atlowers
Well-Known Member
On 30th july I put my Birchwood 33 onto scrubbing pad sat on 3 sleepers and powerwashed her bottom. Slept on board and next morning prepared to antifoul. I was due to leave on west country cruise next friday. Noticed a tiny crack above rear sleeper below engine beds. Rolled out and went to get some resin and seconds later crunch unbelievably the keel fell through the sleeper at rear. I had about 3 hours of tide to affect temp repair to get her watertight. Hollow keel was a mess. With aid of friends we managed to box in the damaged area and filled boxes with fixer foam. put in extra bilges and waited 20 mins to see if the repair was going to hold. In mean time I had contacted my insurers gjw emergency line and spoken to their surveyor who confirmed I had done averything I could to keep her afloat. I also contacted Gosport boatyard and owner Chris Haddock said he could emergency lift me out that day if repair held and offered pumps and advice, he said he would go to the yard and standby as he had no lift teams in that day.
Thankfully repair held with aid of bilges and got boat round to the boatyard. Chris had telephoned me 3 times throughout the day to check on situation as had the surveyor from GJW. By 3pm boat was craned out and at 3.15 the surveyoy turned up with his grandchild asleep in the car, his daughter was in labour and he had driven from warsash. He took pics and said he had seen similar with one other birchwood (interesting) I explained I had hoped to have my hols on the boat next Friday. On Monday at 11am I recieved a telephone call from gjw director Michael Silvestor saying he had recieved estimate and surveyors report and hoping that I would not lose my holiday gave go ahead to start the work. The repairer Mark Greenway was also going on hooliday the following weekend but agreed to work til 8pm all week to facilitate the repair in time.
Friday noon the boat was lifted back into the water and I set off for the west country as planned. What an incredible 6 days it had been!
Just had to post on this superb service whic h I believe merits sharing. I of course have no affiliation to gjw Insurance or indeed Gosport boatyard in fact I only changed to gjw in December 2009. I just felt a public expression of gratitude to these two boating businesses was justified and I wondered if others had similar tales to tell to warm the cockles.
Thankfully repair held with aid of bilges and got boat round to the boatyard. Chris had telephoned me 3 times throughout the day to check on situation as had the surveyor from GJW. By 3pm boat was craned out and at 3.15 the surveyoy turned up with his grandchild asleep in the car, his daughter was in labour and he had driven from warsash. He took pics and said he had seen similar with one other birchwood (interesting) I explained I had hoped to have my hols on the boat next Friday. On Monday at 11am I recieved a telephone call from gjw director Michael Silvestor saying he had recieved estimate and surveyors report and hoping that I would not lose my holiday gave go ahead to start the work. The repairer Mark Greenway was also going on hooliday the following weekend but agreed to work til 8pm all week to facilitate the repair in time.
Friday noon the boat was lifted back into the water and I set off for the west country as planned. What an incredible 6 days it had been!
Just had to post on this superb service whic h I believe merits sharing. I of course have no affiliation to gjw Insurance or indeed Gosport boatyard in fact I only changed to gjw in December 2009. I just felt a public expression of gratitude to these two boating businesses was justified and I wondered if others had similar tales to tell to warm the cockles.
