondering why it has to be like this with apparently so many owners and skippers?

1. What comprises a proper agreement to have first?
2. What are the elements of a provision and work list to be carried out and verified before the trip?

Wouldnt just those two things end 90% of the problems reported in here? What prevents an agreement and list from happening? If an owner declines these things and the skipper walks, isnt it for the best? Why skipper the boat with so many things up in the air at the moment of the trip? I understand that owners lie or are innocently mistaken and that skippers may be unwilling to survey a boat before a trip but surely there are ways to trim problems.

[kayakerChuck]

Surfer- thanks for sharing!

I've been boating my entire life & have been involved in some "interesting" things. My other half is new to boating & basically thinks I exaggerate what can go wrong. This story makes a great example.

[Escape Plan]

Hey there! Since you’ve done deliveries for such a long time, I’m wondering if you have a checklist you use for the initial contact? I’m curious because I’m sure there are some ways to ferret out these disasters early in the process. If so, would you be willing to share that?

[smacksman]

My 2 cents based on sailing yacht deliveries.
Same as mentioned above - assume that nothing works.


Hand held VHF; EPIRB: basic tools, shackles, pipe clips; epoxy paste; duct tape: plastic tapered plug (to seal various diameters of hole/pipe: lengths of poly tube (emergency fuel supply): one ring camper stove; dry food; tin mugs; water gerry can; hand held GPS: paper charts; hand held compass; almanac; local tide tables; ribbon wind telltales: lithium engine starter battery (size of a mobile phone) which also charges USB kit; torch + batteries; lighter gas powered solder iron; roll of electrical wire; AVO meter: fuse wire: short lengths of line; roll of loo paper;


Check on board there is a bucket (bucket & chuckit) : a fuel jerry can (for emergency fuel tank); engine oil change kit ( I always change the oil before setting off)


Bulky things like jerry cans and heavy tools I would buy locally if not on board but the rest would back pack.
Not all problems were with old boats.

We delivered a brand new cat back to factory that had been delivered to a boat show by truck. The bottom of the mast sported a bundle of wires. No nav instruments that worked. There was no way of getting water out of the tank. The engine controls were fitted upside down. Flat batteries and no charger. Got her seaworthy after a few hours. A hose fell off the hydraulic steering at the end of day one. We jury rigged steering using the saloon table leg as a tiller pulled by the spinnaker sheets across the cockpit. (Put it all back before we handed her back to let the yard puzzle it out!)


If there is a suspicion that the owner might not pay the balance of the fee (the profit) I would unscrew the most expensive bit of kit (usually the nav display) and hide it on board. Not theft you see but a bit of leverage in discussions. Only needed once. The rest of the time the deed was argued away as protecting their gear from theft.


Never failed a delivery once and usually arrived in a better and cleaner state than when I left.

[psaltydogs]

The boat's problems can be identified at dockside. The bigger problem is in the personality defects of the owner.

[mtrees]

A nightmare delivery of a 45 Leopard to Australia resulted in one major problem after the other. The final spanner in the works was the chaffing of the Code Zero halyard resulting in it going under the boat breaking the spit and cross beam.I found that the cause of halyard chaffing was a bolt holding the sheave box which was protruding to far into the mast on which the halyard rubbed and thus the cause for the break. It took two months in Raiatea, French Polynesia, to complete the repair. Having left the British Virgin Islands in June now November a hurricane was brewing off the east coast of Australia made me head for Auckland, New Zealand, where the boat could be left until the following year. The owner refuse to pay me the $15,000 in fees. He did pay all the expenses and my airline ticket back to the States. The blame was placed in my court as maintained it was my negligence that the halyard parted. Legal action was out of the question as stated in a previous posting the legal cost would far out weighed the benefit. The owner living in Perth, Australia and me in the USA. From the beginning I had broached the possibility of putting the boat on one of the ocean delivery ships but he thought getting the boat on its bottom was the best option. The final cost without my fee was about $10,000 more than a ship delivery to Brisbane.

[Brian Renwick]

Thanks for sharing your story Surfer Shane.
I have 2 mates (well retired) who do boat deliveries for some extra income. I’ve heard so many horror stories from them I would not contemplate deliveries as a career choice. Obviously, the worst ones can be weeded out before sailing.
It is now their policy not to leave home until they have been paid a sum equal to their expenses that might be incurred joining, a few days on the boat, and repatriation in case they turn down the job after finding she is unseaworthy.
They also don’t want the owner on board during the voyage, as being more hindrance than help.

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by garyfdl

I've done consulting work.

When someone hires you for your expertise, and then questions your judgement? Walk away.

(Addendum - put in the contract that there is a ((significant)) deposit due at signing, and deduct any time and expenses when you leave)

This is the world today unfortunately. I am not sure of it is a result of too many uninformed people with fully formed opinions or the diversity of the information on the net, but in our experience the question 'what would you do' is really a demand to agree with them.

[goboatingnow]

I did quite a few deliveries but thankfully not for the money. I know many of my friends trying to make a living from it regularly got roasted. Some people seem to think it’s a service you’re providing for free or they simply never had any injection of paying you the full amount.