This morning ready to go sailing for the first time with "maatje" our new Hanse 350.

 

My wife had to do a few things at home, which is only a 10 minute drive away. As I was ready preparing things waiting for her to return I went to the office of the harbourmaster for a coffee. I think I was gone for 15 minutes.

 

I get back and hear the sound of a pump running. I never left a tap open but what happened is: The hose to the tap in the bathroom inside the cupboard split so the pump starts to run and empties the hole freshwatertank into the boat.

About 150 ltrs which I can tell you is a lot of water. The water runs between the outer and inner scale from where I have no idea how to remove it. The water filled up the space below the floorboard in the forward bedroom and in the rest of the cabin. It was everywhere.

 

Running the bathroom drainpump did not help much while the filter in the pump was totally blocked.

 

I suppose you can imagine we never went sailing today.

 

My wife in tears of course. There is always something wrong with this boat and I must say after spending € 125.000 and being told. This is a new design and you could expect some faults. I do not agree with that at all.

 

For that money you should get something absolutely perfect and one would not dream of starting to get his tools out straight after purchasing a € 125.000 costing car ???

 

I suppose there is no such thing as quality control at Hanse.

 

Reading this forum now for a while about all the problems everybody has we all seem to be going for sailing performance and we all seem to faultfind and resolve these problems ourselfs. These problems should not excist at all!! in the first place. How difficult is it to install a showerdrainsystem, a bilgepumpsystem etc etc which works. The year is 2008 guys!!!

 

We are wondering what the next failure will bring us.

 

It sounds all very negative but in the few weeks we have this boat now to many things have gone wrong.

 

Hopefully next report will be a positive one.

 

Regards, Willem

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you got the water out now.

was the hose not secured, or only badly made?

 

What i am wondering about is, why this all happens.

 

If Hanse would check the boat carefully and with special equipment in  example they could put high airpressure on all hoses and would find any problem. Thats the way hoses and pipes are controlled in buildings. If they would do this i think this should not happen to a new boat.

 

The question i am asking me is:Do they check the gaspipes? Did you get a certificate for the check of the gasinstallation. I hope they will if i get my new boat, if not i will not take over the boat.

 

One thing i learned out of this thread. Switch of the waterpump if you leave the boat at any time. But do not do this with the bilge pump. I hope they have diffrent switches ;-(.

 

Good luck copain. Tell us what hanse will reply.

 

 

 

It is not often I reply to a posting as this forum is for Hanse Owners and not for the builder or dealers. However, I would like to confirm that both water systems and gas systems are checked under pressure at the factory and again by us as part of the dealer quality control. There is also an individual gas certificate supplied with each boat.

Water pipes don't usually split by themselves, but if the water in the pipe freezes, then that is the most common cause of split pipes. We see it very often in England where the transom shower hoses split after a cold winter. I imagine that in mainland Europe the winters are worse and maybe pipes inside the boat freeze as well. Your dealer should be able to identify the cause of the failure. Ghosts are rarely to blame, but earth, wind and fire sometimes are....

 

mex

We will change the link to a longer one, and will then have the opportunity to have more clams on it and hope this will help.

 

Pål

 

Her is a picture of it. What i mean with "the link" is the brass thing between the blue hose and the silver coloured tube. This thing is too short and slips too easy.

 

I spent this Saturday afternoon pulling up most of the floor boards and sponging water out. I must have slow leak somewhere as yet unknown!

 

Another thing I did ... I hoovered the bilges!!!! ... honestly!!!, it looks like a carpenters workshop, I'm guessing a bilge pump would block in seconds!

 

One thing I noticed was that the bilges are in sections, so my leak let water into the three (center, left and right) sections level with the sink. Im guessing its either a pipe or the stop cock under the sink...

 

Anyway, the bilge pump in front of the stairway is the next section back and bone dry. Does this mean that the center of the boat needs to flood and overflow before the bilge pump actually does anything?

 

 

 

Yes you do get a certificate for the gasinstallation but obviously not for the many things having to do with water. By the way check all the hoseclips on every hull valve while I found mine rather loose and in some places there was only one clip in stead of two.

 

The bilgepump has its own switch of course. You can turn the pump on manual or automatic and there is  floatswitch  which will turn on this pump while in automatic mode.

 

The next question now is will his pump work when you need it.

 

I will have a go at this tomorrow and want to see this pump work properly and there will be a call to the local dealer also about the previous.

 

Willem

 

 

 

 

 

 

My point is. I would expect for this amount  of $$$$$ to not have to experiment and performe modifications.

 

I know I could collect all these shortcommings, then go to the dealer with my list and would then have to wait for them to have time, leave your boat out with them and wait for him to do it all etc etc while you could be sailing. Thats what you want to do while summers here are short and you want to make the most out of it.

 

We all live in the year 2008 you know and we should not be talking about these things because technically these problems should not be there in the first place but we should be sailing.

 

Regards, Willem

 

Your reply to my post is totally out of order !!

 

We are talking about a Hanse 350 which was commissioned on the 9th of april at Medemblik in Holland and to my knowledge it has not been freezing since then.

This pipe has spit spontaniously and filled our boat wit 150ltrs of fresh water from the freshwater tank. It could of course have been more would have the tank been totally full. `200ltrs´

 

You don´t seem to understand what this does to peoples state of mind and come up with a .... story about European winters etc etc. I live here you know.

 

Your post starts with `I do not often reply to a posting` and I think you should think again before you do.

 

Could you please get in touch with me through PM.

 

Willem

There is no need for all these problems if there would be an end quality control in place at Hanse.

 

Regards, Willem

 

Will find out what make and model our bilgepump is tomorrow and will let you know.

You have to realise, although I would like to have this sorted out as soon as possible, I do need some time to get to know the boat better.

We have only sailed her home and never had the time to get used to her and I don´t think she got used to us.

 

You know ,  I like  to crawl into places ( not easy with my posture), investigate, find bits and pieces you have never seen before and wonder , what the h. is that.

But eventually it will all be sorted.

 

Regards, Willem

We drove by the place were your boat is in the kanaal.

We saw your wive on the boat reading a book or so , but we did not know you hade such a problem at that time.

The boat looks beautiful .

Succes with solving the problems

greetings Marcel

 

 

It seems that Murphy's law is applicable to your boat. However I trust that it's gonna be OK in due course.

 

One of the good things of this graet forum is that all those nasty affairs are disclosed.

 

Hanse (and their dealers) should realise that a lack of quality control damages (or even may destroy) their reputation.

Their short term profits can turn into a long term loss. That's not a good prospect for a (listed) company. 

 

 

 

Sorry I never got the make and model of bilge pump today due to lack of time but will follow up.

 

Willem

 

You are right about how great this forum is. It has been a great help to me and still is.

 

I'm sure eventually it will all turn out ok for us. Called Hetterschijt today about the drinking water being pumped in the boat and they will send a guy out to try to get the water between outer and inner scale pumped out. At the same time he will have a look why the electric waterheater heats up the engine.

 

I have to say the Dutch dealer so far has been responsive and responsable in their reactions.

 

Regards, Willem

 

 

 

 

 

At the Hetterschijt dealer in Medemblik some time ago I asked wether they ( the sales guys) looked at this forum.

They told me they will not look at any forum while the people who write things about our boats don't usually know what they are talking about and quote "we do not have the time to read these posts while we are busy with other things" end of quote.

 

They say all this forumming is nonsence.

 

I know through other channels they are keeping a very close eye to this forum and will read this post. That's ok with me and I hope it helps them to realise they cannot get away with things without taking responsability for their product, specially when it has to do with safety issues.

 

So guys keep up the good work.

 

They are reading this !!!

 

My dealer has been great to me!! (hi guys)

 

Regards, Willem

 

Here a picture from the pump installed on our boat.

Your comment is welcome.

I do yet not know were the outlet is but that's the next step.

 

Regards, Willem

 

All this water never reached the bilge pump and I assume you would have to be in a foot of water befored it would reach the pump, which I am sure would not be up to the job because of all the debri. All the different compartments are not interconnected and have to overflow  before the next one is filled up and then the next and so on.

 

I wonder why all this is so difficult for Hanse to understand. On my previous boat, the Beneteau oceanis there was a bilge collection point where every drop of water ended up, even the condensation water from the fridge and only there you  would find water and only there !!!!

 

Then there was a serious Jabsco bilge pump and with our yearly cleaning action we would take up all the floorboards, splash bucketsfull of water through the bilge everywhere while the pump was running wich would pump this out in seconds. We have been doing that for 6 years and of course there were a lot of bits and pieces floating around, but the pump took no notice of it and pumped it all out.

 

I suppose you read my story about the split of the hose in the shower.

 

Today we went sailing for the first time with all the canvas up. A good wind, nice weather, all together a very nice day. We get back to the lock we have to go through every time before going to our mooring and my wife went down to do something with water, turns the pump on and gets back in the cockpit. Then we motor from the lock to the mooring and notice a sound. I suppose you can quess it, the other hose in de bathroomcubboard has spit and we pumped another 150 lts of water in the boat.

 

After the first hose split I had a serious conversation with the Dutch dealer

who propised to send somebody out to fix it and pump the water from between the inner and outer scale. They did not show up. Another call.

Maybe tomorrow, they did not show up. They actually never showed up and told me they had a lot of personell off sick and were low on manpower, bla, bla, bla, bla. Would I be so kind to sort it out mysef, which I eventually did because I wanted to use this bloody boat !!

 

Now I am absolutely furious.

 

Have a look here. you think now I will have my beer, then your wife shouts water everywhere !!!!!!! , you go down and have to do this.

 

 

Before I have stated I was treated o.k by the Dutch dealer but that is changing quickly.

 

A very nice day destroyed eventually through ignorance by Hetterschijt.

 

Regards, WIllem

And i do not want to be in your situatuion. I hope this will be last thing for you.

 

Only one comment: If this is the 2.nd Hose wich split i really think there must have been a freezing problem as mentioned from somebody before. As you got your Boat at the beginneng of April (and there was no freeze at that time) it must have happened before you got it delivered. Ask your dealer when he got the boat! May be he filled water in and it began to freeze. I think Hetterschijt must react immideatly and change all hoses. I would not trust any hose in this boat anymore. So i think hetterschijt must change them and after that pressure the sytem with air to check it.

 

The thing i feel about also are the hoses itself. If they would use good ones the would not burst after a short freezing. Only metalpipes would do so. May be the hoses are badly made or badly mounted too.

 

Good luck 

 

I am also a bit skeptic to the "freezing explanation". The boat wasn't delivered with the tanks full, was it? I would think the tap would freeze before the hosed did, too.

 

Johan

 

I don't know if the watertank was empty on delivery. I never checked it and why should you ?

 

I know one thing for sure, if the tank would have been  full and the boat was frozen, a lot more pipes would have bursted and like you say, also taps would have been defect. Maybe they are just holding out now and we will get more problems later.

 

This afternoon a representative from Hetterschijt will visit to talk about all these failures. Probably not going to be an easy discussion.

 

 

Regards,Willem