Leopard catamarans warranty: Actions speak louder ...

[Music] so the reason we've taken so long with this next video uh is been we've been waiting for leopard to respond to all sorts of confirmations about the remaining warranty issues anyway we were just about to release this video uh stating that they hadn't responded uh because we sent them almost a final email with the final items that needed to be approved a very very small list of items uh on we sent it to the head huncher on Monday uh and we had absolutely nothing back from anyone and it's now Friday so Monday the 20th and it's now Friday whatever that makes it the 24th um anyway we decided just to give him a call and when we gave him a call uh he really uh went on about the fact that uh we've got to communicate directly with the correct channels but you remember my our channel in South Africa was actually not communicating with us you know he also o uh in his email from April had said that we shouldn't use WhatsApp we should use email so the problem there is that we can't communicate or we get nothing back it's just a big black hole uh anyway he confirmed that he'd sent it to uh the guy in Cape Town and that we should have the approval soon so um this is just Why we've taken so long and I think from here on uh uh we're just going to wait and see he made some interesting statements uh he said that uh he never declines uh proper factory warranty in other words but look let's see I mean we're about to see this now so he asked me to resend the list to Marcel and the uh let's say factory warranty person uh and he said that we will get a response uh and that unless it's a totally invalid item or something like this you know they'll take care of it so we're hoping that this is the case but the problem though with leopard can be not always my soul's been quite good uh you know mostly uh but the problem with leopard can be that you get no response and that's the issue when you're a new boat are just having bought a million dollar boat I think it's reasonable to expect a response so we're going to put this video up and we'll review the response but in theory by next video I mean it's taken so long we should be able to use to say to you that leopard have agreed to the uh repair of the items that need to be repaired the replacement of the items that need to be replaced and the refunding of the items that needed to be refunded now remember we didn't have any uh um uh approvals uh in in November in January it was just almost impossible to get an approval except on Marcel's side you know he would he would give us the verbal approval pretty quickly so now other than the uh emails we're waiting for from leopard we're looking for the final approvals let's see how long that takes and then it becomes a case of talk is cheap and money buys the whiskey so they would have approved everything now they need to refund and repair and replace so let's wait for those approvals so this is the uh start or actually the second phase of the repair of the damage uh done by Yacht for when leopard sent us up there for the three repairs that they wanted so I'm sure soon they'll sand that and then uh cover that over you remember during our Atlantic Crossing we had massive leaks of water coming through in through these diesel heater exhausts uh This Is Us removing those exhausts to stop those leaks uh you know hopefully then the boat won't sink leopard have agreed to refund us the money for the shoddy exhaust diesel he install yeah it's looking at CA so I had this extra block uh made this this raised block here to raise this line uh I even made the Chafe plate at an angle you can see going off to the right or off so uh in effect that this this is a good temporary solution um I mean it's uh but what I really want from leopard is the uh straightforward advice on a permanent solution in other words how to fix their problem so quite frankly the the issue here to me looks like the the that block over there is straight in line from there through this block to this one there so that the problem is as you can see the line doesn't go into the roller so in order for that to happen if it went into the roller then the roller would be picking that up uh and we could use a the the chave plate that they had before in other words a flat one now the only way I can really see to fix this after you know months and months of consideration uh where my fingernail is I can feel it moving so this is not a perfect solution at all cuz there is unbelievable pressure on this this is like a rock uh anyway you can see this moving along the line moving along here now the only solution I think but I thought this might be a solution of course it's not because it's not a proper one because the the line doesn't go it lifts the line off of the the edge of the block and stops from chafing but the line doesn't go into the roller so I think that the only solution is to move this entire piece of molded I assuming this is molded um maybe it isn't molded and that's how come this boat is different from others according to the leopard guy it's the first time they've ever seen this problem but if it's molded how can that be so maybe this isn't molded maybe this gets put on afterwards and was put on in the wrong position but I expect that this needs to be moved back about 10 cm uh to about here uh maybe even more maybe even 15 just to make sure that it actually goes into that roller as I say I've been looking for a solution and finally carab Marine have come here today and they've said that they think that what they're going to do they haven't confirmed it but is to chop this off and basically to rebuild it to move it just backwards so at exactly the same angle as it is now and just to move it backwards by pretty much an inch 3 cm and we're hoping that that will then have the effect of turning this around if that doesn't work um I still hold leopard responsible just because we've had to come up with a solution as I did with the metal one um you know they can't put the fact that we chose the wrong solution this time or the time gone by and even the next time the time coming if when we've asked them for the solution as a manufacturer they haven't been forthcoming [Music] that I'm not 100% happy with and I think you would agree so I think the position that F moved the uh uh the block to the straight in line position to over there is very good it really is the best thing uh to have it straight in that line the problem with this though is that it isn't uh uh bending right over here it's sitting four problems number one one it's sitting harder on this corner I'll show you in a minute number two it's just a little bit close to the edge over here number three it's running on top of the screw that's under there so it's chafing you can feel if you run your finger over this here uh and the same when this line is uh loose uh it actually chafes it's pressing down hard on that over there and then number four it's hitting that uh gel coat uh over there and once I put the block flat here and I could see it I said sorry Oaks you've got to lift this block so you know the Locker has got to be the the same as it was lifted in at that angle uh so that will raise this line up it'll get it off the deck you can see I can go right a long way up here uh and then and then it'll turn so that's solution number three and I'll tell you why it's solution number three these guys don't want to do any more work they they they're going to bring a piece of plastic this shape you know that piece of that hdp and put it here which is not what I want I I want the proper thing to be here so this will be so solution number two is where they put that straight solution number three they're going to put their plastic in uh I'm not very excited actually that needed to go much higher that needed to go much higher that's not really a solution uh it's straight it needs to go higher so this was solution three uh it's better than solution uh two which is better than solution one uh we're going to have to get this job done properly I asked for advice Daniel said they've never had it before so I never had had advice here I had to try work this out myself I can tell you these Oaks have spent somewhere around if not upward of 30 hours you know getting uh all of this this is not a problem that I made and this becomes my question and the uncertainty with all the rumors that we hear out there is this going to be my cost and if so why you know and of course you can you you it's it's there isn't a reason in the world that you can blame this on me and uh especially there's no time for for getting quotes when uh emails take so long and all of this I can't sell I can't fly my spica and and I can't fly my code zero I was getting this fixed I tried what I thought would be the cheapest solution $190 didn't work we now on to this the guys have taken as long as they've taken you know how could they have quoted anyway so yeah I wouldn't accept anything other than than the the the proper job done which will be job number four but that's what it is the most important job for the fiberglasses to build one of these hang on are you it's done under there right okay mm so what we're looking at is the height that the Rope needs to be at the moment the Rope is at about I reckon it needs to go to so this roller here the middle of the roller is about 25 above the the middle of the roller over here in that position it's about 25 above I think it needs to be about 45 about okay let me ask no this this house has to be leveled right yeah we B we basically want to be running through here without touching anything if we do that we got a spot on if we touch a little bit no problem if we if we're not touching when that rope get then we really hit the mark do you think this is solid inside or not cuz that's what worries me yep yeah she's solid that that that has no we just going to fill everything El so you got solid thing plus I am putting this down with collider silicon so it ain't going way it's going to be like Steam it's going into the block straight that's how we work together right right right okay so it has to be flat yeah I mean when your when your block is like that you don't want your line there you don't want it there you want you want it there so when this is straight it goes it comes in straight yeah perfect okay St the Fantastic beautiful end up being the same as this once you cut that yeah yeah yeah yeah okay similar size it's almost that's looking straight bob look I find that looking good that's why I saw earlier too somehow saw that but but what were we seeing oh you know what happened when you turn when you turn the block you angled the block angle of the block difference see we double checking so look here there's coming nearly in the middle I think it still might need a little bit of angle but angle and let's do that let's get that angle and it's perfect we don't need to do a thing just shape it and it's perfect there my gosh I freaking know because I measure this thing she come through yeah she come true all right now line up that Big B see if that Big B going through ratchet there I just did the bead around cuz he wanted it to look nice like that I did nice subsequently to having been advised by leopard that Utopia is the only boat to have this issue we came across three other owners with the identical issue we connected them via email with leopard so that they knew that was not an isolated issue leopard agreed to a full refund of the cost for all four fix attempts the main work for Bobby was molding and shaping the raised resin Mount so over and above Bobby's charge of 1,200 for my job I paid Bobby an additional $150 to make a spare resin amount that I now have for any other leopard 50 owner who would like to save time and can simply have the Block glassed in additionally Bobby's WhatsApp number in St Martin is on the screen about a month before we left we found that the fuel tanks both diesel tanks under the beds were leaking so uh and then underway we found that both fuel tanks were leaking again so in other words they repaired them in July uh uh the warranty expires on the 28th of September somewhere around the 28th of September maybe a few days before a few days after we found that the repair that they had done call it 2 months before didn't work so now we got the guys here in martinque still trying to repair the Factory's bug up so Thursday the 14th of March um and this uh diesel tanks were apparently fixed about a week ago and then Melinda's put her hand under here and there's diesel yeah so really quite a lot no no less than it was doing before now we're checking the port side for Oliver smell it looks okay right this one nothing on that feel under the thing and this side is totally dry so I'm not sure if Melinda's being unreasonable or anything but she's finally getting tired of people working on the boat all the time constantly in the cabin everything ripped out from underneath our bed or from in our cupboards you know there's there's mattresses and this this has been like this for me this has been like this for 2 years for Melinda this has been like this for 3/4 of a year since July last year we now nearly at the end of March and this is what we got to live like and then the factory turn around and say they're not going to take responsibility for it I mean that's just absolutely crazy I'm have a look at this oh my word what was that just salt water inside the underwater light box oh my soul doesn't look too good show inside yeah so that's the one that's not working it's all wet in there yeah just all that is just full of water dripping there is a gland now but there's multiple wires going to it so it will never seal properly so what I'm thinking is we block that off we actually made a from the side got you can see the damage here from the water that's got in there and that's why this um light didn't work that's shocking eh but how one problem causes another this is you know the antiphon device so so the Box comes from where it's just down below here the yeah yeah okay and uh so I don't know but maybe sometime it just squirts a little bit a few drops and it's enough to go right down here right right I'm not sure should from the seal here yeah I doubt it's from the seal you know it could be I agree with you that thing thing leaks leaks here it falls here it drops out of the latch and drops right down here so this is splashing but the all under here is full of sea water okay so feel here look the r rust there all of this here from this thing look I don't know but can you see that salt that there is always wet from Salt so yeah so in Cape Town um multimarine installed this so that you can't actually get in and it's tight here um and over here it's even pretty difficult to get in at the radio you can slip your hand in like this but I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to be able to take this whole thing out and lay it down so that you can work in here and uh this is what we're going to have a look at at get Harvey to have a look at but I agree with you they got so many spare they were labeled they labeled you know but I mean they haven't labeled it's just shocking so basically whatever the USB hub went to that didn't work because it had a cabling problem all of these well have worked on and off and I mean you changing them all cuz they' got the same connector problem they've all got the same connector problem it's a missing what Ain so whoever's making their connectors on that side is just not what's he doing and you meant to put this strain Rel here to to actually you know have a better radius rather than this than just that yeah it's it's better it works it worked until now send a new Hub all the way over and then um the other folk and put the Hub in and the same problem and they check the cabling and was exactly the problem you to our USB ports with PC so we're finding this is intermittently faulty it is is it yeah don't you remember we had to um we have to sometimes take the the the USB out of there and put them in different try different slots yeah it is change you cuz now we can okay so you can see here that it's showing the current has been 6.7 over here you can see that it's showing true wind speeded and and apparent wind speeded exactly the same the one's just following the other briefly uh by about a second but over here it's showing boat speed so speed through water as zero and speed overground is 6.7 so definitely something wrong there we go uh the top one is is true in speed I don't think you can see that the bottom one is apparent wind speed they're the same the uh showing is nearly nine when the speed over here the speed over ground is nearly seven and then speed through the water zero but speed but current over there is nearly seven this issue started in and around the time that all the issues related to the bad M conduit started basically we're still getting false STW speed through water as well as false twws true and speed readings and as you can see the current Vector still swings wildly Melinda cleaned the transducer whilst we were on the hard then once in the water we went through the calibration procedure that Jason guided us through as you can see Harvey also had a go at cleaning the transducer wheel as well as going for a drive to recalibrate but also without success I'm no expert of course but I'm starting to be inclined toward the possibility of a faulty transducer but regardless leopard needs to ensure a good Ray Marine technician in Fort Lauderdale in in um October when we get there to diagnose the issue once and for all this is real time uh 12th of April in the morning here I guess it's about 2:00 or something like that and you can see what the flare camera is getting I mean you can hardly tell you know where the Horizon is there's a bit of um Horizon there but you definitely not like before where I could see the waves in the water or anything like this hi Harvey you can see now it's 8: so everything's still warm out there uh I mean you can see the text is clear but now look here you can't even even see the you know if you look over there it's just a graininess you know you can't see what you saw today and uh yeah in another 3 or 4 hours when uh everything's cooler it'll just be shocking already is not that good as you can see just so you can see what I mean uh you can see how that's clear and that's just really you know quite a mess you know the story with this Flur camera that leopard charged me $220,000 for it uh but it's never worked since day one in fact the current camera was only installed in July last year 2023 to replace the first faulty unit the fault on that unit was the camera couldn't keep its position and would either drop into its housing or shoot up and face the sky above this of course rendered it worthless however the quality of its nighttime infrared image was really good even when underway for us the flare camera is supposed to be an extra set of eyes at night for things that radar and AIS can't detect like floating containers that could effectively sink a boat perhaps not a cat but you know it could sink a monoh hole and certainly do a heck of a lot of damage to any fiberglass boat as you can see the replacement camera has a shocking infrared IM image so it's also useless to us since arriving in the Caribbean last year we've been trying to get Raymarine support by March I thought I might stand a better chance of Raymarine support if I give a heck of a lot of advanced notice to the dealer on the island that we're going to arrive at prior to arriving at St Martin the cap Town distributive race Ray Marine Jason at MDM who until that point had seemed very supportive confirmed that the contact details of the Raymarine dealer in St Martin we notified the St Martin dealer nearly 3 weeks in advance of our arrival we we stayed up we ended we ended up staying in St Martin for 7 weeks but even with constant pushing in those 10 weeks we got zero support from Ray Marine and in fact leopard was helping to try or trying to help uh get support from Ray Marine I told myself that he needs to take the unit back and refund me he then passed that message on to MDM within a few days of that which was just before we departed St Martin I saw an email one of a thousand that showed how disorganized Raymarine support are from Raymarine finally approving a repair or replacement too little too late they had 10 weeks opportunity to attempt to repair in St Martin and I've been patient and I've been down that road the repair Road in Cape Town where MDM sat in our Saloon for months trying to work out the problem plus we've been put through enough anguish with this that we refuse to be kept waiting in St Lauderdale in October this coming October 20124 in summary the remaining choices for leopard and MDM and Ray Marine are to refund or replace if leopard don't have a replacement unit waiting in Fort Lauderdale they must return our money either way this unit needs to be be removed please click the Subscribe and like button doesn't cost you anything but it does help our Channel [Music]

Channel: Sailing Utopia

Views: 14,263

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Id: nN33PcisCP4

Length: 24min 15sec (1455 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024