Report Review
Boating is meant to be enjoyable, but...
As members of SHKP since 2022 and spending an average of $20K per season on storage, mooring, hauling, commissioning, and maintenance, we gave the go ahead for rudder bearing replacement in fall of 2024 provided it would be complete by April 1, 2025, based on an estimate of around $3500 and provided it would not impact spring launch schedule for April 14-May 1st 2025.
Rudder was pulled in fall of 2024 and existing rudder bearings destroyed in the process prior to us being notified that there were no exact match replacements, requiring hull modifications and available replacement bearings would cost $7500, and labor increased to about $3000.
Since rudder had been already dropped we had no choice but to approve the purchase.
We subsequently learned that no work was done on the project in the fall of 2024 and none in spring 2025 until April, making the project 2 months late and eliminating the possibility of making our agreed upon launch timetable.
Billing and payment on project to this point was $10,500, 3x the estimate.
The boat was finally launched in early June, only to be quickly hauled out due to leaking around the outside of the new rudder bearings.
The service manager then stated to us that the project had become a "nightmare".
The rudder was removed, recaulked, and boat relaunched on June 18. Though no leaking was observed, the technician who performed the work said he thought they might leak under certain sea conditions.
We received an additional bill for over $5000 which made no mention of launch and leaking but which itemized labor for reperforming the faulty bearing installation.
Upon sea trial Jun 19, the rudder appeared to be dry, but the technician observed a small drip at the engine heat exchanger raw water connection.
We were notified that this would be addressed (without any potential issues being mentioned).
Two weeks later, now July, we were informed that the technician would not be able to fix the now disassembled heat exchanger connection, and an outside contractor would have to be engaged.
Under SHKP policy, only vendors approved by SHKP can work at the marina, and their chosen vendor was not local but an hours drive east in Portland, even though I identified local vendors who were willing and able to do the repair.
The vendor - Power Products- designated by SHKP let the schedule slip twice by months and the final repair wasn't complete until the end of August, two months and $7500 after identification of the drip, which we would have been willing and able to live with until the end of the season.
On top of this, we were prevented from direct communication with the vendor Power Products by the service manager at SHKP during the repair scheduling and work.
All told, we paid $20,000 and lost an entire sailing season for work which we were not afforded adequate discussion and involvement in the decision making process, and we still have concerns about the quality and sea worthiness of the repairs.
Since SHKP had our boat as virtual hostage through the entire process, our choices to find better qualified vendors was virtually nil.
We hold SHKP management, particularly the service manager, directly responsible for this nightmare season, and warn every potential SBKP customer of our extremely stressful and costly experience.
Caveat Emptor, Maine and NH boaters..