Hurricane
Well-known member
Yep - Definately the same guy!!!
Delivery Trip!! Looking back?
- Thread starter MaltaBob
- Start date
Gludy
Active member
I have to agree that a long delivert trip for the maiden voyage is not a good idea.
I do however know of once case of a 600 mile trip in an f8 as the delivery trip and do you know what went wrong? Nothing. That was the Marlow heading from Southampton to Kip marina near Glasgow.
Of my three boats to date, I had one delivered by trailer and I have done two long maiden voyage and in both boats had problems .... but that is another story /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I do however know of once case of a 600 mile trip in an f8 as the delivery trip and do you know what went wrong? Nothing. That was the Marlow heading from Southampton to Kip marina near Glasgow.
Of my three boats to date, I had one delivered by trailer and I have done two long maiden voyage and in both boats had problems .... but that is another story /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Divemaster1
Well-known member
Found My Italian Job
Solitaire
Active member
[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps some of the pros here could give us some insight into what they expect from owners when contracted to undertake a delivery. Are there "standard" terms and conditions ? Do you have a check list without which you will decline to set sail ?
[/ QUOTE ]
Firstly, and following on from your first post - being the owner does not overtake the skippers role, the captain is the master of the vessel and it would have been on his head if an accident had occurred. However, by the sound of it the whole thing was a nightmare!
And yes, there are terms and conditions applied to delivery trips!
When we do deliveries we make sure our skippers go with a our grab bag containing all kit - flares, 1st aid kit, extra life jackets, VHF, GPS etc. We also insist that for any long distance trip a life raft is included on the boat. For shorter deliveries we take our own 4 man raft, but where flying is concerned, clearly this is not an option, then this is up to the owner to provide such kit.
At the end of the day it is the deliveries skipper's life and he should be looking at that issue in the same way as an airline pilot.You get "gung ho" types it's up to you to satisfy yourself of the skipper's credentials.
I'd also add you get what you pay for, there are those that will do it for a £100! Cheap is as cheap is -
You'll be amazed at how much penny pitching goes on over an extra night in port or a taxi ride home at 3.00 in the morning after the skipper has battled all day to get the boat back !Only today we got a payment from a customer who had had his boat delivered down to the med and took £200 off the bill because the skipper had caught a flight home at 07.30 in the morning! What did he think the skipper who had held his hand all the way through Biscay and beyond was going to do for the rest of the day??
The other is that there is a huge amount of pressure applied at times to "get the job done" by those who frankly wouldn't go out in weather that even suggests a rough passage. Moving boats around at the moment is a nightmare - the winds and sea states are making life very difficult and it looks like being that way for some time. Yet still we get the "oh can't you do it tomorrow?" cries. No, not if you want a boat in one piece and not everything all over the the place and the new white china shattered in the cupboards - plus you expect us to do it for nothing! The average skipper's wage on many occasions is less than the minimum wage paid to a shelf stacker in Tescos yet we are entrusted with boat worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Our day is never 9-5 on a delivery (actually it's not 9-5 for anything!) and often you have to take longer than planned. I've done deliveries that were supposed to take a day that have taken 36 hours, due to weather and things going wrong.
I wouldn't talk about the experience of delivering new boats around, but suffice to say that new boat deliveries is not always the greatest experience. But somehow it always seems to be our fault when the boat does not arrive where it should be at the designated time!
We take great pride in selecting our skippers who know what they are doing, they wouldn't take unnecessary risks and will do all in their power to get the boat where it needs to go by the time stated and to look after it as if it were their own. But a boat is a boat - things go wrong and very often do. We are at the beck and call of wind and tide and they have no respect for either man or boat!
Despite all my comments, we still love it and actually don't do it just for the money but a living and fair wage given the level of experience we have should not be too much to ask! Oh and we insure all our skippers (98% of our skippers are full time), so that costs and there are of course other overheads - the same as any other business. And that's what we are - a business.
Perhaps some of the pros here could give us some insight into what they expect from owners when contracted to undertake a delivery. Are there "standard" terms and conditions ? Do you have a check list without which you will decline to set sail ?
[/ QUOTE ]
Firstly, and following on from your first post - being the owner does not overtake the skippers role, the captain is the master of the vessel and it would have been on his head if an accident had occurred. However, by the sound of it the whole thing was a nightmare!
And yes, there are terms and conditions applied to delivery trips!
When we do deliveries we make sure our skippers go with a our grab bag containing all kit - flares, 1st aid kit, extra life jackets, VHF, GPS etc. We also insist that for any long distance trip a life raft is included on the boat. For shorter deliveries we take our own 4 man raft, but where flying is concerned, clearly this is not an option, then this is up to the owner to provide such kit.
At the end of the day it is the deliveries skipper's life and he should be looking at that issue in the same way as an airline pilot.You get "gung ho" types it's up to you to satisfy yourself of the skipper's credentials.
I'd also add you get what you pay for, there are those that will do it for a £100! Cheap is as cheap is -
You'll be amazed at how much penny pitching goes on over an extra night in port or a taxi ride home at 3.00 in the morning after the skipper has battled all day to get the boat back !Only today we got a payment from a customer who had had his boat delivered down to the med and took £200 off the bill because the skipper had caught a flight home at 07.30 in the morning! What did he think the skipper who had held his hand all the way through Biscay and beyond was going to do for the rest of the day??
The other is that there is a huge amount of pressure applied at times to "get the job done" by those who frankly wouldn't go out in weather that even suggests a rough passage. Moving boats around at the moment is a nightmare - the winds and sea states are making life very difficult and it looks like being that way for some time. Yet still we get the "oh can't you do it tomorrow?" cries. No, not if you want a boat in one piece and not everything all over the the place and the new white china shattered in the cupboards - plus you expect us to do it for nothing! The average skipper's wage on many occasions is less than the minimum wage paid to a shelf stacker in Tescos yet we are entrusted with boat worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Our day is never 9-5 on a delivery (actually it's not 9-5 for anything!) and often you have to take longer than planned. I've done deliveries that were supposed to take a day that have taken 36 hours, due to weather and things going wrong.
I wouldn't talk about the experience of delivering new boats around, but suffice to say that new boat deliveries is not always the greatest experience. But somehow it always seems to be our fault when the boat does not arrive where it should be at the designated time!
We take great pride in selecting our skippers who know what they are doing, they wouldn't take unnecessary risks and will do all in their power to get the boat where it needs to go by the time stated and to look after it as if it were their own. But a boat is a boat - things go wrong and very often do. We are at the beck and call of wind and tide and they have no respect for either man or boat!
Despite all my comments, we still love it and actually don't do it just for the money but a living and fair wage given the level of experience we have should not be too much to ask! Oh and we insure all our skippers (98% of our skippers are full time), so that costs and there are of course other overheads - the same as any other business. And that's what we are - a business.
