Pitter Yachting

Dear Sirs of Performance Sailing, dear Mr. Pitter,

from 1.4. 2010 until 10.4. 2010 we chartered your Dufour 44p „Mallorca” for the participation at the Round Palagruza Cannonball Regatta 2010. The check in for the yacht was in Sibenik, the home port of the Dufour 44p fleet.

The contract with Pitter covered the week from 3.4. until 10.4., the costs of 2870 € had been prepaid to Pitter. The charter from 1.4. until 3.4. had been done by email agreement and by cash payment of 600 € at check in on 1.4.

I’d like to mention that we were the winners of that same regatta in 2009 in the Dufour class on the “ELBA”, and my crew and myself have collected quite some experience with many offshore regattas during the last few years. In 2005 we won the Blue Band at the Adriatic Offshore Challenge in even heavier Bora situations.

I have listed all the technical problems below, but first I’d like to make a summary: There were many technical problems recognized during check in on 1.4. and after a few hours of sailing on 2.4.. Some of those problems were repaired immediately during those 2 days, some were repaired on 3.4. and 4.4. when we already were in Biograd. The staff in Sibenik was very busy to repair all the problems of also the other yachts of the fleet, and did not have sufficient time to focus on our issues.

The Regatta had been started on 5.4. at 13.00 a few miles NW of Biograd. More technical problems at bft 7 – 8 winds after midnight on 6.4. came up which after all led to our decision to abandon our participation at 05.45 in the morning, after only a third of the total distance in a very good ranking situation. The reasons are explained below in points 2) – 5).

We have returned the yacht in Sibenik on 8.4., 2 days before the charter contract was over, due to unrepairable problems and missing spare parts on short notice.

Now to the details:

1) The wind speed indicator display showed no feasible value, repaired on 1.4.

2) The forestay reef drum was blocked in stronger winds, during the regatta we were not able to reef the large genua in strong winds, this also lead to the demolition of the hatch on the portside toilet by the genua sheet

3) Water was coming into the boat at higher waves, we were not able to identify the leak, the water had been rising above the saloon floor. The electrical bilge pump did not work, you could hear it turning, but it was not pumping

4) The steering wheel had been getting more and more loose during the after midnight sailing on 6.4, we had to push the wheel onto the axle shaft in order to keep the steerability, the required socket wrench to fix the wheel was not on board

5) The navigation lights and the compass light ceased after midnight on 6.4. and we were sailing as a “ghost” ship with the anchor light on only

6) The genua sheet winch did not keep the rope, it was sliding out. This problem was repaired on 4.4. only in Biograd

7) The outhaul and mainsail halyard stopper did not keep the rope in position, there was an attempt on 4.4. to repair it by thickening the halyard by splicing an additional rope into the halyard, but the improvement was not sufficient, therefore we had to keep the halyard during the regatta on the winch, and this winch was not available for other functions. The outhaul rope had been exchanged which helped a little bit, but we had to readjust the outhaul during the race as it slipped sometimes

8) The portside traveler rope was too short, therefore we were not able to let the traveler sled to the far end of the traveler rail, it was not repaired

9) The spinnaker beam pin at the sail side had been loose, problem had been repaired on 1.4.

10) The hatch window in the saloon was leaking, not repaired

11) Toilet pump in starboard side toilet did not work, repaired on 2.4.

12) Anchor was loosely mounted on chain, anchor slipped out and only had been rescued by quick attention

13) The autopilot could not be switched from operation into standby, only possible by using the main switch in the saloon, that issue had not been repaired (this was not a criteria for the regatta of course, but still was an unresolved issue)

Our crew had high efforts and costs to prepare for this regatta, we have paid a comparable high price for the yacht for 9 days, in total 3470 €, for which we can expect a high quality standard. The total cost for the crew was more than 7000 €, not counting the personal equipment we have purchased for the regatta.

The standard of quality is unjustifiable and not acceptable, therefore we are requesting a partial compensation for the unusable yacht. On 1.4. we could not use the yacht at all, as the time was used for repairs. On 2.4. we could only use it half day, as more repairs had to be done. 3.4. was a full sailing day. On the 4.4. we also had to wait for the servicing person for repair until lunch time, also only 50% usable time.

The 5.4. was a full usable day, and on the 6.4. we stopped the regatta in the morning, say also 50%. We had to wait in the Komiza port for the repair of the steering wheel and the clarification of the leakage, there was a too high risk to return to Sibenik under those conditions in a still strong Bora with the engine.

On 7.4. we went under engine partly and sailed under light winds back to Sibenik, returned the yacht in the morning of the 8.4.

In total we only had 4.5 days of yacht availability. In Sibenik we also did not get a replacement yacht, and the spare parts for repair were not available.

As we paid for 9 days, and only could use the yacht for 4.5 days, we propose an amicable settlement of the case, and are asking for a return of 50% of the charter costs, which would be 1735 €. This settlement is not considering the disappointment of our crew and all the additional costs, and in particular also the wasted time, as all of us are heavily engaged in our jobs or our own business.