The Survey

Well we decided that we needed to ge a profesional marine engineer involved to see if our concerns were justified and opted for Bill Rosie from Chesterfield, as far as we knew he had had no dealings with us or the Harps and could be considered impartial. He ageed to carry out a survey so we advised the Harps of same and asked them to let us know if they had any objection to our choice of engineer. Gave BH three weeks with no response so gave Bill the go ahead.

On the 18th of May Mr Rosie arrived at the mooring as arranged and was noting problems before he even came aboard. Namely the wheehouse roof being flat would not shed any water. (This was quite true but only being plastic it had streatched and is still holding water despite installing curved roof bars.)Here are some more of the problems highighted in his report
Leaking skylight

Steering mounted on a plywood board glued to the top of the fuel tanks

Prop shaft out of alignment
Water coming up round rudder post

Fuel tank breather (Which I had taken the trouble to extend)

The fitting just pulled out of the tank because it had been stuck in with mastic instead of being threaded.
The battery compartment. Isolaton switches mounted on doors putting strain on battery leads

Control desk. No slack in wiring to allow access and uninsulated terminals causing short risk. Bill did identify the lose wires to get the bow thruster working again.

Along with this Mr. Rosie identified that all wiring being run through bulkheads were not protected from metal edges by grommets, the hot water tank was free to move about, the 'U' bent to stop water getting into the exhaust was the wrong way up, deck drain over battery compartment bunged with mastic rather than connected to hull outlet, no Hull Identification Number stamped on rear of hull and a host of other minor and not so minor faults.

His finding was that the fit out was generaly to a poor standard.

We sent a copy of the report to BH but once again no reply and as was realised in later deslings the Harps choose to ignore everything in the hope it will go away.

Since the report we have also found that 10 inches of steel plate welded to the bow to transport the hull was still in place, the anchor winch was wired up in reverse so down was up etc., the central heating boiler has been mounted between the engine bearers so it cannot be accessed

for maintenance, water comes in at the galley sink outlet as it is on the waterline and loose, and paint is flaking off in places due to the primer not being cleaned properly before the top coat has been applied.

I think that brings us up to date with the failings. The next thrilling installments will cover the rebuild (If you can have one with a new boat) hopefully with a few before and after pics.