Not a good boat delivery company
We used a delivery crew to bring my new catamaran from Punta Ala in Italy to Tunisia. Captains and Crew were suggested so when a review search showed no negatives (only that it is basically an Italian company with only a business address in London) I signed contract for 4,900 euros plus expenses, its about 3 day trip. I am writing this review so that others will find a review !!
We are both very experienced sailors (my partner has over 50 years sailing experience, is a former navigation officer and sailed from NL to Philippines over the last 15 years, I have 13,000nm). We were required to prepare the boat according to the flag of registration, i.e. UK. For a UK pleasure craft under 45 foot no flares are required – we use the new light flares instead. (Although we will get a couple of firework ones for daytime use before crossing Atlantic.) The crew arrived 30 hours before departure but did not raise their mandatory requirement for us to purchase a large bag of flares until two hours before departure. At this point they said they would not leave without them. A call to the owner of the company resulted in further new requirements : lifejackets and lifelines to be provided by us (when in fact the contract states that they bring their own); fog horn; medical kit (which I have on board but had not been asked to show them); radar reflector (not mandatory UK flagged again). We are going to get a proper active, powered reflector when we can get hold of one (not very available in rural Italy) because basic passive ones are fairly ineffectual – but instead we were forced to buy this and other items at the last minute. We were effectively held to ransom to spend hundreds of extra euros – “we are not leaving without x, y, z”.
Mistakes were made : lines left in a tangled mess; dropping bow lazy lines before aft lines when wind was coming from the front; shouting in times of stress were some early examples, after that I stopped watching. The entire trip was flat out motoring to get us to the destination, no sailing even though there was some wind, albeit light. The crew were nice enough people but they lacked experience, one was learning on the job having only theoretical knowledge. They were surprised to discover that the company they work for do not provide insurance cover for them. (This was revealed when I asked for sight of the company’s insurance policy because my insurance does not provide medical cover for paid crew.)
Anyway, to help them with some constructive criticism, my advice to the company would be :
1. Inform customers in advance of any minimums, especially if different from legal requirements – easy enough to do, just need a list that is reused for every trip. And certainly, don’t hold them to ransom at departure time - not going to engender goodwill!
2. Tell customers in advance that the primary objective will be getting there as quickly as possible using whatever fuel that takes and that it is unlikely that any actual sailing will be done, expectation-setting goes a long way when it comes to customer satisfaction.
3. Ensure that crew contract and payment contract line up with each other.
4. Learn, or at least look up, the legal requirements of a particular flag. A pleasure craft is a pleasure craft, regardless of how it is skippered.
5. Provide insurance cover for the crew, not simply Italy standard health service, it doesn't exist in Tunisia !
6. Consider the experience of the customer before assigning skipper and crew, or at least find out and inform the crew so that they are aware.