A serious word of caution for persons buying barges and having work done without having the work overseen by someone who knows "BE WARNED". After spending £35,000 on work done in a Dutch Shipyard. The invoice read, Service Engine, Clean all fuel Tanks, Renew all filters, Repack Stern gland, Renew shaft bearings, Steam clean Engine room and bilges and £7,500 to shorten vessel to 30mtrs. This means that £27,500 was spent on those jobs listed above. 20hrs running time saw us with engine at idle due to fuel starvation, 15 inches of water in the bilges due to a leaking stern gland, and the oil floating on that water did the rest. An emergency stop at Ijmuiden to renew the fuel
reconsider our position to continue. Surveyor called to explain how after spending 35k this could happen. Only explanation given that a certain yard was run by a crook. Bit strong but I can see his point. It cost a further 15,000 Euros to get the work done properly, The fuel was condemed as too contaminated, two buckets of sludge removed from fuel tanks, Stern gland had to be repacked as the old packing was hard and dry, report said it had not been repacked for some years, To complete a sorry tale the engine broke down as one of the oil filters on the engine was over 25 years old. We noticed a small drip around the seal and stopped it before the
replacement filter up to Newcastle. We still managed to complete the delivery to Northern Ireland with a clean engine room and all machinery running like a sewing machine. Engineers earnt their pay on this trip.
The moral of this tale is make sure the work you pay for has been done, or employ someone to oversee all the work being done
Hi Keith, I would be very curious to know which shipyard this is. Maybe you can email me the name. I think it would be good to warn people here that if they go there, supervision is necessary for the sake of one's health, financially and otherwise!
ReplyDeleteJanys, try not to worry, we go through this exercise to highlight the bad yards, We and the Insurance companies operate a black list of yards not to be trusted. This particular yard has had work withdrawn and lost a lot of trade. The guy that runs this yard is covered with Hells angles tattoos and he rides a Harley Davidson and has a middle finger salute attitude. As an ex biker, his attitude sucks. If as and when you decide to buy a barge or whatever, ask for advice on which way is best to achieve your goals. Not every yard is this way inclined but there are a few. If you stand there and oversee the work you will be surprised how quickly and cheaply the jobs can be done. This particular yard had a little trick of while you were visiting the yard to check progress would put loads of staff on the vessel and the moment you leave would remove the workers to work on ships whose Dutch owners do oversee the work, learn from the Dutch, " see where your money goes"
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