wlharrisjr
Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2016
- Messages
- 18
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 44' TRIPLE CABIN (1966 - 1972)
Strap in Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s going to be a bumpy read…
First off, thanks to all on this forum who provided suggestions and information while I was in the purchase phase of my new to me hatteras 44 Tri-Cabin! Even with everything below, the wife and I love her, although “Bay Mariner” as a name for a boat that we intend to take to the keys didn’t work, she has been renamed “Kismet.”
Mistake 1, wrong broker. I guess I should have figured out when the first boat he tried to sell me was his own with paint over all the wood to cover the water stains, but once they had the check, they stopped any contact, then I noticed my Mainship listed for sale on their site… We talked about me selling it, but I never made a decision, but there she was… three months later we still do not have the paperwork sorted out, they never sent anything to the bank, sent me a MD title in my name only (we are supposed to be getting her re-documented). Now they sent me a title with the bank listed but still have nto sent the bank the paperwork they asked for.
Mistake 2, wrong surveyor. Broker said he could not ethically (what ethics) recommend a broker, but the one on the bottom of the list he gave me did the survey five years ago, so already knows the boat… Yup, I fell for it. I have a survey; it’s a nice bit of fiction. I hope the part I was able to watch (hull and props etc) was good, I believe the hull is as solid as he said, but not much after that is correct. Still looking for the spare set of props it says are on board (is there some place specific they might be?).
Mistake 3, sea trial, I did not insist on a longer seatrial and I know I should have, we were only out about 15 minutes, just long enough for the new gen set to shut down (broker said it sucked mud coming out of Piney narrows, have found out since it was a deteriorated water inlet line that had a loose section inside blocking water flow)
Mistake 4, Dad and I decided we would take the long way from Piney Narrows to Lippincott, around Kent Island, I mean come on, it just surveyed out great right? So there we are headed out towards the bay, just left the channel at the narrows so we started throttling up the diesels. One governs out at 2K, other keeps going, not sure that governor is working, either way we settled on bringing the one back down, so since my dad will not let go of the helm, I start walking around the boat. Into the aft cabin (dang those diesels are loud) and I see two inches of water at the aft of the cabin, wth, run up to the helm switch on the bilge pumps, nothing happens (yes survey says they all work), well I watch the water and it is not rising (BTW, broker said the bilge had been cleaned and drained after the survey, NOT) so around we go. Pull into Lippincott, port engine temp starts rising, get the engines shut down and the boat in the slip, start checking the engines, port engine on the intake side there is a threaded hole, apparently missing the rod (cannot come up with the name of the thing, anode?). Mech says it is not possible that it came around the island like that, guess miracles do happen.
Long story short, none of the bilge pumps were even wired into the harness (how did the surveyor test them again?), have found a lot of other issues with the survey since. Still love the boat, but it is going to be a long ride to get her to where I thought she already was. Hired a diesel mech to tune the engines and go over them, but he refuses to work on them until he fixes the safety issues (bilge pumps, leaking exhaust hoses, etc), so at least one person working on the boat is using his head for something other than a hat rack.
Bill
Happy owner of Kismet
First off, thanks to all on this forum who provided suggestions and information while I was in the purchase phase of my new to me hatteras 44 Tri-Cabin! Even with everything below, the wife and I love her, although “Bay Mariner” as a name for a boat that we intend to take to the keys didn’t work, she has been renamed “Kismet.”
Mistake 1, wrong broker. I guess I should have figured out when the first boat he tried to sell me was his own with paint over all the wood to cover the water stains, but once they had the check, they stopped any contact, then I noticed my Mainship listed for sale on their site… We talked about me selling it, but I never made a decision, but there she was… three months later we still do not have the paperwork sorted out, they never sent anything to the bank, sent me a MD title in my name only (we are supposed to be getting her re-documented). Now they sent me a title with the bank listed but still have nto sent the bank the paperwork they asked for.
Mistake 2, wrong surveyor. Broker said he could not ethically (what ethics) recommend a broker, but the one on the bottom of the list he gave me did the survey five years ago, so already knows the boat… Yup, I fell for it. I have a survey; it’s a nice bit of fiction. I hope the part I was able to watch (hull and props etc) was good, I believe the hull is as solid as he said, but not much after that is correct. Still looking for the spare set of props it says are on board (is there some place specific they might be?).
Mistake 3, sea trial, I did not insist on a longer seatrial and I know I should have, we were only out about 15 minutes, just long enough for the new gen set to shut down (broker said it sucked mud coming out of Piney narrows, have found out since it was a deteriorated water inlet line that had a loose section inside blocking water flow)
Mistake 4, Dad and I decided we would take the long way from Piney Narrows to Lippincott, around Kent Island, I mean come on, it just surveyed out great right? So there we are headed out towards the bay, just left the channel at the narrows so we started throttling up the diesels. One governs out at 2K, other keeps going, not sure that governor is working, either way we settled on bringing the one back down, so since my dad will not let go of the helm, I start walking around the boat. Into the aft cabin (dang those diesels are loud) and I see two inches of water at the aft of the cabin, wth, run up to the helm switch on the bilge pumps, nothing happens (yes survey says they all work), well I watch the water and it is not rising (BTW, broker said the bilge had been cleaned and drained after the survey, NOT) so around we go. Pull into Lippincott, port engine temp starts rising, get the engines shut down and the boat in the slip, start checking the engines, port engine on the intake side there is a threaded hole, apparently missing the rod (cannot come up with the name of the thing, anode?). Mech says it is not possible that it came around the island like that, guess miracles do happen.
Long story short, none of the bilge pumps were even wired into the harness (how did the surveyor test them again?), have found a lot of other issues with the survey since. Still love the boat, but it is going to be a long ride to get her to where I thought she already was. Hired a diesel mech to tune the engines and go over them, but he refuses to work on them until he fixes the safety issues (bilge pumps, leaking exhaust hoses, etc), so at least one person working on the boat is using his head for something other than a hat rack.
Bill
Happy owner of Kismet
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