Cornish Cruising has incredibly safe boats.

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I'd be interested as to how they found the keel. Did they ring around previous charterers asking where they left the keel, or did they run through the track back on the GPS finding it went into a whopping great bit of Scilly granite? If the latter, I suspect they could find the speed of the collision? If I was a betting man, I'd put it in excess of 7 knots!
 
Thought scillypete said it had been found by the little kittern rock off St Agnes?
Don't think I'd want to hit that ;)
 
provenjohn said:
Thought scillypete said it had been found by the little kittern rock off St Agnes?
Don't think I'd want to hit that ;)
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I don't want to argue with Scillypete, but would have thought it would be likely that they hit the "Little Kitten" rock which is normally covered off Norwethal at the northern approach to Old Grimsby Sound.
 
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Captn D said:
I don't want to argue with Scillypete, but would have thought it would be likely that they hit the "Little Kitten" rock which is normally awash off Norwethal at the northern approach to Old Grimsby Sound.
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Is that the one as you come down into Old Grimsby on Tresco?
 
Captn D said:
Tis on the port side as you enter into Old Grimsby from the north. Think on reflection it is normally covered, thus if you stray to far to the east side of the entrance, one could easily hit it.
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Hmmmm.......I have looked at it & remember thinking that I must remember that's there! ;)
Little easier to hit than a big sticky up one next to St Agnes me thinks
However, surely they can't of been going very quickly through there :confused:
 
Interesting thread, I was a member of the party that had Polbreem booked for charter commencing Saturday 4th.

Due to it being cancelled last minute we ended up with a Sunsail Sunfast 37. I actually came on this forum to search for incidents/comments surrounding Sunsail, putting it politely we didn't have a particularly good experience.

I don't want to go into detail on a public forum but the boats appear to be poorly maintained, an almost horizontal laid back attitude from the staff and poor attention to detail. Which were contributing factors to a few rather scary situations over the last week. If anybody has any information around other incidents/examples of problems with Sunsail please feel free to message me. We are talking about boats based at their Port Solent base.
 
Cornish Cruising

I was also on the party for the following week and thought I should add a comment on how Cornish Cruising treated us.
As soon as Nick found out that the boat had no keel, he tried to find another boat. This was not just within his own fleet but apparently other companies in the area. When this proved unsuccessful I had a call immediately along with refund and apologies. Although we were disappointed I felt that CC did all they could to help us.
We later called almost every charter company in the UK to find all of the Cornish ones booked up and aware of our situation, and all others pretty much fully booked as well. Sunsail were our only option, and as Andrew mentioned the service was not up to the CC standard, nor that of Haslar who we have previously used.
I have also since had a letter from Nick offering further apology and a discounted charter for next year which we will certainly be taking him up on.

I don't work for them btw, just thought I should mention this as every dealing I've had with them has been positive and I would hate for this incident to damage their reputation :)
Cheers
Dave
 
photodog said:
But if you charter and this happens you get nailed for a lift, lose your deposit, etc etc... So, people lie.


We need to incentivice the charterer to tell the truth... there really shouldnt be any penalty for the charterer if he does so.

Maybe get rid of the big deposit, and have a unrefundable fee for all risks insurance instead?
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Just catching up after 2 weeks away. I am a regular user of CC and am asked on return if we have hit anything or grounded. Puts some emphasis on charterer. I understand the deposit is there to encourage care.
 
ytd said:
The whitsunday islands charter companies send a diver to check the hull after each charter.
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So you told us before but just ain't practical in the UK.

  1. Cold water = requirement for a dry suit.
  2. Health & Safety regs require a team of 4 for the simplest under water commercial dive = + 10% on the charter price.
  3. Many marinas experience strong cross currents = danger to divers or limited inspection periods.
  4. Nutrient-rich sea water = murky conditions, so difficult to spot damage.

Routine under water post charter inspection would be a nonsense in the UK and would not have identified the pending keel loss on the Cornish yacht which is obviously due to a material defect in the metallurgic department.
 
jonjo5 said:
Routine under water post charter inspection would be a nonsense in the UK and would not have identified the pending keel loss on the Cornish yacht which is obviously due to a material defect in the metallurgic department.
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It might just have identified the lack of keel before sending it out on the next two charters, though.
 
AndrewM said:
Interesting thread, I was a member of the party that had Polbreem booked for charter commencing Saturday 4th.

Due to it being cancelled last minute we ended up with a Sunsail Sunfast 37. I actually came on this forum to search for incidents/comments surrounding Sunsail, putting it politely we didn't have a particularly good experience.

I don't want to go into detail on a public forum but the boats appear to be poorly maintained, an almost horizontal laid back attitude from the staff and poor attention to detail. Which were contributing factors to a few rather scary situations over the last week. If anybody has any information around other incidents/examples of problems with Sunsail please feel free to message me. We are talking about boats based at their Port Solent base.
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PM Sent.
 
perhaps no need for a diving team, if you had a decent underwater CCTV and lighting on a pole, or a little ROV ? The 'persuasion' factor if that were known would be mutually beneficial.
 
Indentations in keel of Sun Odyssey 37

Looking at the keel of a Sun Odyssey 37, I was surprised to find that there were large indentations in both sides of the keel just below where it meets the hull in the area of the bilge. It looks as if the outer fibreglass skin over the bilge area has been carefully cut away, leaving a depression about 1 inch deep and 1 foot square on each side of the keel. Does anyone know if this is part of the original design and, if not, why would someone have modified it in this way?
 
A, I disagree about metallurgical defects, ain't gonna happen to 12 bolts at once,

B, I think the ***** previous charterers ought to be seriously brought to justice, this must have been a really serious incident, but they kept quiet re. the deposit,

C, Until this happened I don't think anyone could blame CC for not doing underwater inspections ,

BUT in that rocky area especially, a really good look in the bilges after each charter ( which probably wouldn't have shown anything ) would be sensible, now a camera inspection would seem necessary - if only to clear charter companies backs ,

D, I went to my boat to take the mast down afloat a few weeks ago; as we slackened off the rigging, my chum noticed one of my recently replaced Wichard eye-bolts, which has massive backing, was loose.

It turned out the boat had been hit hard sometime on the mooring; if I had gone off for a jolly sail in a stiff breeze, life could have become interesting; even on 'normally operated' boats one cannot do too much of a 'pre-flight' inspection.

I normally check all pins are in & spilt pinned, but admit I might not have thought to check actual chainplates as I 'knew' how strongly I'd fitted them.

With charter boats a truly epic inspection on each turn-round must be regarded as essential !

If anyone would like to employ me to do these inspections please PM me ! ( only half joking, engineer YMO ).

And I'll say it again, the charterers who did this ought to be inserted in place of the keel into said rocks, and concreted in...
 
Seajet said:
A, I disagree about metallurgical defects, ain't gonna happen to 12 bolts at once
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One of the case studies in an OU forensic engineering course was that of a spate of beam failures of shipping containers. Basically they sagged in the middle when lifted by the ends. The problem was tracked to a faulty batch of rivets for them - incorrectly heat treated. When the loading got to a critical value the most stressed rivet gave way, transferring load onto the next one along, which gave way, transferring load onto the next one along which BRRRRRRRRRPCRACH.

Unlikely in this case, but if all the bolts had some corrosion cracking they could have weakened enough for this sort of load-transfer mechanism to come into play.
 
I know what you mean, but rivets ( used to those with fighter aircraft inc' heat treatment discipline ) are a lot different to 1" bolts - used to those in general engineering, with plenty of theory training & quals.

The bolts certainly look as if they all sheared under the same load - I'd maybe have expected a flatter shear if the bolts were weak - the culprits can't say they didn't feel anything !!!
 
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