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Bad weather, technical problems with the boat, the company's work model, and the local rules made me work hard nonstop. In the end, exhausted, I started to make mistakes.
Never again will I rent from a company with a rating as low as 1.3, and I will never sign up for chartering a surveyed boat again.
While it's reasonable to follow the rules—such as not trespassing in forbidden areas, keeping the batteries charged, and avoiding overcranking the engines—the experience was ruined by the wrong setup and constant technical issues, which risked/caused us tresspassing these rules. The electrical system malfunctioned, with systems like the toilet pumps or watermaker turning on by themselves or stucking in working mode, and the only way to stop them was by pulling the fuse. There were no sound alerts for the batteries (a feature present on all the other boats I’ve sailed), which is essential for preventing the battery drain. It all made following the requirements over some of the surveyed systems hard or impossible and made me and my crew very nervous.
The person who conducted the technical briefing was incompetent and gave incorrect answers to my questions. I had to raise my voice to demand another employee, who did not speak English, but managed to answer my question, essential for fulfilling the charter's requirements. Once we set off,technical problems arose due to an improperly configured electrical system. There was no way to get immediate help (no text channel to communicate with a techniscian). I had to file a support ticket, and to get a technician onboard, we would have had to pay €400 to €900, depending on the urgency, and wait half a day to a full day, as if the problem were our fault.
As a result, my crew and I spent hours fixing the sewage system under the sink (which at first day turned out to be clogged), resolving electrical issues, and dealing with water system leaks. The sails were also rigged incorrectly, causing us to miss out on good wind. After rerigging them, the sails worked fine for the rest of the trip though.
Overall, disregarding the electrical and water system issues, the Bali 4.3 Hogwarts was a good boat, with perfect interiors, well-rigged sails (after our adjustment), good engines, perfect steering and a slightly glitchy but generally reliable chart plotter.
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Dear Victoria,
Thank you for sharing your experience. At Yachting in Sardinia we always value the feedback of our customers and take seriously any concerns expressed.
Having said this, we are sorry to note that you missed a very important detail in your feedbackI would like to point out that you sent us the technical assistance ticket via email on 03/10 at 10.30pm and when we contacted you, on the morning of 04/10, you were sailing in the Cala Coticcio area. In fact, you contacted us because, due to the grounding caused by navigation in prohibitive contract conditions which led to a serious grounding and which caused, among other things, serious damage to the vessel, there has been the necessity of the intervention of the Port Authority and of the other transport support to provide you with assistance. As you can well understand all this cannot in any way be caused by problems with the inverter, the watermaker or the toilet, which you mentioned.
We therefore ask you to reconsider what you said because we were and are also ready to give you support in times of need during the grounding. the problems you highlighted in the ticket were already being managed before you caused the grounding but obviously they took a back seat given what happened.
I also remind you that today we are managing damage compensation with the third-party company, in addition to the Port Authority, which promptly rescued you to give you immediate assistance and avoid danger for the people on board
As for the battery alarm, which can be very annoying in the night hours, we have a much better Sea Tutor system which sends sms to the skipper every time the battery goes down the specific level.
As for the assistance cost you’ve mentioned we can’t really understand this, because you haven’t been charged ANY cost for technical assistance on the opened tickets.
Hope all this can help you to reconsider your feedback.