chuzzlewit
Well-Known Member
You pay some £100 a year and you can phone them for a tow if your engine fails. Can anyone remember what they're called?
Yacht recovery service on south coast.
- Thread starter chuzzlewit
- Start date
AllanG
Well-Known Member
colingr
Well-Known Member
Are you thinking of seastart?
Anyway shouldn't you be sailing?
Anyway shouldn't you be sailing?
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
If I was being overly facetious I might say if you can't sail to a mooring or at least the waiting pontoon at a marina then you need to go on a dinghy course for some handling practice 
chuzzlewit
Well-Known Member
Seastart! Thanks. (It's a motor boat)
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
clyst
Well-Known Member
I don't get this Sea Start thing ......If you break down some 5to10mile out and it's blowing a 5 does the Starter man come to your rescue in his rib or are there tight exclusions ?? Just askin' .
AndrewL
Well-Known Member
Their website is quite clear, they are a breakdown service not a rescue service and they have an on-the-water service within a 3 mile radius of the harbour. In the same way you might have AA/RAC cover for your car.
jac
Well-Known Member
They are very good. Its the fact that the first hours labour is included which is good and the fact that they can source the parts easily and come to you so if you do break down in some unknown harbour then at least you can rely on a decent marine engineer turning up to fix the issue rather than random bloke you will never see again.
prv
Well-Known Member
Bear in mind that most of their work is in the Solent - "5 miles out" would probably be somewhere on the A3054 on the Isle of Wight
Pete
colingr
Well-Known Member
Ah it was the yacht reference in the title that confused. If you're like me you'll sign up and that will mean you'll never need them. Cancel your membership and break down on the first trip out!
I've only used them once, rope round the prop of a saily thing when we were trying to get into Yarmouth. Sailed onto a nearby buoy and they were with us in 45 minutes. Prop cleared and on our way 30 minutes later. Excellent service imho. Never used them on our mobo but, like the AA, worth the fee just in case.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Someone tried a similar scheme on the Clyde. For your membership, which was around £180 iirc, you got one call-out, during daylight hours only, in good weather, in the northern half of the Firth of Clyde. I don't think the company made it to Year 2. Odd, that.
clyst
Well-Known Member
Surely it would be better to spend the subscription money on a diesel course and carry a selection of spares . That way it won't matter where you are a repair that the sea start man could do can be done by your good self rather than to be told "ooooh too rough and too far for me mate " !
pvb
Well-Known Member
I'd agree with that. The chances of having a breakdown within a 3 mile radius of one of their serviced harbours are somewhat slim, to say the least.
jac
Well-Known Member
Done that and have seastart. They also have agents in many places and cover the areas where I'm most likely to sail - Dieppe to Brest and CI and S coast of UK . If I can't fix it they get someone there quickly and I might not lose a weekend whilst finding and calling a mechanic to come out. I broke a throttle cable last year. they sourced one and fitted it within 90 minutes of my call. Could I have changed it - yes. Did I know where to get one from on a Sunday Morning in Lymington - No.
Similar very much to AA. They can only really fix the simple things but they have access to a v wide range of spares, and are qualified mechanics. If you'd rather sail than spend time wandering around strange ports to find mechanics / spares then the £150 is probably worth it. If you carry a full range of spares for everything, have the time and skill and equipment to diagnose & change everything then they are not for you.
prv
Well-Known Member
You make a good point. I don't have Seastart, tending to assume that any repairs they can do in-situ, I can also do. But of course I only have the usual consumable spares on board plus a selection of bodging materials, whereas they have or can get a much wider range of parts. It doesn't make sense to load Ariam down like a blue-water voyager with spare starter motors and the like - and as a light coastal cruiser she'd sail like a pig if I tried.
Maybe I should take out a Seastart subscription, and hence guarantee that we never break down
Pete
jac
Well-Known Member
You make a good point. I don't have Seastart, tending to assume that any repairs they can do in-situ, I can also do. But of course I only have the usual consumable spares on board plus a selection of bodging materials, whereas they have or can get a much wider range of parts. It doesn't make sense to load Ariam down like a blue-water voyager with spare starter motors and the like - and as a light coastal cruiser she'd sail like a pig if I tried.
Maybe I should take out a Seastart subscription, and hence guarantee that we never break down
Pete
Be nice if it worked that way!
The other advantage for me was the fix was basically free and to a professional standard. I didn't have to spend the following weekend sourcing and fitting a cable having bodged my way home. I'm maybe £100 down on just buying the cable myself and fitting but that's not a bad price in the circumstances.
clyst
Well-Known Member
It just seems too many restrictions to give total peace of mind . Take the 3mile limit ....where is that taken from ? Your distances from your berth ? Distance from shore ? The distance from your position to the sea start base ? Who decides if you are just outside the limit?
Who or what decides whether wind /sea state is suitable for rib launch ?
Is it only during day light hours ?
If it works for some great but it's not for me .
Who or what decides whether wind /sea state is suitable for rib launch ?
Is it only during day light hours ?
If it works for some great but it's not for me .
Barleycorn
Well-Known Member
Seastart will help with far more than mechanical breakdowns. They recently towed me off a mudbank, (long story,don't ask!), and will clear your prop if you are fouled.
An excellent service, well worth the cost IMO.
An excellent service, well worth the cost IMO.
zambant
Well-Known Member
+1 Sea Start are my hero's.
been with them for 4 years and called them twice - sorted the problem both times
Worth every penny
been with them for 4 years and called them twice - sorted the problem both times
Worth every penny
