Problems with a Hypalon Lodestar Dinghy and the Warranty Policy of Lodestar

[tartufo96]

Problems with a Hypalon Lodestar Dinghy and the warranty policy of Lodestar

We purchased a new Lodestar Hypalon dinghy at Surapol Chandlery, the official dealer of Lodestar in Phuket, Thailand. After 3 month’s of use there were a lot of black spots on the Hypalon. According to the manufacturer of the Hypalon it is mildew. You can’t get it off. Many seals were loosening and you can pull the rubber strake off with one finger. Also the bottom is leaking where the transom is glued in.
We brought the dinghy back to the dealer for gluing the loose spots. It took a long time and when we picked up the dinghy, it looked even worse. The Hypalon had many more black spots, the places where they glued looked ugly and didn’t stick, and. the rubber strake was loose also on other places. So we didn’t want to go back to the dealer again.
We contacted Lodestar Holland (we thought it was a Dutch product, but not anymore) and then we found out that the company is sold and the factory is now in North Korea. We got hold of Mr. Steve Chung and after about a year of mailing there is still no reasonable solution for the problems. It seems that the word warranty is not in their vocabulary. In the brochure of Lodestar they tell you that you have a 5 year warranty, what ever that means. We also found out that the dealers make their own warranty regulations; Surapol gives only 1 year warranty, but didn’t tell you that..

So we definitely can’t recommend Lodestar dinghies. After 5 months our dinghy looked if it was at least 5 years old

[Therapy]

That is really sad to hear.