Hi Stefan.
I have been travelling all day today and have only just arrived at my location.
I have been fed the information that i needed today and was making a decision on any repairs or help that i might be giving you.
As you have come on very aggressive to me and i have only been trying to help you. My Apologies if it seems that I am aggressive to you, that is not the case, as things stand I am frustrated with this whole situation as it is constantly costing me money. I am sure that if you were in my position you would be reacting in exactly the same manner.
As you are aware you were only able to purchase the boat as a result of me bending over backwards to accommodate you. As mentioned in the e-mail , I am aware of and gratefull for the deal you provided for the lay buy of the boat, as you are also aware I met my obligations under our contract for the payment of the boat. If you can also recall you made the offer that we could do the deal on Escapade as you owned it outright and were wanting to sell it. You also stated that the monthly income would be worth it until final payment was made.
Just so we are clear. I won't be taking the boat back under any circumstances without its original trailer. That just isn't possible. As i only deal in trailer boats. So to be clear, your offer is that if I were to return the boat with the original trailer I will get the refund. I accept this offer. Once payment of $24,250.00 has been received I will deliver the boat and its original trailer to your premises.
My Bank Account number is :38-9014-0123889-00
You also need to keep in mind that when you left the marina on picking up the boat originally that you struck the end of the boat ramp with the stern leg stalling the engine. The same day prior to me attempting to take possession of the boat, the chaps on board while attempting to start the boat (as you can recall there were starting issues) had to start the boat in gear and on two seperate occassions also struck the end of the boat ramp and stalled the engine.
Also on the day that I came through to sea trial the boat with Phillip we had exactly the same starting issues, Phillip started the boat in gear and on more than one occasion struck the stern leg stalling the engine. If you can also recall the boat had backfiring issues and cut out on the trial and we had to anchor up while Phillip battled to get the boat started again.
This is the most likely and probably only cause of the total destruction of the driveshaft. They just don't break on their own. There has to be a cause. Up to this point I was unaware that the drive shaft was totally destroyed as this had not been passed on to me. I agree there has to be a cause. What I am saying is that the boat remained in the water from the time that I collected the boat on Saterday morning the 29th of November (in the water at West Harbour berth) and it went straight in to another berth (Pine Harbour) with more than enough water, no trailers and no other opportunity to strike any boat ramps (as mentioned above).
As for the handling you have been changing trim tabs and the permatrim. I went in the boat with its original owner before trading it and it would trim up good as gold. This is just a case of learning the boat. Changing things this early on before knowing the boat is not the correct way of improving things. To be clear I have not changed trim tabs, I changed out the original up down switches for A ACS RP Automatic trim tab control with visual reference as to trim tab position as well as the ability once programmed to maintain the boat on plane irrespective of people movement and weight distribution.
A product that is widely known and endorsed.
I learnt enough about the handling of the boat in the 3 hour trip we took from collection to arrival at Pine Harbour to know that there was something wrong with the handling which I put down to the reasons given to me by Phillip as mentioned in earlier e-mails and borne out by comments passed by Yusuf about the handling of the boat on seatrial.
I had also on subsequent trips marked the steering with coloured tape to show straight ahead position of the sternleg.
Whilst out on the water you were always needing to correct the steering at around 40 Degrees, this I put down to the torque generated by the propeller, but did not have the same issue once theprematrim was removed (bent).
With regards the permatrim, as mentioned in previous mails , I noticed this was bent after I had the boat out of the water (removed by loaders at pine harbour) to fit the transducer, so I did not remove thepermatrim on a whim.
And lastly , this is not my first boat.
On the driveshaft issue. The damage has been caused by the ramp and therefore probably best to be an insurance claim and thats different to a warranty claim. With regards this, if you want to lodge a claim with your insurance , that would be much appreciated as the shaft would have been damaged by the multiple strikes your staff put on it while starting the boat in gear before I finally took possession of the boat.
Regards Rodney
Sent from Samsung Mobile
------Original message ------
From: Stefan Botha
Date:06/01/2015 20:04 (GMT+12:00)
To: ,,
Subject: RE: no drive
Hi Rodney
I think I am at the point, after discussing with Linda that a refund would be in order.
The automatic trim control, radios and fishfinder can stay in the boat to make up for the trailer in the boats original pricing
Regards
stefan
From:
To: ; ;
Subject: RE: no drive
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 13:21:37 +1300
Hi Rodney
I am not happy at this point
A chap from ovlov marine was busy working on a boat next to escapade yesterday, he asked me whether
I was aware of the peice missing and crack in the cavitation plate on the sternleg, I said yes, I saw it when i
removed the bent permatrim hydrofoil. He asked how long I have had the boat, I mentioned less than 2 months
I then went through the issues with the steering with the permatrim until I noticed the bent permatrim
when I had the boat out of water to fit the new fishfinder and transducer. He then asked why the boat was out of
the water again, I mentioned the lack of drive.
His words were, If I was you I would take the boat back to the brokeridge and insist on your money back, the cavitation plate
in its current condition is not going to last long and will cost more than $2000 to replace, the boat should never have
been given to you with the handling issues you described and they should have noticed the bent permatrim
While talking to yusaf yesterday he mentioned that he had experienced exactly the same handling issues on the test run with phillip ( port bow dipping into the ocean while the starboard rises) obviously because of the permatrim
He also mentioned that phillip had some issues with regards the handling and trying to get the trim set up correctly.
To my way of thinking this should have raised a red flag and the issues should have been addressed before I took possession of the boat. Or at a minimum , should have been mentioned to me and a plan of action put in place to remedy.
as you know I kept to the financial arrangement set up to purchase the boat, once again thank you for that, however I am feeling brokerage marine have taken advantage of me by selling me a product that they knew was faulty.
I have spent a shitload of money on electronics for escapade
new fish finder- old one not working
i-pad for gps- old gps not working
new vhf radio- old one not working
new car radio- old one not working
I purchased and have installed a automatic trim tab control (which struggled to operate until I removed the permatrim)
If you can recall I was supposed to collect the boat on the 22nd of November , because of issues with starting, batteries, snapped cable and duckboard being fitted I was only able to collect the boat the saterday (29th)
I have literally been out on the boat 7 times and that is including the day that I went to collect her.
I lost drive on the tuesday the 23rd of december so literally 3 weeks of ownership with the boat functioning , all be it not properly.
I was patient because of the time of the year we were in with regards somebody having a look at the drive issues, we made
arrangements for early the 5th, Yusaf arrived after 2pm with hardly any tools, I had to phone to find out if he was on his way or not, no contact from the brokerage side of things, Yusaf had to take the unit back yesterday afternoon, I asked for somebody to call and give me a timeframe, what was happening etc (its costing me $60 per day to have the boat out of the water as well as $169 to get her out of and back into the water) I had to phone again, only to be told that no information was at hand, no time frame yet and yusaf will have a look at it
I was also patient because of the lay buy purchase we were able to negotiate, because of this I did not freak out because the boat was not ready when i wanted to collect, even though the date was set 4 months out, I accepted the crap electronics , i accepted phillips reasoning for the handling (he should know he sells boats) but I am at the end of my tether
and am now that I place each piece of my experience into the puzzle I am now feeling that you have dumped escapade on me knowing that there were issues and hoping that they would not occur until the supposed 3 month warranty was up.
I now want to know
What are you going to to about this situation, because as things stand I would love to get my money back.
Stefan