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CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C #19973
05/15/2013 12:02 PM
05/15/2013 12:02 PM
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 643
Ft. Worth, TX
L
Lcrich Offline OP
Traveler
Lcrich  Offline OP
Traveler
L
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 643
Ft. Worth, TX

Flight from DFW-MIA-STT was perfect, arrived on time at 1:00 pm. Taxi to CYOA, boat was clean and ready early to board and start putting things away. The staff at CYOA are nice. Barbara, Jay, Chris and Weeks were very helpful on everything that we needed. Jay was our check out guy, he went overboard telling us simple things and making us count everything onboard. A bit tedious but we understand that he is only doing his job. (see Problems with boat below) Probably should have taken an hour, not almost 3 hours!!

We tried sailing the first day but the winds were crazy and the swells were 7-9 ft. We were going to just get to Christmas Cove but our lazy jack busted so we turned around and went back to base. Chris climbed up and fixed it. By then it was lunch time and my husband was still sick and exhausted so we stayed on a mooring ball at CYOA again that night. No problem, came in for a nice shower at CYOA and dinner at Hook, Line and Sinker. Nice place, good food and very friendly people.

Took off Sunday morning, wind and swells were still crazy so we motored to Christmas cove and spent the night. The next morning still gusting to 25 knots, we motored to Francis Bay via Red Hook. St. John looked amazing and we made a quick decision to just stay there instead of going to the BVI.

Thursday we had a wonderful, full day of sailing. Blue skies, nice wind, no swells. Full moon!!! What a great end to a great day.

Planned on doing the same on Friday but when we started the engines to motor out of the mooring fields, the port engine was pouring white smoke. We motored with just one to Christmas cove and called home base. Talked to Nancy and she said we “should” be ok. Well, we weren't about to chance the other motor going out too so we motored back to CYOA. Jay said that they could get us going again in maybe an hour but we decided to pack it up. We moved to Emerald Beach hotel for our last night. A nice comfortable big bed with quiet AC and a shower head that you can move sounded pretty dang good to us.

We were not too pleased with the Mahe. The owner of this boat needs to spend some money on it and do some general maintenance. He was the previous occupant before us so he is well aware of the problems. The rate that they charge is for a premium catamaran and this is far from it.

The weather was beautiful a few nights and we tried to go without AC. The generator was so noisy, it vibrated the starboard side of the boat. The windows do not have screens. Even followed Jay's suggestions of ventilation but it was way too hot. By the 4th night, we moved mattresses upstairs to the galley.

The fuel AND water gauges were broke, they knew about the gas, not sure about the water gauge. Jay said that we should have enough fuel until mid week but it was very nerve racking not knowing for sure. Plus the only place on St. John to get fuel is in Cruz Bay BUT we are not allowed to bring the boat into that harbor! Had to go to Red Hook twice.

The refrigerator and freezer kicked butt. It was really nice to have a full freezer for ice. The pots/pans, kitchenware were updated and adequate since we cooked a lot on this trip.


PROBLEMS WITH THE BOAT:
Shower hoses in both heads were inadequate. This is a design flaw and had existed from the beginning. Hoses are too short causing them to kink when they are extended from the sink to the shower.
Port side waste tank was completely full and plugged. It was never cleaned out or checked. We discovered this on the second day. What is amazing, according to CYOA the owner of the boat had used it the week before. This explained the smell of sewer.

Dinghy davits are too short for the size of dinghy. When raising the dinghy it ends up partially under the stern of the boat. Someone has to push it out with their legs as it is being raised. The pulley system for the dinghy is inadequate for the weight. We had to take the line from the motor end of the dinghy davit and feed it up under the seat and through the throttles at the helm to reach the winch. Which was fine but a heads up would be nice.
Zero ventilation in both berths. The only good ventilating openings in the lower areas are the escape hatches in either head. These are positioned in the center of the shower area waist high with no way of covering them. If you shower at night with the light on you can be seen from the outside. The windows in both berths and the main salon do not stay open because of loose hinges. We had to tie them open with line or find something to prop them open. No screens on any windows and the salon windows have sun screens on them so visibility looking out is poor. These were installed because this boat gets hot, according to Jay.
Starboard side shower sump pump was extremely slow, about a one to one ratio, one minute shower one minute pushing the sump pump button.
No brakes or cleats for the jib sheets. They had to be left on the winches or left to fly when we used one of the winches to adjust the main sheet.

CYOA Checkout:
When we arrived on the boat we did a check out with Jay which we believe is critical. Understanding the boat at the beginning creates a comfort level for the user. The first thing they give you is a list of things that are on the boat, everything from how many towels to the number of maintenance tools, screw driver hammer etc.. The only problem is they want you to locate and count everything on the list and check it off. This as I understand it is for two reasons: if something is missing when we get back we are responsible, and this lets CYOA know we have located these things. My thought here is that if I am paying $714.00 a day PLUS a deposit for a boat which was paid for up front, show me the respect that I will return this boat undamaged and that I am responsible enough to familiarize myself with its contents.
The user’s manual was helpful but it mentions negligence so many times that you’re afraid to use anything. I would have them send you a copy of the check out documents before you send them any money.
CYOA an interesting philosophy:
We noticed that there wasn’t a broom or mop on board. (they did find a broom for us) It was explained to us that they do not provide these things because people use them as boat hooks and break them. They said that it’s sad that 10% of the renters do 90% of the damage to their boats. They also said that this is why they do not have electric winches on their boats and if they come with electric winches they disable them. Again, for the amount of money that I paid to charter this boat don’t treat me like that 10%.
CYOA does not provide a chase boat in the USVI. You break down you’re on your own. They do have boat service brokers in the BVI. Again, this was not told to us until we returned the boat.

I do believe that it is the charter company's responsibility to put a boat into service that does not have this many problems. We can understand having one or two of these things wrong with a boat.

We had read something months ago on Trip Advisor about CYOA that we chuckled about. That CYOA stands for "Cover your own _ss".

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Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: Lcrich] #19974
05/15/2013 10:22 PM
05/15/2013 10:22 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
Twanger Offline
Traveler
Twanger  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
Now you're just being mean and hateful.

You basically posted this in the USVI forum about a week ago.

http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/s...e=0#Post1507309

So you said your piece. Why not let it go instead of continuing to try to smear a charter company?

What, did you insist on getting all your money back, and since they didn't do it now you have a personal vendetta?

CYOA is a great company made up of great people. They offer good solid boats at teriffic prices.
I have chartered from them for 29 years without issue.

I suggest you take your poison elsewhere.

Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: Twanger] #19975
05/16/2013 01:12 AM
05/16/2013 01:12 AM

A
Anonymous
Unregistered
Anonymous
Unregistered
A


Twanger, they're allowed their opinion. That's what forums are for.

Just because you've had umpteen great charters with them, at I am sure, "family discounts", doesn't mean that they treat all charters the same... as a matter of fact, I am sure CYOA, as well as any other charter company, doesn't. Not until they are repeat and satisfactory charters.

It works both ways - just because this was their first time, they are treated as "CC Captains". But, because it was their first time they may have had unrealistic expectations...

Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C #19976
05/16/2013 12:29 PM
05/16/2013 12:29 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
Twanger Offline
Traveler
Twanger  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
Repeat Charterer - of course they are welcome to spout their opinion.
You will notice that I did not take them to task the first time. Please go to the link I provided above.

Posting the same attack a week later in a different forum on this same website has simple crossed the line.

This is obviously not meant to be an informative review on a charter boat. It is simply hateful at this point.

So yes they are absolutely free to post their attack, as I am equally free to call it into question, as well as their motives.

Perhaps they are grubbing for money. Perhaps they are threatening CYOA with extortion... Pay or I'll bash you on every cruising web-site we can find.
Perhaps we will never know.

What I do know is that "all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

I will not stand by and do nothing when I think I smell a rat.

Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: Twanger] #19977
05/16/2013 02:22 PM
05/16/2013 02:22 PM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 896
SeaSeaRider Offline
Traveler
SeaSeaRider  Offline
Traveler
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 896
We get it that you're a big fan of CYOA, but I'm sure big John is fully capable of defending himself. He almost talked us into placing a Mahe 36 with them several years ago at Annapolis. Glad we didn't (not because its CYOA, I just don't like the boat).

The poster's comments don't sound like opinion, they sound like actual statement of facts about what happened with the boat. They also posted some compliments about it. Sounded pretty balanced to me, although it did point out some embarrasing (to CYOA) issues that you clearly don't like.

Attacking people for posting what happened on their trip is not conducive to good exchange of information here. And then accusing them of "grubbing for money"??? Really? And you know this because..... If you don't know it, then you shouldn't insinuate it. Let CYOA handle their own problems.

"All that is required for authoritarian dictatorships to gain control is for free speech to be squelched".


Rob
Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: SeaSeaRider] #19978
05/16/2013 02:47 PM
05/16/2013 02:47 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
Twanger Offline
Traveler
Twanger  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,100
Maryland
SeaSeaRider - I have already stated, and it's clear for all to see, that I simply let this one go the first time. See the link above. They are clearly welcome to state their opinion.

However, the post above is simply a malicious attack. Perhaps Lcrich didn't do as much damage as hoped with the first attack, and thought it necessary to do it again, a week later. In doing this they crossed the line, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION.

Yours may be different.

Remember - this area of the forum is about Charter Boat Reviews. The post above is simply a cut-and-paste from their attack on CYOA a week ago. It's light on "charter boat review" and heavy on "attack CYOA". We've heard it all before, so it really has no place here.

We have seen over, and over in the past how somebody thinks they can get money out of a charter company by threatening to "go public." It's not fair, and good people get hurt. We saw one of these just a couple of weeks ago. Somebody decided 5 YEARS after chartering a boat that the charter company owed them green, least they vent their spleen. They couldn't even remember what kind of boat they chartered!

Lcrich's behavior is NOW simply wrong. Again, my opinion.

And as you say, it's a free country, so Lcrich is free to vent his splean and so am I.

I'm not going to stand idly by when good people get attacked.

So bring it on.

And yes, I agree that John is fully capable of handling himself. That's why he's still in business after 30 years.

He must be doing something right!

Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: Twanger] #19979
05/16/2013 04:37 PM
05/16/2013 04:37 PM
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 643
Ft. Worth, TX
L
Lcrich Offline OP
Traveler
Lcrich  Offline OP
Traveler
L
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 643
Ft. Worth, TX
Wow, I am so amazed at how wrong you are, Twanger. Maybe you should talk to Jay or John before you vent your anger at me. I did not and have not asked for a dime to be refunded. I also have not heard from CYOA once since we returned.

Excuse me if I cut and pasted the "trip review" part of my report and only left the "charter boat review" intact since I thought that this was what went in this section.

I am not sure what think you "let go" in the first post. Are you saying that I should not give a honest, factual account. You obviously are a boat owner or get VERY good deals with CYOA to become so outraged of my comments.

And thank you to all the people that defended me and my report. I appreciate it more than you know.

Re: CYOA - Mahe 36 with A/C [Re: Lcrich] #19980
05/16/2013 05:16 PM
05/16/2013 05:16 PM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,999
Macon, Georgia
GlennA Offline
Traveler
GlennA  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,999
Macon, Georgia
The OP is entitled to an honest report on his experience and with any boat there can be some bad experiences but I think this one better be put to bed.


Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. - Mark Twain

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