brunohamm
New Member
To the editor,
Reading your esteemed magazine for many years, mainly to get advice on practical topics, I – for the first time – would like to ask for an expert’s help.
After living more than 35 in Japan I acquired on April 1st, 2005, a 40 foot Sailing Yacht BAVARIA 38 (hull number DE-BAVX38P6L404, craft category A) built in May 2004, which was a demonstrating boat according to the Japanese importer. With the re-registration in Europe however I found out that the yacht had already a Japanese owner, whom I know personally and who together with the Japanese importer did not find it necessary to inform me about that fact. Still in the same year I reported some water leak to Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH, for which Bavaria had no explanation.
In November 2005 I set sail and sailed single-handed from Japan via South Korea to China (a challenge, since Bobby Schenk the most German yachtsman stated in one of his latest books, that a sailing trip to China is almost impossible), where I was probably one the first yachtsman receiving permission to sail the entire Chinese Coast (an befriended Englishman with a Swan 48 got also permission and helped me with weather forecast over the mobile phone, because some of my electronic devices did not work properly after I weathered a storm off Shanghai).
Around Christmas 2005 I arrived in Hong Kong, from where I contacted the editor-in-chief of the German yachting magazine “Die Yacht”, who was very interested in articles about this sailing trip in China. But he passed on the affair to a department manager, who answered me upon sending him the log in English and a CD with more than 600 photos that the material was unsuited for an article about the sailing sport in Japan (a topic I never mentioned in my negotiations with the chief editor).
In March 2006 I continued the trip to the Philippines, where my yacht survived a typhoon, which swept directly over Puerto Galera in May 2006 in my absence. When I returned at the beginning of June, I detected water leakage and a blackish badly smelling brew in the bilge. My friend Walter Herberger (grandson of the legendary Sepp Herberger) took care about my yacht during my absence and reported of unconsciousness due to the stinking brew. And as I then bailed out the bad smelling liquid I had to throw up three times due to the bad odor.
I took a sample of two liters from the bilge and let it examine in a laboratory, where it was revealed to me that for a thorough analysis about 10 liters were necessary. With the two liters, which I had kept, only specific tests could be implemented. The analysis report showed for example 1.2 mg cyanide per liter (see analysis report - photo 1)! I contacted in summer 2006 the manufacturer of my yacht (Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH) and conveyed also the analysis report, received however no answer until today!
Recently I had the misfortune of running aground mainly due to lack of concentration and too much trust into a GPS Chart Plotter. But this incident revealed some of the mysteries of my BAVARIA 38. After we removed the underwater painting (antifouling), we discovered drillings clogged only with cement putty, each the same distance aft of all seven trough hull fittings (see photo 2, 3, 4). So my confidence into the BAVARIA 38 is now somehow shaken, since also such small leaks can lead to sinking on high seas. According to my knowledge there is a set of rules, which stipulates the grinding and laminating of such drillings in case of a blue-water yacht. And at the cracks near the bow under the waterline we could find a chop strand mat, which was apparently not impregnated at all with polyester resin (photo 5) (or was this delaminating due to the impact). The entire lay-up consists only of three layers of chop strand mat and three layers of roving cloth (see photo 6) (the BAVARIA 38 corresponds to CE 0609 as mentioned in the provided manuals and on the identification plate). The black brew accumulated again in the bilge (see photo 7) and an European GRP specialists in the Philippines told me after a short analysis that this toxic brew has to be attributed probably to the fact that the internal GRP layers were not correctly hardened, so that a kind of internal osmosis forms as soon as these un-cured layers get in contact with water. Now it became also clear to me that I had always suffered from nausea and dizziness since the purchase of this yacht in Japan, for which I had previously no explanation (I can hope only that no permanent health damage had occurred, which will be determined soon during a thorough medical examination during my visit to my home country).
Did someone hear about a similar case? What can I do against it since the two bonded moulds do not permit access to the inner layers? And isn't it the manufacturer’s obligation to do something against these manufacturing faults (the yacht is less than three years old), since Bavaria grants a guarantee of five years against osmosis?
At the moment I negotiate with several English-language yacht magazines concerning the publication rights to my articles regarding my sailing trip to China as well as the problems experienced with the Bavaria 38. In addition I am in contact with two law firms (a German enterprise and an American attorney office specialized in the German Law) if legal steps are required.
Bruno Hammerler
Sailing Yacht FREIHEIT
W-24099
Subic Bay Freeport Zone
2222 Philippines
Reading your esteemed magazine for many years, mainly to get advice on practical topics, I – for the first time – would like to ask for an expert’s help.
After living more than 35 in Japan I acquired on April 1st, 2005, a 40 foot Sailing Yacht BAVARIA 38 (hull number DE-BAVX38P6L404, craft category A) built in May 2004, which was a demonstrating boat according to the Japanese importer. With the re-registration in Europe however I found out that the yacht had already a Japanese owner, whom I know personally and who together with the Japanese importer did not find it necessary to inform me about that fact. Still in the same year I reported some water leak to Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH, for which Bavaria had no explanation.
In November 2005 I set sail and sailed single-handed from Japan via South Korea to China (a challenge, since Bobby Schenk the most German yachtsman stated in one of his latest books, that a sailing trip to China is almost impossible), where I was probably one the first yachtsman receiving permission to sail the entire Chinese Coast (an befriended Englishman with a Swan 48 got also permission and helped me with weather forecast over the mobile phone, because some of my electronic devices did not work properly after I weathered a storm off Shanghai).
Around Christmas 2005 I arrived in Hong Kong, from where I contacted the editor-in-chief of the German yachting magazine “Die Yacht”, who was very interested in articles about this sailing trip in China. But he passed on the affair to a department manager, who answered me upon sending him the log in English and a CD with more than 600 photos that the material was unsuited for an article about the sailing sport in Japan (a topic I never mentioned in my negotiations with the chief editor).
In March 2006 I continued the trip to the Philippines, where my yacht survived a typhoon, which swept directly over Puerto Galera in May 2006 in my absence. When I returned at the beginning of June, I detected water leakage and a blackish badly smelling brew in the bilge. My friend Walter Herberger (grandson of the legendary Sepp Herberger) took care about my yacht during my absence and reported of unconsciousness due to the stinking brew. And as I then bailed out the bad smelling liquid I had to throw up three times due to the bad odor.
I took a sample of two liters from the bilge and let it examine in a laboratory, where it was revealed to me that for a thorough analysis about 10 liters were necessary. With the two liters, which I had kept, only specific tests could be implemented. The analysis report showed for example 1.2 mg cyanide per liter (see analysis report - photo 1)! I contacted in summer 2006 the manufacturer of my yacht (Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH) and conveyed also the analysis report, received however no answer until today!
Recently I had the misfortune of running aground mainly due to lack of concentration and too much trust into a GPS Chart Plotter. But this incident revealed some of the mysteries of my BAVARIA 38. After we removed the underwater painting (antifouling), we discovered drillings clogged only with cement putty, each the same distance aft of all seven trough hull fittings (see photo 2, 3, 4). So my confidence into the BAVARIA 38 is now somehow shaken, since also such small leaks can lead to sinking on high seas. According to my knowledge there is a set of rules, which stipulates the grinding and laminating of such drillings in case of a blue-water yacht. And at the cracks near the bow under the waterline we could find a chop strand mat, which was apparently not impregnated at all with polyester resin (photo 5) (or was this delaminating due to the impact). The entire lay-up consists only of three layers of chop strand mat and three layers of roving cloth (see photo 6) (the BAVARIA 38 corresponds to CE 0609 as mentioned in the provided manuals and on the identification plate). The black brew accumulated again in the bilge (see photo 7) and an European GRP specialists in the Philippines told me after a short analysis that this toxic brew has to be attributed probably to the fact that the internal GRP layers were not correctly hardened, so that a kind of internal osmosis forms as soon as these un-cured layers get in contact with water. Now it became also clear to me that I had always suffered from nausea and dizziness since the purchase of this yacht in Japan, for which I had previously no explanation (I can hope only that no permanent health damage had occurred, which will be determined soon during a thorough medical examination during my visit to my home country).
Did someone hear about a similar case? What can I do against it since the two bonded moulds do not permit access to the inner layers? And isn't it the manufacturer’s obligation to do something against these manufacturing faults (the yacht is less than three years old), since Bavaria grants a guarantee of five years against osmosis?
At the moment I negotiate with several English-language yacht magazines concerning the publication rights to my articles regarding my sailing trip to China as well as the problems experienced with the Bavaria 38. In addition I am in contact with two law firms (a German enterprise and an American attorney office specialized in the German Law) if legal steps are required.
Bruno Hammerler
Sailing Yacht FREIHEIT
W-24099
Subic Bay Freeport Zone
2222 Philippines
