Trader 50, has any one got any experience of this boat.

[Greg01]

I am researching for an article on used Trader 50s and would appreciate any feedback you may have on this boat or any other Traders.If you want to contact me direct then I can be contacted on gregory_copp@ipcmedia.com

 

[Aardee]

Almost scared to suggest it, but try PM-ing "Gludy".

 

[jhr]

Oh boy, I'm going to love reading this............. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

(Try a PM to poster "Gludy", though I think matters are sub judice at the moment).

Edit: Rats! Beaten to it! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Coupe]

Jeez Greg,
Do you realise what you have done /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
You could do a search on Gludy's posts for starters /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Gludy]

OK - whilst I am taking legal steps to correct my situation I am safe is stating the following:-

I paid for the boat - the most expensive 575 they have ever built last November - its now October and currently I am not seaworthy again!

There are hundreds of faults including major ones like the need for anew keel or how about attaching all the 700hp of thrust to the boat via two self tapping coach screws through ¼ inch of fibre glass!!!!

IMHO Trader have to be the worst company in history to buy a boat from - they started some repair jobs back in July – they then have just left it for 3 months without answering my emails.

I have emailed them and written to them for the entire year – some 2000 sheets of emails being compiled in my legal case alone – they simply do not reply. Or if they do they do not answer the points. For eample I have emailed a list of over 60 faults to them for the last 3 months asking that they tell me which the agree with, which they do not and which they wish to discuss - I have repeated this email many, many times but still no answer.

I am struggling at every step to get any reactions from a new boat costing just on £1 million – they do not answer my questions month after month after month. I have a survey done exposing major faults – they just ignore it!!!

I have yet to meet another person who has bought a new trader without having many over the top problems and litigation seems to be the only way left to go.

The worst part is not the faults they can be fixed and the basic design of the boat is fine - I will get mine all fixed and pursue them for all the costs – no, the worst part is the attitude of the company which beggars all believe.

They actually fitted factory refurbished stereo system to their new boats buying them cheap in bulk – when I found that out they defend it in writing stating it carried the same guarantee as new – in fact my did not work and I had to insist it be replaced with a new one.

If you think I am in any way over the top on this – just ask Andy ball on this forum – he has witnessed a lot of it. In fact I invite him to comment.

I am sure there are mnay happy trader owners out there who have bought used boats all sorted but i would not purchase a used ice cream wrapper from this company - I am also willing to show anyone the faults some of which were frankly life threatening for a sea going boat - I am not kidding, it is beyond all imagination.



Please PM me for phone number and I will ask answer any questions you like.

 

[tico]

Light blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance!

 

[deborahann]

sorry to say this, but aren't you very, very concerned they will go out of business, only a very dire company acts like this. One that doesn't care, and can't actually fix the faults. Many boat building companies do go out of business, we had to get in writing from one, that if they did go, we owned the boat to the percentage paid.
He did go out of business after we had got the boat.

Would have thought also the longer it goes on, the more chance of this there is.

 

[wakeup]

I believe they have been through once before, or was that the owner???

 

[AJW]

If it wasn't for the (presumably verifiable) ipc email address you'd have to say this is a troll wouldn't you?

I see Gludy has responded. One wonders whether ipc would ever recount his full tale in print when its no longer sub judace? I mean, offending Trader would be a given, but how would other manufacturers/advertisers respond to it? There for the grace of god and all that stuff?

Hope I'm not being unduly cynical and that Gludy's experience do get some print space!

AJ

 

[Nautorius]

Hi Paul,

Firstly I can not believe you still do not have a seaworthy boat! This is ridiculous...bordering on perverse!

Obviously Trader really screwed up during build and fit-out, but I thought that there representative (broker) was massively at fault for not correcting mistakes. Have I understood it wrong? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Cheers

Paul

 

[duncan]

I believe that Gludy has always had resolution on the top of his list - nothing more: nothing less

however ultimately you have to draw a line with any company if you are not making the necessary (any?) progress

finally surely it is better that such a company does go out of business rather than continue, pyramid style, to attract in business and more potentially dissatisfied customers?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Bloody hell, gludy, they still have'nt fixed it?? I'd taken your relative silence recently to be a sign that you were out on the water finally enjoying your boat. Sorry to hear thats not the case

 

[Gludy]

yes -as i understand it the owner had been that way before.

 

[Gludy]

I dealt directly with tarquin boat company (trader) they supervided the build in Taiwan - they are totally responsible no agent.

 

[Gludy]

I am willing to carry on to get as far as I can - I have decided that if that means someone folds before i get there and I doubt that, then so be it. At least i would have had resolution of sorts.

 

[Gludy]

No - we still have a long way to go and they just ignore the emails.
I have spent weeks preparing the legal case and have been open about doing that.
I have also been contacted by others who have problems and I am sharing notes.

It would have cost them less to make the boat properly in the first place. Their attitude is out beyond anything I have ever come across in business before.

When I limped home to Swansea from Emsworth, I called in specialist companies to fix problems complained about for 6 months in Emsworth and it was then that the oil leaks in the gearboxes were fixed - under warranty by ZF despite the fact that the wrong gaskets had been fitted!!! It was then that the laser alignment checks showed a totally out of line shafts - it was then that after an enormous bang out in Swansea bay the 700 hp Cats managed to lift the entire thrust bracket taking all the 700 hp load free of the boat!!! It was then that the incredible lack of fixing that HP to the boat was revealed. It was then that we found that the side baffles had been missed in the manufacture of the boat and salt water was forced into the engine room roof underway so much that it filled the engine room lights with water ....... I still have dangling wires for a roof light today because Trader started that job in July 2006 and have never returned to finish it!

I am treated worse than something you scrape of your shoe by Trader but I do now I am not being victimised - they treat all I have met the same way!!!

The difference is that I will publically tell of it, others will not.

My boat will be fixed, I will call in people to do it myself and I hope that within 15 months of deliver and 16 months from my final payment, I will have a boat that is right. Its a great design of boat and it will be put right with or without Trader!!

 

[whisper]

Like others on here I thought your problems were likely to have been sorted by now. I can , perhaps , imagine how f***ing frustrated you must be. Trying to deal with a company that just does not respond is totally soul destroying after a while. I believe they just expect you to give up eventually. I used to be a supplier to the construction industry and it occasionally happened to me, but I had not had the expenditure that you have.

Keep at it and good luck. Here's hoping for a resolution sooner rather than later, from here on.

 

[Gludy]

Thanks for that whipser - yes, I think they hope I will give up like so many others but they do not know Gludy!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This is a shot of the coach screw that was passed into just 1/4 inch of fibreglass/gelcoat to hold the 700 hp down. It is clean because all but the top 1/4 inch of it was crewed into air!!!!!

here is the shot of how much saltwater was drenching through the engine room - the light is half full of water and totally corroded - today I just have the wires - they took the light away in july 2006.

Here is a shot of a keel extended with a white, non structural pollyfilla type material that just crombles under load - even the load when being lowered onto wood from a lift!

Here is a shot of the corrosion caused by lack of anodes on thruster blades that trader refused to replace - the photo was taken 3 days after leaving Emsworth and travelling 40 miles - the boat was 3 days old according to Trader.

I would welcome the mags writing up this story, I really, really would.

 

[redglow]

Echoing others on here I had assumed that your problems had been sorted in the main. Poor assumption, unfortunately I can offer no practical assistance only moral support .

I personally hope that you do take this as far as is necessary to get the boat that you wanted - after all it is all bought and paid for. If in the process Trader, or those representing them, go to the wall then so be it, I think that after the way you have been treated they do not deserve to be in business.

Other boat builders should also take note, owners will occasionally take things to the logical conclusion, and they have to face up to their responsibilities and be prepared to accept that they will pay where they have failed to supply what has been ordered.

As for the poster who suggest that IPC will not print Gludy's story - now I'm a cynic but I think once the dust has settled they will. They already have in a way by letting this and previous posts run their course.

 

[andyball]

Sadly, I can confirm all that Gludy has said - & much,much more besides.

The catalogue ( & it really is one ) of faults is so huge that if Gludy listed everything here, many people would probably just glaze over & think he was being a fussy so & so. Truthfully, despite his reputation here, he's far more forgiving of minor niggles than I would be having spent so much on a brand new boat. & the major problems really are major.


Having been around during many exchanges over several months while the boat was still at Tarquin's at Emsworth, I have to agree, that despite the very serious nature of some of the problems - the worst impression I'm left with is not so much of the poor standard of construction & finish in almost every area, but of the penny-pinching, chiselling, outright lies to your face attitude when any problem, small or large is raised.

There are some decent guys working at the yard, & I don't want to belittle their efforts in going out of their way to get 'proper' fixes done when the management seemingly want a quick lash-up; but at Trader, nothing is what you think it is. An obvious drop in coolant level is not a loss of coolant, but ( despite not a drop in the bilge ) must have happened when the anodes were checked(!).

Gelcoat cracks aren't cracks, not even stress fractures from mould release - but we must have scratched it see?

Water dripping from the shaft support bracket bases after several dry days ashore, is just the 'absorbent packing used to bed the brackets'

Engine alignment so far out you can see it easily w/o measuring anything, isn't out at all.


& so on & so on & on - every blimmin thing from major to minor. Almost laughable at first, but oh-so-dreary & disheartening as it goes on week after week, still trotting out the half-baked technical 'explanations', even after being caught out on all the previous ones.



As for fit & finish & engineering standards... I hadn't looked closely at many boats before Gludy's , but recently have been over a pal's new-to-him Sealine F37 ( 2001) . The sealine beats it hands-down in so many ways. so just one small example : on the Trader, the 'emergency' fuel shut off valves reside in the engine compartment. to make them 'accessible' w/o entering the compartment there's a horrible mess of cables pulling on the levers of bog-standard ball-valves, ending up in the saloon, under a heavy corner shelf ( not hinged) with a huge table lamp fixed on top. After you wrestle this out of the way, the control levers are really stiff to operate. & to re-arrange fuel usage from one tank to another, you still have to go in the engine room.

Sealine have a lovely neat arrangement of valves under the step from cockpit to saloon - nice little diagram showing which ones to turn which way to swap tank feed/returns - really easy to get to & operate. Perfect.


Trader didn't even know how the fuel system was plumbed - we had to trace it ourselves ( & of course, we were wrong according to them) .




Even allowing for Gludy's boat being victim of some wild slip in standards at the builders ( unlikely I feel, but ....) I wouldn't go near a new one with a very long stick, simply due to their way of dealing(!) with problems . It beggars belief.