” Nils, good news: the wait is over and things just got real. Your boat is in the water.”
That little message, including a photo of the actual hull number #259, certainly got my attention.
I was expecting the launch to happen around mid April. However, as getting time off to actually be there on the day wasn’t going to happen, it kind of slipped my mind.
Plus the fact that Dream Yacht Charter was going to take delivery of her for charter in Croatia for the next 5 years somewhat muffled my enthusiasm as a ‘new boat owner’. Or did it …..?
Nope! As soon as I found out she was floating, I wanted to go. I wanted to touch it, smell it and generally bask in that brief, glorious moment of joy of having a new toy.
Meanwhile, I was stuck in Hong Kong on ‘Reserve’ – meaning I was waiting, at home, to take the place of a colleague in case of sickness. What are the chances of me getting a call to go flying, and even if that would happen, it could be to one of over 50 destinations my company services world wide. I needed to head in the general direction of France, not Canada or India.
Well, here is what happened next ….
It was an eventful trip to say the least. I still believe I got scammed with the taxi in Paris, I got to see so many yachts getting ready for hand over, saw the FP and Multihull Team in action and most sadly, I saw the roof of France’s most iconic ‘Notre Dame’ burn down as I drove past the area on the way back.
I had no idea or expactations as to the state of “my” yacht during this stage of what could be classified as ‘predelivery’.
I was amazed to see how many little defects there were marked on ‘No Shoes’ that required attention and how much additional work was required to get the boat ready.
Maybe it’s a way for FP to get the yachts out of their yard where there is limited real estate and finish them off to hand-over stage elsewhere.
It also enables them to fix up any damage on the spot that might occur during mast stepping and installation of other ancillary systems.
What the above highlights though is the unpredictability of timing.
There seem to be so many variables in getting a yacht ready: There is the delivery of the actual yacht by road. There are multiple ancillary systems which can’t be installed prior to the road delivery.
Most importantly though … weather. A lot of the work to be carried out is done on the exterior, so if it rains, hails or snows, much of the work stops. Subsequently, this will have a follow-on effect on the next yacht and so on.
After having read many blogs about hand-over and warranty nightmares, I have to say I am kind of glad that Dream Yacht Charters are the ones who have to deal with all of that.
On a side note: One wonders though, now that FP owns a fair share of DYC, to what length will FP go to deliver top quality boats to DYC and how much DYC will push FP for perfection versus an acceptable, mutually beneficial, commercial compromise.
Having said that, common sense suggests that DYC still requires well finished, well working yachts to make a good business model. Other manufacturers, i.e. Moorings / Leopard, are no exception … Time will tell.
Small fish in a very big pond:
Everyone thinks their yacht is special, I can see that. I guess I am no different. We are spending upwards of 1/2 million Euros, we deserve to be feeling special.
But when you walk or motor around the marina in La Rochelle, you realize, by the sheer amount of brand new yachts, that your ‘special’ yacht is only a number.
It’s one of hundreds of exactly the same one as yours … all made from a few tonnes of resin and rolls of fiber glass.
There is of course always the option of ‘custom built’ by niche manufacturers or boat yards. Its nice to have choices. However, as I am focusing on mainstream, bare-boat yacht charter management contracts, this wasn’t an option.
So to that extent, I had an interesting conversation with Nod Crook, who now assists private clients of Multihull Solution with their hand-over and commissioning. Previously with Sunsail, he managed hundreds of yacht in various types of charter contracts.
His summery of achieving a successful outcome to any charter contract was: “Treat this yacht as a business transaction and remove all emotional attachment from it”.
Basically, its like a rental home. If you want to move in after renting it out for a few years, you will need to renovate to make it ‘yours’
All aside, it was great to see my yacht in real life.
After waiting for over 10 months, things became real and now the journey has begun.
I will be client number 2 or 3 at the end of June for my next week of owners use, so ‘No Shoes’ should still be brand new with few scratches ….. oops, no emotional attachment!
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