Todd Neville Todd Neville

F I X S T U F F

Fix Stuff

TOOLS & Gear

“Cruising” = Boat repair in exotic locations with no parts

Lessons learned and what I wish I had

Plus other gadgets that have proven worthwhile

This is a blog entry I plan to revisit and update over time, so I’ll try to add some dates to the comments. Please feel free to add your ideas or in the comments at the bottom

Feb 13, 2023

I just completed a Marine DIesel class in Annapolis, MD at the Annapolis School of Seamanship which was taught by Scott Segal from AR Marine Diesel Service. Highly recommend Scott and the class by the way. Textbook is Nigel Calder’s “Marine Diesel Engines” 3rd edition. This forms the basis for the list below, but I’m also including my own edits over time. I’ll try to link to the actual tools I use when possible.

Whenever possible, buy stainless. It costs more, but on a boat, everything else will rapidly be a mess.

The list below is what I carry. Yes I know how to use and have used everything on the list, sometimes in anger. No, you can’t borrow them.

Wrenches

Socket Sets

Screw Drivers and Nut Drivers

Pliers

  • Linesman pliers

  • Channel lock / tongue and groove / water pump pliers

  • Slip joint pliers

  • Vice Grips / locking pliers: Needle nose and regular

  • Needle nose and bent nose

  • Oil filter pliers (ideally locking)

  • Snap ring pliers

  • Impeller puller pliers

  • Hemostats

Electrical

  • Side cutter pliers / wire cutters

  • Wire stripper

  • Wire crimper

  • Digital auto-ranging multi-meter with spare batteries

  • Clamp on ampmeter

  • High amp “jumper cables” and low amp “alligator clips” jumper wire sets

  • Hydrometer

  • Brass wire brush set (toothbrush and large brush)

  • Assorted wire crimp connectors and small spare spool tinned wire

  • Dielectric grease

  • Power Probe: PP319FT @powerprobe.com

  • Heat shrink tubing variety pack and spool if you are doing a lot of electrical work.

  • Label gun with tube labels and regular flat labels

  • Remote starter switch (OTC 3650 or Actron CP7854)

  • Extension cord

  • Solder kit and torch

Personal Protection Equipment

Speciality Tools

  • Multitool. I loved the Juice, but it’s discontinued. Now carry the P2 Free when I’m doing maintenance. Else I just carry the best sailing knife ever made.

  • Hook and pick set

  • Telescoping mirror

  • Telescoping magnet

  • Telescoping grab tool set (various lengths)

  • XL screwdriver or small pry bar

  • Folding bucket or crushable silicon bowl to catch fluid

  • Jam nut valve adjustment tool set (eg: Astro) sized for motor(s)

  • Valve feeler gauge set: recommend the “bent” versions to get into crampted spaces

  • Ball peen hammer

  • Timing light

  • Compression gauge (engine-specific injector adapter, often sold in a kit)

Measure and Test

  • Infrared temperature gun

  • Coolant tester

  • Tape measure

Cut

  • Best sailing knife ever. (Myerchin TF377: Gen 2, Titanium Crew)

  • Sandpaper

  • Metal file(s): small, large, round, flat

  • Folding hacksaw

  • Metric and SAE tap and die sets

  • Multiple sets of drill bits

  • Hole saw kit

Stick

Unstick

  • Grease Gun - depending on boat. At least small tube of SuperLube grease

  • CRC / WD-40 / CorrosionX / FluidFilm (Spray on anything metal, frequently)

  • Liquid dish soap (also doubles as water soluble lube for things like impellers)

  • MareLube and Tef45 or Tef-Gel, especially on bolts that are dissimilar metals but anything that should move: valves, pumps, etc

  • Brake Cleaner (get gunk off tough things)

  • 3M Adhesive remover (get gunk off of delicate things)

  • Gasket scraper

Bare Minumum Spares

Offshore should plan for more extensive failure self-recovery (spare starter, water pump, fuel pump, alternator, hoses, etc)

  • Air filter, if used

  • Raw water impeller and gasket/O-ring (OEM)

  • Heat exchanger end cap gasket set. Woven graphite lasts longest but are fragile prior to install.

  • Belts (2 of each type for each engine)

  • Replacement zincs

  • Variety pack of crush washers

  • Oil filters OEM (multiple for each engine)

  • Secondary fuel filters OEM (multiple for each engine)

  • Primary fuel filter elements (eg: Raycor). Many. This is what clogs first and often when you get bad fuel. Usually ~20 micron.

  • Engine Oil - enough for 2 complete oil changes, at least CI-4.

  • Transmission oil - often same as engine oil

  • Engine coolant sufficient for 2 flushes. Recommend Shell Rotella ELC NF (Extended Life Nitrite Free)

  • Lots of marine grade hose clamps

  • Variety pack of spare hose that fits your engine

Power Tools

OhSh!t Kit

  • StayAfloat

  • Lots of plugs of various sizes. I like Forespar Sta-Plug and mini Sta-Plug.

  • Various sizes water seal tape

  • Water seal paste. Recommend several small tubs versus a huge one as it reacts rapidly with air or moisture.

  • Bigger tubes of JB-KwikWeld. Sets in 6 minutes which can be an eternity but also a miracle. Sticks to almost anything, holds 3127 PSI and 300ºF.

  • Epoxy paste. For when you need to make a little sculpture.

  • The Metal Cutter listed above under power tools lives in a waterproof case with a battery, in case rigs need to be modified in a hurry. I cut through my stainless backstay in about 4 seconds. (we were replacing the backstay and the boat was on the hard, no drama)

Rope splicing

Carryology

  • Lighter weight tools go in these

  • Heavier wrenches have fared well in this.

  • A lot of those in turn go in this to keep moisture out. It’s built like a tank, works well. I have one for powertools, another for everything else. except the spares.

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

Sailing Platforms

New England Cruising Platforms

After a few weeks cruising the Long Island Sound in our 38’ monohull, we’ve been giving thought to various boat designs, and their pros and cons.  My initial assumptions were that we wanted a “sailboat”; a monohull that could point close to the wind, heel and give you the experience of sailing.  We also wanted one that could get into small slips with lower costs.  This often comes with a deep(er) keel (although ours is uniquely shallow draft) that may make some areas harder or impossible to access, and more limited space and stowage.

Pointing

After a few weeks of exploring various nooks and crannies of the New England coastline, I’m starting to consider the pros and cons of various sailing platforms.  We’ve been cramming equipment into our little mono but wonder if it is the long term platform of choice.  We find that we rarely point into the wind with our sails, one of the pro’s of a mono.  While fun, tacking is a terribly inefficient way to make headway towards an upwind destination.  In short, it’s slow and a lot of work. 

We’re often headed somewhere, want to get there in some timeframe (before dark!) and opt to motor.  Yes, I’m aware schedules and sailing are mutually exclusive, but vacation windows are still a reality for a while longer for us. If the wind happens to be in our favor we’ll sail, but more frequently than not, we point and go to our next anchorage. 

A word on Anchoring

Any platform needs a bomber anchor, chain and bridle system. Be 200% comfortable on your anchor in 40+kts or get a different system. Ours is an Ultra and it has worked flawlessly.

Normal Evening on ANchor

We spun around in every direction over the course of 24 hours (shifting tide/currents and winds). This is an actual GPS track of our boat’s location.

Stuff

Second, we’ve noticed the lack of stowage, tankage and just useable space.  It’s manageable on a week or so vacation in boardshorts, but land transport (scooters or folding bikes) will never fit somewhere convenient.  If you need a place to set up a computer Monday thru Friday, it will be in the way for all other activities.  Our tiny fridge is a continuous jenga game.  We bought an electric cooler that lives in the outside cockpit for drinks, but a separate (and larger) freezer and refrigerator would be much more liveable.

We’re still figuring out what we really use and what is just too much. Some form of land travel is nice to have versus just feet or Uber. But we never wanted to put the scooters into the dinghy, a pain in the butt. They ended up always underfoot.

 Utilities

Fresh water is always a luxury and conserved, as trips into a dock are “work” to be avoided if possible.  This is partially solved with our watermaker, but that also takes energy so is tied to when we run the generator.  Our black tank filled more quickly than we’d like, and even though free pumpouts are common, it is still something you must schedule and be in a populated area to leverage.  Energy was always the enemy, as we don’t currently have solar and have to run the generator regularly to fill our 800Ah Victron Lithium bank.  The 3000watt inverter has made life “normal” – we can plug in anything we wish anytime (coffee pot, computer, etc) but we generally deplete the 800Ah every 24 hours.  We currently have a range of about 250nm with our diesel motor, which is thus far sufficient, but I can imagine upwind passages would benefit from more diesel as well.

Basically:  We want to stay on anchor longer, and need more battery, more solar, more fresh water, bigger black tank.  What we have works, but it is more effort than I’d like.

Being on anchor is free ($0) and usually quiet / away from idiots, but we occasionally will pick up mooring balls ($40 to $100+ per night) if needed.   On both of these, the boat naturally points into the wind and fills the cabin with a breeze, and the gentle bob at a protected shallow anchorage is nice.  Slips ($2 to $10/ft/night… for us means $80 to $400 per night) have services (power, water, laundry, showers) but are typically not breezy and very frequently not peaceful.  The nicest neighbors (usually long distance cruisers) have always been at anchor.  Thus, some of the advantages of a smaller mono fitting into lower $/ft slips are also underleveraged here as well.

Age

It is said you can pay for your boat up front or over time.  Basically, new costs more, but hopefully 90% of the boat does not need replacement for a few (ideally ~10) years.  A 10 year old boat will need basically everything replaced one part at a time.  Choose your poison.  Cerulean is 13 years old and almost everything in the boat is being replaced.  While I can do a lot of it, I need help with some and don’t want to do others…however aftermarket labor for boats is crazy expensive.  $130 to $250 per hour per person and most work is glacially paced. A recent replacement of 2 hoses on our generator took 3 days and $2500 in labor. Completely rebuilding a boat in a marina would cost 100x just buying a new one.  Thus a new target platform for me would likely be a 2-3 year old boat…Has factory bugs worked out, possible some upgrades, but still a reasonable lifespan before every fitting, seal, pump, gasket, filter, or part corrodes and is frozen in place.

 

So what might a V2 look like? 

 

I’d emphasize the following:

 1. Age: 2-3 years old at most.

2. Draft: Shallow draft – most of the best areas / anchorages are very shallow and a deep mono would never make it in.  I can cite dozens of examples.  Most New England port areas are the mouths of rivers – shallow and narrow, unless you want to be exposed to the fetch of the sound.

My Favorite control

2.8 ft up!

Love that feature in river channels across the New England area.

Clinton, Mystic, Branford, Norwalk Islands and Norwalk, Saybrook/Essex, Stratford, are all rivers. All around Shelter Island possible anchorages also had lots of <10ft, often <5 ft.

3. Point of Sail: We don’t really need to point – if I really need to go up, I’ll motor into irons to get that sundowner.  Gentlemen sail beam or deeper.

Engage

When the destination is that-a-way, the yanmar gets us there.

4. Tankage, Power, Storage: More storage room, and meaningfully more solar and tankage.  Basically, able to stay on anchor longer and more comfortably. 

We like being on anchor for days and exploring via dinghy.  More storage, more refrigerator and freezer space.  We typically ran out of fresh water and electricity first.  I’d likely opt for a watermaker and a small washer and dryer.  This choice may seem controversial or excessive, but I’ve found it is common you sleep in warmer conditions than on land (you get used to it and is fine) but small loads washing sheets and linens regularly becomes more desirable than you might anticipate.  We’d do a load of underwear, shorts and bed linens every few days if we could, after a week the sweaty sheets are gross.  If you are leaving a charter and going to a spa, this is fine, but living this way long term, frequently refreshing your sheets (and shorts) is highly desirable.  All of this implies a generator for the watermaker and appliances, as well as to refill the Lithium bank when solar is not performing.

For reference, today we have the following for tankage and power:

  • 5K Watt Fischer Panda Generator

  • 3K Watt Victron Inverter/Charger

  • 800Ah Victron Lithium

  • 66 gal of fuel, which = about 250nm range

  • 59 gal fresh water tank

  • Spectra “Catalina 340c” watermaker @ 14 GPH

  • 13 gal black tank

  • No solar (yet)

Green is good

In this instance, you never want to see (smell?) the top red light. 13 gal is not a lot.

5. Airflow:  assume you will NOT be running aircon and it’s warm but breezy.  Every compartment needs hatches with screens that face the front of the boat (incoming wind on an anchor) and fans.  But ideally, large numerous hatches facing forward that one can mount windscoops to.  This will make a huge difference in your quality of life.  Also screens on every opening.  New England has black biting flies much of summer.

6. SuperDinghy: Able to carry a larger, more powerful dinghy.  Our 8’ inflatable zodiac works but is frequently a questionable ride even short distances in any kind of (common) current or wind.  It is a soft bottom inflatable with a electric motor, which is the most underpowered / inefficient you can get. The electric is nice to just recharge in the boat, but lugging the (huge) charger to the bar with you because you only have enough juice for a one way trip is getting old.

Nirvana would be a dry, aluminum bottom center console dinghy with a 20hp+, electric start.  This is your “car” and how you interact with the world around your boat.  I want a dry, fast comfortable, reliable one that can get me to a interesting headwater or a restaurant across the bay at night. Nearly any sailing platform will need special aftermarket davits to accommodate this as these can be ~300lbs+.

I’d also get a depth sounder in the dinghy and use it to ‘scout’ potential anchorages that are shallow, to get actual depths.  The difference between 5 ft and 10 ft is meaningful and the charts are not that accurate.

8. Single-handed-ness.  Sails easily on beam, broad and down for longer passages.  Probably in boom or in mast furling – emphasis on use single handed, especially reefing, which is more frequent than we thought.  Multistage reef systems may work well but can be difficult to manage single handed in stressful situations.  One person should be able to reef downwind in spirited conditions without turning upwind or incurring any panic.



9. Toys: Carries toys.  A lot of them.  Paddleboards, kayaks, or our nirvana would be to carry a small toy sailboat of some kind (Laser? Tiwal?).  We love sailing, just not as a means to get to somewhere on any kind of any schedule.  Sailing in circles / out and back is more fun than looking at VMG, especially upwind.

10. Shade:  After a week or so of “outside”, the sun can become oppressive even in cooler climates.  I’d get shade covers made for the bow and boom, cooling the boat but still allowing airflow at anchor.  In winter (we delivered over Thanksgiving one year from Rhode Island to New Jersey in freezing temperatures) I’d also ensure an interior helm with radar and AIS as well as a fully enclosed outside helm (fully enclosable bimini setup).

Summary:

I don’t think we leverage the advantages of a mono thus far…

  • Easier/cheaper to get a slip/dock.  We don’t dock unless forced to.

  • ·Sails upwind – we motor upwind.

  • We DO love our lifting keel….priceless.

I’d wish for:

  • Ability to anchor for extended periods, comfortably.  More tankage, more electrical power, toys, room, etc

  • Ability to explore further and more confidently in a comfortable dinghy more extensively.

  • If working from the boat, 3-4 cabins.  Dedicated “offices” are really desirable, and/or a “shop” on board.

 

Granted, these experience are New England area.  I’m sure med mooring in the Mediterranean is a whole different set of criteria, which likely favor a skinny mono.  I’m assuming the Caribbean favors catamarans for many reasons – but many of which are reflected above (anchoring vs med mooring, beam or broad reach sailing, etc)

 

Thus, some of the potential future platforms we may go look at for fun are Catamarans. The space allows a lot more flexibility for equipment, capabilities and comforts. A 38’ mono is totally possible, even comfortably, to travel the world. But it’s cramming a lot into a very small package. Power is one of the biggest issues and a cat simply has more flat surface to work with.

These include the 40 foot Bali CatSpace Sail (https://www.bali-catamarans.com/en/catamarans/bali-catspace-sail/) and the 42 foot Bali 4.2 (https://www.bali-catamarans.com/en/catamarans/bali-4-2/).  Of course we love the larger more expensive cats (Seawind or even a Balance) but the prices are unrealistic.

This is actually the boat Gabe had on day one of our ill fated Exumas trip (no fault of Bali, was a beautiful boat)

A few on yachtworld:

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for-sale/condition-used/type-sail/makemodel-bali:4.1+bali:catspace+bali:4.2+bali:4.0+bali:4.0-open-space+bali:catspace-sailing-yacht/length-38,50/year-2018,2025/ 

I’d welcome any thoughts!

 

-Todd

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

Exumas

To begin with, let me highlight Dream Yacht has provided many truly “Dream” experiences worldwide, and we have chartered or crewed bareboat with great success in BVI, St. Lucia / Grenadines, Croatia, and others.

However, the base in Palm Cay, Bahamas needs some serious remediation. I never asked for a refund (including the trip documented below) and this is mostly a letter to Dream Yacht Corporate wishing they would “get a bit more involved” in their Nassau operations.

We love the Exumas and would return if we could find a better experience. This is also a note to the owners of the vessel (omitted here intentionally but we are aware from the registration documents and will reach out separately) of the deteriorating condition of their substantial investment. We considered putting a boat in charter with Dream Yacht and it breaks my heart to see someone else’s dream being treated this way. The owners have my sympathies - I’d cry if this was my boat.

Ready to go!

Our experience starts in the Fall of 2022, as we finalize our pre-payment of $12,701.48, checking in on Dec 31, 2022 in Palm Cay (Nassau) and out on Jan 6th 2023 in Emerald Bay Marina, Georgetown (Grand Exhuma), with a lot of stops at the beautiful islands in between.

We were excited for ~6 days of beautiful sailing in the Exumas, a trip we had been planning for almost a year. For several months, we had been sending out photos to the crew of all the places we were planning to stop and explore there…

Shroud

Cay

“Lazy River”

Thunderball

Grotto

Where the James Bond “Thunderball” underwater fight scene was filmed! This is right near Staniel Cay.

First impressions

Our first indication that things were not as expected in the Palm Cay location of Dream Yacht was when we were notified the boat we had reserved, a brand new Bali 4.3 catamaran owners version, was "no longer available” and “had come back damaged” (in retrospect we think this was the first lie of many from Palm Cay local team) and we were being “upgraded” to a Lagoon 450 named “Fin and Tonic”. We did not want the larger boat, as we were only a crew 4 people and it was more challenging to manage. We got a bit of “take it or leave it” attitude, and we went with the flow - the first rule of sailing is to not make firm plans.

We arrived on Saturday, Dec 31st at about 3pm with a Uber-load of groceries to provision the boat and looking for a chart briefing to prepare for an early departure Sat morning. The first leg of the trip was the longest, 6 to 8 hours across the Yellow Bank reef to Highborne Cay. We planned to leave very early Saturday morning, to cross the midpoint at high tide and good afternoon sun to spot coral heads.

We were told we were not allowed on the boat at all until 5pm on Friday, when they closed, so were confused how we would be checked out by the staff on Friday.

We eventually boarded the boat about 4pm to at least get the refrigerator goods put away, and upon opening the (broken) sliding door, gagged on the smell of backed up toilets. Several of our crew refused to enter the boat as it smelled so bad, but we managed to get the refrigerated goods away.

While the cleaning crews ate take out chicken and smoked cigarettes on a nearby empty Bali (which we were supposed to have recieved), we spent the next 45 minutes trying to get the attention of any of the DreamYacht staff. After a dozen inquiries and multiple trips walking around the marina in full sun, determined “Tiffany” managed the docks, “Alex” manages the boats and check-outs, and “Ryan” does the briefings.

A very annoyed Alex arrived on our boat after multiple complaints/requests, and promptly stated

1) it was our fault the boat smelled terrible, as his cleaning crew was unable to clean the boat with us sitting on the dock next to it and

2) the boats always smelled really bad when the seacocks were open - we must be idiots for not knowing this.

They poured mint solution into the heads, wiped down the counters and promptly went home for the day, along with Ryan…(No chart briefing on Friday for us - we would later manage to corral a resentful Ryan on Sat morning before we left, who “had to come in on his day off”).

We started to catalogue the broken items we could find on short notice and make a go/no-go decision.

The non-functioning main winch was a non-starter for us, and we started to contemplate walking away from our hard-planned vacation. However, we were able to track down the one helpful resource of the entire trip, Andrew (thank you Andrew for all the effort along the way…he was the only one who answered our calls), who found a post-5pm technician to swap out the dysfunctional switches on the main winch.

That repaired, we made a decision to put all effort into tracking down Ryan in the AM for a briefing, getting checked out on the boat, and getting off the dock. We would later regret that decision as we learned (underway) about the extensive list of damage to the vessel. We were never able to get checked out on the sails as the “guy who does the sails was unavailable”. You will see later why…I firmly believe the staff in Palm Cay Dream Yacht knew exactly the condition of the sails.

A few photos along the way (unfortunately, we did not take photos of everything):

More on this later

Oil soaked rags under the engine are not a good sign, but was one of our first indications something was amiss (other than also a fire hazard).

Broad damage to fit and finish throughout

From rusted nails sticking out of broken trim to dozens of knobs and hinges missing or broken throughout.

Our Sailing instruments

So not “required” but especially in a catamaran, I’d like to know my wind speed and changing wind angle as I don’t have a heel to absorb energy. Extra attention on easing the mainsheet! Turns out to be a non-issue…did you see our sails?

One of our Halyards

Several of the internal strands were compromised in addition to the (obvious) sheath. This will hurt someone eventually as they hold large loads on a 45ft catamaran.

Do you plan to keep your DInghy?

(Part 1)

Do you plan to keep your dinghy?

(Part 2)

Did we just pay $12K for a “sailboat”?

When we finally unrolled the sails for the first time once we were underway, we realized why Dream Yacht “did not have the guy available to do a sail checkout” on Sat morning. Unsurprising given the condition of the rest of the yacht….

Holed tanks

This is the hole in our fresh water tank…we could only carry a half tank of water as it sloshed out and filled the starboard pontoon when underway….which incidentally had a broken/dysfunctional bilge pump (probably overworked). This is a sinking hazard if someone puts a fresh water hose into the fill and waits for the tank to get 100% full…more on that later.

It’s a puzzle game and a boat!

Hours of entertainment!

Where does the random broken part we find loose on the floor go?

Tape fixes everything

This is the broken choke on our dinghy which was held together with tape (which failed, shocking).

Don’t need winches if you don’t have sails?

This is a secondary winch that fell apart in our hands when we tried to use it.

This list goes on and on, we did not get photos of everything. Most were annoyances, and other than not being able to sail (duh!) there were a few that really affected our (now motor) trip significantly however…

Joke(er) is on us

When we originally decided to take the vessel (with a very limited time to find issues / assess) the heads were clearly an issue. Pouring several gallons of mint cleaner in each one made it a bit better on the dock, but underway we realized the issue, which anyone with experience with marine heads may understand….All of the joker valves had failed (and like everything else in the boat, were likely original / had never been serviced. See note below on batteries).

Joker valves are essentially one way valves such that when you pump (or a macerator) pushes the bad stuff down the pipe into the tank, it doesn’t come back. Marine heads are prone to this as they usually have a “vented loop” , which is an elevated bend in the waste line so that the ocean cannot flow back into the toilet. Basically everything goes uphill first (bend in pipe above the water line) and then downhill into the tank. However, some sits in that “uphill” section of line and the joker valve keeps that from coming back into the toilet bowl.

Unless the joker valve hasn’t been replaced in 4 years.

Then, you have constant human waste flowing back downhill and partially filling the bowl.

Which makes your boat smell like an open sewer.

Note this is often a ~$5 part, and we could not simply flush extra water through the head, as we were tightly constrained on water, as the water tank had a hole in it. This (joker valves) was not a safety issue, but a $12K/6 days yacht rental should remedy this.

Dear Alex: freshwater heads that have been dumped and flushed with open valves should not smell at all.

Fill’er up

With torn sails, we ended up relying on the engines for most of our trip. When we did an abbreviated checkout in Palm Cay by a junior member of the team, it was mentioned the “port throttle had a minor issue”. (they knew!)

Upon several days of use, this really meant that the port transmission would not go into forward 75% of the time.

Remember the photos of the oil soaked rags earlier? This was also the port engine, and as we examined it further, found the transmission was leaking significantly.

We also noticed when we launched that both transmissions (port and starboard) were overfilled with oil (way past the fill line, up to the very top of the casing). I believe by overfilling the cases, when they heat up they blow out the seals, and then leak fluid and fail catastrophically over time. This is clearly a “Danger - Do Not Overfill” in the Yanmar owners manuals.

Only having one reliable engine made maneuvering in narrow channels and shallow water nerve-wracking, as catamarans use “tractor-like” steering with the two engines working together.

Stranded aboard

We went to the Exumas to visit all the interesting sights cited earlier. The sunken plane at Norman Cay. Thunderball Grotto. The Swimming Pigs. The lazy river on Shroud Cay. The numerous sand spits and beaches.

However, the biggest disappointment from Dream Yacht Palm Cay was THE DINGHY.

Our dinghy motor NEVER ran, other than for 2 min in the marina as we were loading up to go. As we debugged it (one of 3 motors we had to service along the way) we found the (4 stroke) choke broken and taped together (first problem).

vacation

This is normal with boats, I get it. But I do expect a bit more from a charter company. Maybe 50% of the stuff should work? This is the tape holding the choke together. One of three engines I serviced in 6 days.

As a result, we never visited any of the sites which were the reasons we went there.

Other charters in other locations, you get a mooring ball and water taxi into town, you med moor up to a dock and walk to a restaurant, etc. In the Exumas you MUST have a dinghy. Without one, you are stranded on your boat.

We saw essentially NOTHING of what we had come to see. We had a mooring in staniel cay right near Thunderball Grotto but could not get to it without a motor as the current there is too strong to paddle against. No diving, snorkeling (other than right next to the boat).

Severe disappointment.

We eventually found a mechanic in Staniel Cay to take a look at it and here is his voicemail back to us:

A partial text transcription: “If you look inside (the tank) I donoo all that black stuff, down in the bottom, hey buddy, that’s the stuff that been inside the carburetor. I had to clean out all of that, adjust the carburetor to get it idling…”

In addition to the taped-together choke, the tank of fuel that Dream Yacht Palm Cay provided us for the dinghy was full of some kind of black gunk in the bottom of the fuel, which had filled the carb and most of the engine. We got it working for a short time but it stopped shortly after, and we never ended up using it at all.

Poison fuel from Dream yacht Palm Cay

Yes, this image looks funny. It is looking down the opening into the fuel tank. The top is air, the line in the middle is the fuel, and the black at the bottom is the “gunk”. There was a lot more in the tank but was hard to get a picture by tilting the tank. Lesson learned to check the tank itself, not just the motor.

Some of the rest of the list

  • Starboard AirCon did not work and leaked condensation from the ceiling when we tried to use it

  • Batteries could not hold a charge over 24 hours with only refrigerators running, and we had to run generator (with no AirCon) every night else we lost all power about 3 am. I suspect they are original to the boat and are just shot (like everything else in this boat), as we monitored the voltage and ensured they were topped up (charger working) with the Genset.

  • Inverter is present but never worked. A/C power only when genset engaged, and even then, only in cabins.

  • Power outlets in main saloon did not work at all, ever. We had to plug the coffee machine in one of the bedrooms every morning.

  • Starboard bilge pump did not work (same side as the holed tank that overflows!)

  • General fit and finish was a mess, numerous knobs, hinges, moulding strips, doors, hatches were non-functional.

But Wait, there’s more!

When we finally limped into Emerald Bay Marina at the end of our trip, we found there was no one from Dream Yacht there! We tied up to a dock and abandoned boat #2 (more on that later).

Eventually, I reached Ryan at Dream Yacht Palm Cay and “checked out over the phone”. I made a point to send him much of the documentation I’ve shared here.

BUt is it getting through?

We wanted to make sure this was not overlooked for the next charter. I suggested the boat be taken out of service until some of the repairs could be completed.

Next victim!

We found our hotel, had a shower, and felt a bit better after a less than great week. We decided to go for a walk and wandered down by the marina, where we found two young men working on the boat. We stopped by to talk to them and discovered they were the delivery captains who would take the boat back up to Palm Cay.

They asked if I had filled the boat fully with fuel (we did) and I asked if they had filled it with water (trick question). They said they did and it took a really long time (uh oh). I then asked if they had spoken to Palm Cay… Yes! Ryan had said the boat had “no problems, good to go”!

We opened the starboard bilge and found ~18 inches of water in the ~40 foot long pontoon. They had run the hose into the (no problem!) tank with the hole in it “until it filled up”.

We then showed them the non-functioning port throttle (they were in disbelief…”really?”), the sails (wtf?), the dead outboard engine, and the rest of the list. We left them hand pumping the starboard bilge and wished them well.

However, this reinforced my suspicion Palm Cay may be intentionally obfuscating the condition of their yachts, misrepresenting “everything is great” and not clearly communicating the need for parts, skilled labor and the steps necessary to deliver the expected experience. I fear this will eventually cause real harm beyond a poor vacation and disappointed customers.

I also wanted to thank Andrew in Palm Cay, who kept in constant contact via WhatApp over the week and was very responsive (limited what he could do as the Exumas are very remote). I think he has an uphill battle with the resource that are currently in Palm Cay.

The Other boat

Separately, there is actually more to the story….

Blissfully unaware

of what was next

At some point I’ll a full version of “the other boat” but in summary:

We left Palm Key with another boat, that a friend Gabe and his family rented. We planned to travel together throughout the week. On the first day halfway to Highborne Cay one of his engines overheated and shut down. He limped in one one engine Sat evening and managed to anchor next to us in the dark. Sunday morning, instead of spending a day exploring the beaches and travelling further south, he called Ryan repeatedly to no avail (eventually we reached Andrew via WhatApp, thank you) while I spent the day trying to service the engine.

The incorrect serpentine belt had been put on the engine and as it was the wrong belt, had been overtightened to keep it on. This caused the bearings on the water pump to also fail (being overtightened). The original belt eventually shredded (what caused the engine to overheat midway across) and the spare we had on the boat was the same (incorrect) belt.

We sat with broken boats all day Sunday and did nothing, and eventually Monday Andrew and a crew showed up with the correct belt. Upon installing it and getting the engine running again, the water pump failed in front of everyone while we were watching it run, which they did not have a replacement for.

Day Two of our vacation

This is “me” and Yes, I know stuff goes wrong on boats (I own one if you have seen any of the rest of this website). This was preventable and comes from too much cutting corners. Don’t rent boats in this condition.

We ended up abandoning ship on anchor in Highborne Cay and consolidated all the families and supplies on our Lagoon (the boat detailed above with all the issues). I assume Palm Cay sent someone with parts out at some point to retrieve the dead Bali. As of Feb 2023, we are still seeking a refund for the dead Bali that only functioned for about 5 hours.

Again, I think many of the problems with motors (both the engine on the Bali, the outboard on our dinghy and the transmission on our Lagoon) are self-induced by the Palm Cay staff.

Get clean fuel, the right parts, and service the engines/transmissions correctly. And don’t send boats out with known problems (ripped sails? engines that don’t go into gear?).

This is going to end up with someone injured, Dream Yacht. And we very much WANT to have more wonderful experiences with your boats. We know your other locations can be great.

Please help Palm Cay.

Dream Yacht

Please Help Palm Cay

Addendum

After three months, we finally heard back from Dream Yacht. Boat #2, which was totally disabled in the first few hours received a ~90% credit. Our boat, the one discussed in this post, received a credit of $2,656.00 on a pre-payment of $12,701.48., or about a 20% credit. Thus we paid $10,045.48 in just the yacht charter fees for one boat for the experience described above.

Note this is not a refund, but a “credit” on another future ($12K+) charter with Dream Yacht.

We noticed that Dream Yacht has their global headquarters in Hamble, Kent, United Kingdom and is owned by NextStage Capital in Paris, France. However, their charter contract states:

Governing Laws: Any legal action arising under or in connection with this contract will be adjudicated in Port Louis, Mauritius.

For reference, that is a 18 square mile city on a tiny island in the middle of the indian ocean.

Digest this for a moment. This is DESIGNED to make any legal recourse with Dream Yacht nearly impossible. I’ve been advised this is common in the maritime industry, as Mauritius is the “Delaware” of incorporating a maritime company. Still feels shady.

Other sailors, take note of who you are dealing with. Don’t get hurt on a Dream Yacht.

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

Raritan Bay

Adventures beyond the Verrazzano bridge

at Keyport YC and Richmond YC

We left from Liberty Landing YC on Friday August 19th into 15 - 20 kts, and had a wonderful sail out past the Verrazzano bridge where we caught the last of the sunset just as we crossed under the bridge. Caner drove most of the route, and the weather was wonderful.

We motored after dark, spotting channel markers like an adult game of “I spy with my little eye..”.

We arrived in Keyport YC near midnight to a very nice launch driver but the grimiest mooring pennant we may have ever seen.

NOSH

Fresh baked bread slathered in butter, blueberries, cherries, granola, yogurt, eggs, fresh ground coffee and more made the morning civilized.

Underway

After a quick lunch in Keyport, we cast off and had a nice sail across the bay up to Richmond harbor.

Sky’s The Limit

Along the way, our friends found us and cruised into Richmond YC.

Happy Anniversary Marcus and Jolanda!

Richmond Yacht Club proved to be a very nice, calm, bug free mooring we greatly enjoyed.

Staten Island Italian

Dinner at Giuliana’s Ristorante was a delicious and entertaining experience.

Marcus and Jolanda traded coffee for a wonderland of toys the next morning

zoom zoom

Malisa did really well zipping around the mooring field on the sunfish.

Finally, Sunday afternoon we headed back under the bridge into Hudson Harbor, where we celebrated with some gin and tonic in our slip as we put the boat away. Another great weekend!

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

“Muster in the Sound”

Sunsets across the Long Island Sound

July 4, 2022

Sunsets and Sunrises

In the Long Island Sound

Our original plan was to simply to visit the Larchmont Yacht Club over the 4th of July holiday in 2022, visiting several friends but also our host Gabriel Asaftei.

We ended up working from and staying in Port Washington (just across the Sound) for almost 2 weeks, which was wonderful and educational.

Marcus Eich and Jolanda Blum joined us at the Larchmont Yacht Club for the first few days in their motor yacht, “Sky’s the Limit”.

Malisa driving as we leave Manhattan

Marcus & Jolanda cruising under the Brooklyn Bridge

Motor Vessel “Sky’s the Limit”

Marcus and Jolanda skydive, fly and all sorts of fun things in addition to sailing, boating and the “usual” stuff.

Larchmont Yacht Club mooring field

Todd assuming the position after we secured the boat for the evening.

Boom!

A thunderstorm nearby reminded us nature’s fireworks are way better than anything we might do

Boom?

It’s hard to capture with an iPhone, but we were surrounded by fireworks in the bay as various small towns around larchmont and across on Long Island launched their shows.

Boop!

After sailing a small “Laser” dingy, around the mooring field, Malisa took a break on Jolanda’s signature pink flamingo.

July 4th BBQ

Gabe and his family hosted a bunch of sailors in his new home right next to Larchmont Yacht Club, and tried to kill us with dozens of courses of food, cocktails and good fun. Thank you!!

We left Larchmont for a short sail over to Port Washington, where our friends Fabio and Rose spend their summers on “Fata Morgana”, a beautiful Hylas sailboat.

Port Washington

As we were now on the western side of the sound, the sunsets (looking west over the water) turned out to be amazing every evening!

Afloat

This was our first trip staying almost exclusively on mooring balls, and we loved it! (versus a slip). Turning and floating freely invited the breeze and always had amazing views.

Rose

& Fabio

Fabirose?

Louie’s

Dinner with Fabio and Rose on the patio of Louie’s, a restaurant on the Port Washington waterfront.

Happy B-Day Margaux

Margaux, another friend from NYC, also came out and stayed with us for a few days as we have a guest cabin.

After a week or so working remotely during the week of the 4th, we finally left our mooring ball, said goodbye to Margaux, picked up some new friends at the Port Washington dock and set sail further up the Sound, to North Port, where we secured another mooring at Seymour’s.

Got Gennaker?

On the way from Port Washington to North Port, we unfurled our Gennaker (a big sail we had never used since buying the boat) for the first time. It worked great in light air, and we used it upwind from 60 to 90 degrees. Our next experiment will be downwind (90 to 180 degrees).

Captain Malisa

Malisa drove while we managed the gennaker for the first time, which was a lot of fun!

Starting in Port Washington, Rebecca and Ramon joined us for the sail up to North Port and the return all the way back to Manhattan.

CREW

Our gennaker foredeck union…

Fata Morgana

Rose and Fabio sailing alongside

North Port

Breakfast

Home made french toast, fruit, juice, eggs…fantastic.

Happy Sailors

The gang, minus Jeff and Sonita who arrived just before dinner on their boat, S/V Halcyon.

Cruising

A short cruise around North Port in Fata Morgana as we looked for S/V Halcyon.

I believe the guys were discussing boats and the girls were discussing how often the men changed their underwear. Really.

Mermaids

Trouble in progress…

FMFU?

Fata Morgana Foredeck Union

Saturday Afternoons

Winches

They totally work better when you look at them like that.

These two and

Those Two

There are simply no good photos of them. Ever. And never on boats.

S/V Halcyon

We found Jeff and Sonita on the water.

Water Taxi

Time for dinner!

North Port

Dinner

After a tough breakfast and tour of the Vanderbilt mansion in North Port as it rained a bit in the afternoon, we refueled in downtown North Port. Caner, Kerry, Jeff and Sonita joined us!

Ice Cream

Of course we had ice cream and it’s totally possible to toast with it.

 

Heading Home

 

5 AM cast off

Dead calm

We left early to arrive at a very difficult area to navigate, Hell Gate, at slack tide which only happens once or twice a day. We targeted a ~2pm transition, which meant leaving North Port at 5 am. However, the sunrise was beautiful with a little fog and mirror flat water.

Homeward Bound

Rebecca and Ramon drive us down the East River, under the Manhattan bridge and the Brooklyn bridge.

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

1,500 Miles of Blue

Delivery of Sea Pearl ~1500nm from Tortola, BVI to the New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI, May 2022

Saturday, May 21st 2022 we flew down to USVI and caught the ferry over to Tortola, BVI.

We met “Sea Pearl”, a 54’ Hylas owned by Jeff Gronning (MMSI 338215118).

The Delivery Crew

Marcus Cholerton-Brown, Todd & Malisa Neville, Tony Ramos and Tom Speyer.

Waypoints

Todd

still fresh out of BVI.

Malisa

enjoying the wind

Tony and Marcus enjoying an afternoon off shift, fishing pole out! They totally planned their outfits.

Fisherman Marcus!

Dinner for 2 nights

Heading: 000 degrees

North!

A whole lot of nothing above the BVI’s…no traffic, no radio, no AIS targets, just a lot of blue. Bermuda triangle!

The sunsets were amazing!

Tony at the helm

Tom on standby, another terrible evening. :-)

Sun protection was a must

After the squall

Had a little rain and lightning on Malisa’s shift just north of Bermuda.

Getting into the rhythm

Meal Prep

One cabinet had all the plates and constantly emptied 100% of the contents on the tired sailor who cracked it open, which happened at least 6 or 7 times throughout the trip.

Marcus on standby and Tom driving - another rough day.

The Jeff Reed shirt made a guest appearance.

24 x 9

We sailed 24 hours a day for ~9 days straight.

ON: 3 hours

The first 1.5 hours you were on watch, the next 1.5 you were on standby. In each shift, you spent the first half with the person before you and the next half with the person after you.

OFF: 4.5 hours

Sleep/eat for 4.5 hours, then back on the watch/standby routine.

Full crew together mid-ocean for a sunset and dinner together.

THERE IS NOT AN APP FOR THIS

360 degree Cerulean Blue

“Deep blue in color, as where the ocean blends seamlessly to the sky on a clear day”

The calm between two winches

Gliding through glass

Perfectly smooth all the way to the horizon in every direction.

We arrived at the entrance to Newport Harbor on May 31st at about 4 am. The tall masts of Newport Shipyard guided us towards the New York Yacht Club, where we initally pulled up alongside and opened a beer as we waited to be cleared for customs. We then put the boat on a mooring and headed up to a civilized afternoon sitting “on top of the grass hill”. We did a bit of shopping in Newport, had a great 24 hours and then headed back to NYC.

Never tasted better

5 am beer, totally worth it

We clean up ok

Relaxing at the NYYC helped

Why Yes,

we just sailed that here from Tortola

Sea Pearl is just behind the flagpole

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Todd Neville Todd Neville

Fastnet 2021

Green Dragon

Performance Yacht Racing

 

Click the Image below to see more!

Click the Image above to see more!

 

Flying Everything

After the J4 halyard strap broke 10 minutes into race, then the Mainsail delaminated and ripped 18 hours later, followed by 2 days in the J2 tore and the 3rd day the A5 separated. We ended up triple headed flying both the storm trysail and storm jib downwind back to the finish!

Our course from the start in Cowes, Isle of Wight (England) to Fastnet Rock (Ireland) and back to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (France)

About 695 nautical miles, 95 of 240 boats retired and did not finish

 

Green Dragon

Our Volvo Open 70

Length 71 ft, Beam 19 ft, Draft 15 ft, Mast 103 ft, Canting Keel, Competed Throughout 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race

 
 
 
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