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SEA HARMONY , for example, was designed and built with a steel frame, not plated, deck. In order to save weight, the teak deck was bolted to these frames and the only prevention of leakage was the rubber sealant. With the passing of time and shifting, the sealant, which has a short life in any case, could not prevent all leakage and the water seeped through to the frames and into the entire frame of the boat. This caused extensive corrosion which I suspected and confirmed when I accepted her second refit only 6 months after her first under another’s supervision. Teak deck sealant, as only one example, requires constant maintenance and it can be expected that there will be periods in the life of a yacht when maintenance is lacking.

The first refit included some hull replacement, new shafts and bearings, general interior and cosmetic. The yard that originally had the contract to repair the hull, simply allowed their welder to torch away so far as he could reach and a 20ft long, 7ft high hole including through the ribs.  BOATex was not in charge of the project at that time, but a mere horrified observer and I intervened as fast as I could. Of course the boat bent. The refit was completed according to the supervisor in charge, put back in the water and delivered to St. Maarten. Then one thing after another began to fail.

 Boatex was commissioned to escort the vessel south for repairs. Sea Harmony almost sank near St Lucia due to mal alignment of the shafts which caused the new bearings to burn and seriously leak after hardly 500 miles and our team braved big waves with 2 large capacity pumps to save her. In Grenada we had to run power lines between the boats at anchor as their second generator failed.  We recommended a technical refit which had been overlooked in the first refit and hauled the boat out. We opened up the interior panelling, luckily before it was too late but the repair needed turned out to be a full scale refit and replacement of large areas of steel that had not been investigated previously. I submit that this steel was eaten through. We rebuilt the entire deck fully plated this time and all new 2” teak, replaced about half of the hull plating and almost all frames. The dirty water tanks were a part of the hull and corroded through so we replaced them as originally designed by order of owner. There are better methods to prevent such corrosion.

 All this on a very tight budget as the owners were suspicious after the failures of the first refit team. Our biggest challenge was to straighten and re-align the shafts. It cost us huge efforts and several attempts to straighten the 30+ft, 3 part shafts as through the bending of the boat with the “big cut”, they were not aligned at all so that the bearings were burnt and leaking enough to sink the boat. After our dangerous but successful rescue of the vessel off St. Lucia we later received complaints from the owner why we did not let her sink as insurance would have covered it…!  One must wonder at such times.

SAYONARA ALPHA had all electrical wiring behind solid wood walls.  If one line burned, and they always do in time, one could neither track nor replace it without major destruction. In fact, every boat I have seen to now is wired thus, behind walls so that from beginning to end, one cannot repair a burnt wire. New wiring must be painstakingly run instead.  I look forward to the day yacht-builders find it important enough to install wiring properly.

Hatches; Sayonara’s hatches were sunk into the deck and when under sail or even if it rained, they had to be closed tight. The resulting lack of ventilation meant the necessity to constantly run air conditioning; not exactly practical at a 50’ inclination in a turbulent sea. During our charter years, a rainy week was devastating. Even with all the new canvas sun-decks, guests were often forced unhappily below decks.

ALPHA CENTAURI II was not meant to be built with water proof departments.  That was my request but when the yard ran the wiring, they did not seal the passage holes in the bulkheads so they were not waterproof either. The main electrical panel was placed in a supposedly water tight box but as the deck leaked, the water seeped in behind the panel front and when all power failed, we found the box full of water.  There are many other examples of poor design and poor construction, too many to get into here.

We have rebuilt our current yacht, the INDEPENDENCE with those ‘intelligent design details’ and we consider this vessel as a prime example of what a long-range world travelling yacht should be. In this uncertain world, yachts are not so much just show-pieces any more but are purchased and built with higher expectations. INDEPENDENCE is not built for marinas. She has simple techniques such as household freezers lasting 10-12 years, easy to exchange and costing a few hundreds instead of thousands. All of our technique is designed to be simple and effective compared to high luxury yachts while still providing the benefits of luxury onboard.  Before, we had the same special marine equipment and technique and we always had problems which were expensive and difficult to repair and always required specialists. Yachting radio nets are crowded with conversations of marine equipment breakdown and late parts delivery complaints. Courier companies that boast fast services in continental areas have taken months to deliver to Caribbean destinations, at high cost and without apology, please. The Marine Industry profits well from all this with its inflated prices and so called expert services commonly costing $120 per hour. Even so, these expensive nuisances have become sardonically accepted as normal occurrences but we have found many preferable alternatives.