MBY's Fleet - our boats

mjf

mjf

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MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

Now I have found some time to read the current issue in more depth I see Shock - Horror that a certain Mark Proudfoot and The Pred are MIA.

Whats happened then?


After all the build news and pix which was top stuff we get the delv story and helo pix then zero. Have they sunk without trace?
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

No, they're alive and well and still visiting the boat in Antibes. I popped round for a quick drink a couple of months back, and staggered back up the quay in the early hours after several bottles of vino. Like many people who run their own business, they're having to spend more time there due to the recession, and they also got hooked on skiing over the winter, so spent a lot of time in the mountains near their home in Switzerland. Mark also has a new, four wheeled, toy to enjoy.

I think it was only an option on the Pred 84, and they've decided to stick with the 72 in the end, although they're quite impulsive, so this may all be out of date by now! I don't know why the boat has been dropped from MBY's fleet.
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

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Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

I saw Magnum last time I was in France, at Easter. Supposed to be down there in a few weeks time. I'll just have to tell swmbo that it's forum orders for me to spend a bit of time pottering around the marinas. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what colour Marks is, but they're usually red ....

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, the new Alfa Romeo Mito,,,,,,,, nice car! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cheers

Al.
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

Thanks for the update Nick_H. I just think it odd that after all the news on P42 then the build etc on the P67 then....the excitment and great stuff during the Pred build and delv incl the C.I. hand over trip to Salcombe etc - all recorded and enjoyed by most of us..............total silence since the helo pix.

Now off the air in print too.

Thought maybe a little update would be appopiate
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

Indeed. It did cross my mind that maybe the news was not the sort MBY might want to commit to print (given Sunseeker is one of their biggest advertising clients) and it was decided it might be best to quietly drop it rather than report back.

But who knows? Does seem odd after so much fuss was made on here on build up and purchase though. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Re: MBY\'s Fleet - our boats

Yup, I saw Mark on the boat last weekend. All fine, though he is busy on other things so not had time to devote to the boat lately. If there were a story on "how well do sunseeker fix post-delivery snags" it would be interesting but it wont be printed of course :-) But Mark & co are all fine. I don't know why his boat is withdrawn from the Our Boats fleet; probably Mark feels he has done a couple of articles and doesn't have time to do any more and indeed doesn't have any more cruising updates right now.
 
At least the search facility works well now ;)

I pulled out of the "Our Boats" feature because I really wasn't comfortable with pretending it's all fantastic when you buy a new boat, because it's not. Service standards in the marine industry are **** and I cancelled my 84 order because I wasn't prepared to put up with it any more. I'm not going into detail but - in the med at least - service departments are woefully under resourced.

There are a few other reasons why I've not been around for a while, but nothing ongoing and we are now back boating in the SoF. We're cruising to Tunisia at the end of September too :cool:
 
Welcome back Magnum

I havent had quite the same experiences as you.
Very few problems to our P67.
I did, however, spend about 3 weeks in Torquay making sure everything was exactly how I wanted it before we set sail to the Med.

I can only think of two things
The grey water tank design was bad - they use a bilge pump (complete with its float system) in a tank. I eventually fitted a "hi low" switch and it works well now so only a small problem there. The only other failure was an A/C unit and it turned out to be a circuit board failure - all fixed by Princess in Spain (from the UK).

So, I'm still on the "Our Boats" list although I didnt write the last one - Rickp did an excellent job for me.

Now then - the reason for this post.
Tunisia - are you sure?
Its the pits.
Dont go.
If you do go though, you MUST have an agent.
Where were you considering?

However, if you are going that way, there are many other great places to visit - IMO stay in EEC countries. For example, we found that Carloforte in southern Sardinia reall good.
Poweryacht recommended Sicily as well.
Tunisia will give you a distinct feeling of being ripped off.
Go in there with an expensive looking yacht and you will be seen as ripe for the picking. All IMHO of course.

djefabs, rickp, jimmy_the_builder RogerRat and Jez - maybe you can confirm my views.
 
Hi Magnum
I really can confirm what Hurricane has said about Tunisia, it really is the pits. You will be a target for every rip off going. The 'officaldom' is probably the worst but beware of the lot. If you do go do as Hurricane says and get an Agent who should smooth the way and ensure things like 'safe' fuel etc.
 
Magnum said:
I pulled out of the "Our Boats" feature because I really wasn't comfortable with pretending it's all fantastic when you buy a new boat, because it's not.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, is this what MBY expect you to do then rather than reporting the truth if things aren't going so well? Certainly in the car mags they have no problem at all completely rubbishing a long term car, or the backup for same, if it's justified.

Afraid of upsetting the advertisers maybe?
 
Hurricane said:
Welcome back Magnum
...

Tunisia - are you sure?
Its the pits.
Dont go.
If you do go though, you MUST have an agent.
Where were you considering?

...

Tunisia will give you a distinct feeling of being ripped off.
Go in there with an expensive looking yacht and you will be seen as ripe for the picking. All IMHO of course.

djefabs, rickp, jimmy_the_builder RogerRat and Jez - maybe you can confirm my views.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark

Mike is absolutely right - unless you've got a compelling reason to provably take the boat out of the EU - really just do not go to Tunisia, there's just nothing good to say about the place. You will get properly, properly ripped off by teenagers with uniforms and guns (customs and immigration).

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the comments regarding Tunisia. I should have made it clear I don't want to go there, I need to, or at least out of the EU for a night. Otherwise French Customs may want a rather large cheque from me.

So Tunisia is just a means to an end. The trip itself and the destinations en-route will be the enjoyable part.
 
ari said:
I'm curious, is this what MBY expect you to do then rather than reporting the truth if things aren't going so well? Certainly in the car mags they have no problem at all completely rubbishing a long term car, or the backup for same, if it's justified.

Afraid of upsetting the advertisers maybe?
Click to expand...
My first article was mildly critical of Princess in the Med, but positive about them in the UK. Apparently Princess were not happy about the article and rather than build bridges with the customer decided to moan to MBY. Says it all really.

To his credit Hugo did print my mildly critical words, but it was very clear to me that anything stronger would have never seen print. On that basis there was no point in writing another article.
 
Contrary to other posters, I had no problems in Tunisia. Admittedly, that was about seven years ago, but we didn't get ripped off, the people were friendly and bureaucracy was noticeable but no worse than many other places.

Some beautiful seas, some interesting places, some awful places. Incredibly hot (45C) in August. Fuel was cheap then. We saw almost no other UK boats, and no other UK power boats. I didn't even know one could use an agent, and can't see any reason to.

Apart from the embarassment of falling off the stern into Al Kantoui marina right outside the Capitainerie, no problems.

Verdict: Worth visiting but wouldn't return.
 
Magnum said:
My first article was mildly critical of Princess in the Med, but positive about them in the UK. Apparently Princess were not happy about the article and rather than build bridges with the customer decided to moan to MBY. Says it all really.

To his credit Hugo did print my mildly critical words, but it was very clear to me that anything stronger would have never seen print. On that basis there was no point in writing another article.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, that's very interesting.

So really it's not the unbiased journalistic factual magazine they'd have us believe, more a sycophantic glossy brochure for manufacturers benefit.

Makes the whole concept of "our boats" particularly pointless, as that's the one bit where we're supposed to get the whole "warts and all" story.

Ironic really, because in the real press I've read car testers jokingly bemoan modern ultra reliable cars as they rarely have anything to really complain about in print as they used to.

So where does one get genuinely unbiased views on boats I wonder?
 
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