rita_irvine said:
Clearly this charterer had more than his share of problems with this boat. We charter from BVIYC. We had an issue last charter that kept us at anchor in Mountain Trunk for an extra day with anchor windlass issue. They sent Polo (sp) from Leverick to get us up and running. If your stuck at anchor that's not a bad place to be, but it could have been worse elsewhere. At the end of the charter that gave us a free day on our next charter for the inconvenience. We have had minor stuff with other boats, as the environs in BVI is brutal, but that many problems on one charter might not get me back to Horizon for another charter.
Rita were you not able to put a winch handle in the windlass to get the anchor back? Or was the windlass hopelessly fouled somehow?
On a second note the original poster did not provide enough details for us to find Horizon or the charter operator guilty of any of the issue reported. There is the possibility some of these issues are operator error. Switches off, electrical connections knock off line during the storage of bags or other. Failure to inspect any or all of this before signing off on the boat. Did the fuel gauge say F all the time. On a 7 day charter that is very possible or did the crew leave with the boat on E? Way too many details even from one side of the story are missing.
Consider many will spend endless hours planning and obsessing over the trip plans. See the last million TTOL posts. Then rush through the boat inspection, sign off, and check out. At a minimuim no matter what the dock guys say. Get a hose and put it in your water tank running, make sure there are no air traps giving you a false fill. Happens all the time to the crew that swears their water keeps disappearing. While one solid crew is inspecting the water tanks are full. Another crew should be down below with all the taps open. If you have a fresh water performance issue it should show up there at the dock before you leave. After all the taps are closed and the tanks completely filled by you. Listen for the water pump cycling with the taps closed. Report and solve that issue before you leave the dock.
