Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

So, I was helping a friend deliver his
In Response To: Spot On.... ()

Manta 40 from Puerto Rico back to the states when the Brooks and Gatehouse auto pilot ram tanked just after crossing the Mona Passage. It might have had something to do the 40 plus knots of DDW on the back south side of PR a couple of days prior or the fact that it was a bit long in the tooth when we began the trip. In any event, we were stuck in the Dominican Republic with a bunch of miles ahead of us so we decided to work at getting a replacement from a B and G dealer out of Florida. It went south the moment the dealer picked up the phone. He had a unit but it was slightly different then the old one. Gee, go figure, ya think? The dealer did fax us the specifications and drawings so we set about making modifications to the existing mount and figuring out a way to attach the linier feedback unit to the new ram while waiting for the new ram to arrive. The minuet the ram left the dealer he washed his hands of it. For days we had no idea where it was. It was totally lost in space. Come to find out that the dealer used a warehouse ran by FedEx and it was never sent. It got moved from one shelve to another and never made it from the FedEx operated warehouse to the FedEx shipping department. Days later we finely got someone to work through the issue and get it on a plane to Puerto Rico. It still had to make it to the DR but at least it was out of Florida. If these companies were rivers it would be where the incompetence meets the uninterested. Finely we heard from the agent we had to hire that it had made it to Santa Domingo but there was a problem. FexEx had sent two different sets of paperwork and the custom guys in Santo Domingo didn't know which set to release the ram under. That took two more days. By this time my wife and my friends wife were on a plane flying into the Turks and Cacos expecting to meet us. They ended up is a fancy resort for a couple of days while we were installing the ram which was delivered at 10pm in the evening. We finely got it installed by about three in the morning and busted out of the harbor at 0600 for the crossing. We arrived at the bank about two hours after dark and found a big rock to hide behind for the night. The next morning we came on in only to find that the girls had no interest in meeting us that early so their we set. They finely showed up fully rested and relaxed while we felt like we had been drug through a knot hole. Geeze I love this sailing. The B and G dealer sucked, B and G support sucked and so did FedEx. Other then that it was a great trip.

Messages In This Thread