Charm and problems of H 630, Duly answer

Dear All,

After the repairs on the part that holds the top of the rudder, we have been able to sail without any problems to Valencia where we will have to take the boat out of the water to see what is causing so much corrosion on so many parts. Apart from that, only the Bamar genoa furling system does not work and needs repair. Everything else we have repaired along the way, including an alternator which was repaired in Alimos, Athens, but was not properly reinstalled and came loose, breaking the engine belt, but luckily not much else. Bad workmanship :-(

I will post pictures of the broken part when I get a chance.

Unlike what Greeksailor said, the rudder never had any sort of accident. The surveyors of the insurance company carefully checked the rudder when we hit an uncharted rock off of Lefkada two years ago (not one year ago, like the well informed Greeksailor mentioned :-) and they cleared it as not having any damage of any sort.

After the rudder failure, the insurance sent another surveyor who came to see the boat out of the water and once again cleared it as perfect. They have concluded that the piece sheared off, possibly by defect.

Lets keep in mind that this boat, before it was handed over in Spain, had an accident while being transferred by the importer. The keel had to be taken off and repaired. Keel bolts had been sheared, so it was pretty serious. So if during this accident the rudder was damaged, we will never know. Although I doubt it since both times that the insurance company saw the rudder, it was in perfect conditions. So lets not blame anyone for something that is not the case. So in my opinion, I just think it was a part failure. Luckily all we lost is time and around 3000 euros for out-hauling and repair.

As for what held the rudder hanging below the boat, it was the cables from the Jefa steering system. They held up quite well, but might need to be replaced because of the loads they received.

As for corrosion on the rudder like Atanor, we did not see any. Although the rest of the boat has some serious corrosion issues which we asked on numerous occasions both the importer and Hanse for a solution, but have not received any answers.

This should not have happened, when I get time to sort it all out, I will have to contact the importer for an explanation, but I assume I won't get an answer, as is usual for them. Hopefully Hanse will be able to solve the mystery.

As for complaining, yes these are reasonable complaints since all these problems have been surveyed and sent to the importer, with no answers or replies with no solutions. I guess anyone with a boat with so many problems would do the same if no one tried to fix them. Let it also be noted that Hanse DID do a wonderful job solving the problems that initially plagued the boat after the importer tried to avoid finding a solution. My hats off to them. But since then, the importer has been of no help and I am still waiting for Grant Perry, from Hanse, who said he would get back to me with solutions to these problems, but has entirely disappeared.

So once again, the boat is great to sail, Hanse is a decent company, but somehow, we have a boat with some serious problems and no one seems to want to solve them. That is a pure simple fact, and I think it needs to be addressed by someone.

Happy sailing