Quality: After many research, and test sails, I concluded that, Hanse's quality is not so much different than the closest competitors. In fact slightly better than the other French and German production boats. But, it is a production boat built on land. So, I knew things would move, settle and I could have few leaks and small problems. The real deal was to choose the right Dealership to handle the problems smootlhy.

The Dealer: That was a bit of a hassle. Especialy reading the blogs, one get easily discouraged by how many owners are let in the wild, with very bad after sales service. A boat is not like a car. Many would travel long distances with it. So, one has to choose very carefully who to buy from... For example, being French, Turkish and British national, I am planning to keep the boat few years in Turkey, and then travel back to Europe, and hopefuly participate in to the ARC, crossing the atlantic. Who would be the best dealer?
First of all, Hanse has a strange way of dealing with its dealers. Hanse let their dealers to compete with each other. So, when you call the one in Turkey, UK, Malta etc, they all try to break prices to win the business. They all explain how well their after sales service is good. At this stage, I urge you to take few days and look a bit to history... Who are the big sailing nations? France, Spain, England... Not any of the enclosed med countries... Most of them were great rowers. Turks for example, never really sailed in history. Ottoman navy rarely used sails in their galleys. Barbarossa who defeated Andrea Doria in 16th century had very small sails and massive lines of rowers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barbarossa_galley_in_France_1543.jpg - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barbarossa_galley_in_France_1543.jpg ). These rowers were great in close seas but were not able to cross the oceans. Hence, whilst Ottoman empire ruled the Med, the French, Spanish and Brits were conquering the oceans.... Than tradition has never reallly changed. Now, in Turkey sailing remains a small minority occupation. The rowers were exchanged for power boats. There are only couple of Turkish sailors you could find out side the Med.
The Turkish dealer was a nice and very motivated company. However, in my inquiries, I realised that many of their customers were very un-happy with the rigging, and after sales. Indeed, they do not know how to sail. One of their customer, even told me that, the boat had never sailed from Slovenia (where it had been commissioned) to Bodrum. It motored. That the tradition in Turkey. Motoring...
Another problem with the Turkish dealer would be that, as much as they can be motivated, just due to the fact that there are very little Turkish sailors that travel around the globe, the servicing ex-Turkey would never be as great and the experience that they would get could take years.... So.... I dropped the Turkish dealers....
What could I do?
Well.... I am British, I live in England. English people are great sailors. All around the world. I could buy my boat from Inspiration Marine, that has win the dealership of the year few times. But then, in Turkey, who could be urgent help?
The next step was to find a person in Bodrum that could be the relay for Inspiration Marine in the UK, so that I could sleep well.... Simon Phillips from Aura Yachting is a great british sailor that owns a growing charter and private boat servicing company in Yalikavak-Bodrum. His team has been helping me and my friends in the past years for either servicing or chartering. I had full confidence in his experience.
I proposed Inspiration Marine to have Simon Phillips on board for the warranty servicing. They accepted. Voila. I had my deal. A great solution. Phil from Inspiration Marine and Simon from Aura were great help to put the whole thing together.

The boat was comissioned last weekend. I am just back from Portoroz to London. The boat has left now Portoroz to Bodrum with a proffessional sailing team from PYD. All british sailors of great quality.

I was afraid of the comissioning. The rigging and other problems that could be a headach. Well, Phil organised the boat to be ready few days before I went to Portoroz. Inspiration Marine sent an engineer, Andy. Andy, went 3-4 days before I went down to check that every system on the boat was working all fine. Andy, is a very experienced sailor/engineer that knows every little thing that could go wrong on these boats. A great asset to Inspiration Marine. Simon, went there a day earlier than my arrival and went over small things with Andy. I arrived on Thursday night. On Friday morning, when I went to see the boat, every thing was done. The sea trials had no problems to report. The sails openned well, the engine, and electronics were working...
Of course, there were some very minor problems... Like the Volvo engine had a wrong software that will need to be re-set in Turkey. Or, few small repairs here and there, for example the TV was supposed to be conected to the chart plotter and it wasn't, or the sheets for the bed came with wrong measurements . But nothing that should prevent it to sail well down to Bodrum... It seemed that none of the little problems were Inspiration Marine problems, but mostly Hanse's mistakes. Inspiration Marine (Andy and Phil) took great care so far and I am hoping that the choice I have done will be the right one in future as well....

Hello Awatea,

 

I am also in Marmaris this moment,in fact on the hard in Marmaris Yacht Marina, where are you in Marmaris?

Our boat is a 545#268 Wild&Wet,maybe we can meet each other.

Just give me a mail  mailto:wildandwet@telenet.be - wildandwet@telenet.be or phone 0090/5313568196

 

 

 

I hope for you everythings will pass good and see you somewhere arround Bodrum

No problems to report so far on the boat. Systems seems to be working all fine.

Wild, the boat will be moored at Yalikavak Marina. Let me know if you are around. Her name is Pierre-Lea.

 

try this one mailto:info@wildandwet.be - info@wildandwet.be Sorry!I will try to get in contact next week.

As of Sunday (17th of April) Pierre Lea (my Hanse 554) has arrived safely to Yalikavak marina.

The PYD team was extremely well trained sailors. They sailed all the way trough in just a week. The communication between Simon from Aura Yachting, Yalikavak, and Phil at Inspiration Marine in Southhampton has been constant. We received a daily (some times more) from the PYD team on the wind, route, and other stuff.

On the way there has been few small issues. The Bowthruster did not work after the second day, and during heavy wind the second reef snatched and damaged the sail cover (easy jack).

Phil, has taken care of all the damages. The sail cover has been repaired, and the warranty work has been arranged for the swedish made bowthruster.

The check in procedures were smoothly handled by Simon.

So far it all seems well....

I will post the later developments....

Nice to hear your Pierre-Lea is arrived good and well at Yalikavak.

Can you tell us how many engine hours the have made during the trip.

This is IMO the only way you can find out the deliveryteam haved realy sails the boat our only motoring the entire way.If so you can't find out about any rigging problems.I haved many lest year and none with motoring during our trip from Slovenia to Marmaris.

I was in Marmaris from 27 March till 28 avril and met Mozato(470 2010) and Awatea (531) there. I'll be back end May,hope to see you there.

 

 

Are you sure about the 400 miles?

It seems to me that the distance between Portoroz(Slovenia) and Yalikavak is more than 400 miles I think it is between 900 and 1.000 miles.

When the deliverycrew dit more than 900 miles with only 57u(averance speed 7 knops 57X7=400 miles if the used your generator for electr and the engine only to make distance) on the engine, yes indeed the did more than 50% of the distance on sail. 

 

about the leaking hatch,take a look at the drain on the portside ,this is a airbreather from vetus with a inox filter inside, when this is dirty the water arround the hatch can not leave by the hose who is below the deck, and water will come true your window.This filter have no reason to by there and is useless(I have spoken with the Hanse people about that but it always take a long time before the go to action).Just take the inox filter out and throw it away.  

before

 

after

 

This is only when you have the flat flushdek hatches. 

In the Vetus airbreather that Hanse use as the  drain for the hatches there are 2 screws in the black plastik.Take this screws out and you wil find the filter.You can easy remove the filter then.  

The breathers used for the hatch drains are multi-purpose and for some of the uses (fuel & water tanks) the stainless gauze is an essential part of the fitting.  We have not had any need to remove them on the UK based boats yet but as part of the annual service make sure they get taken out and cleaned  (or atleast checked anyway).

 

As a deck drain they do not have a useful purpose so the gauze can be removed if it is getting blocked up.  It is only when they are mounted horizontally as a breather that the gauze has a real purpose."

 

I decided to add some shelves in the galley cuboards. I asked Inspiration Marine to get the wood. Phil and Andy prepared them, and Simon fitted them. Relly nice. Saves a lot of dead space.

The leaking Hatch has been re sealed. So far so good. Some Ceiling were falling off, probably due to heat in Bodrum, and it all has been re-fitted by Simon too.
The Simrad's Sonic Hub is a great little tool for music lovers. It enables you to connect your iPod to your Simrad instruments. It Transform the Simdrad Chart Plotter in to a Ipod Menu. Can even watch a movie if you wish! I bought it from Miami for only 220 usd. Aura Yachting has fitted it for me.

I have been sailing every weekend so far. The boat is great! Nice performence, easy to handle. The Simrad auto pilot came with a remote control. So, you can even steer your boat with a small control from any there on the boat. Impressive...

Simon, is working on a Garage set up. Some netting, shelf and straps will do the trick to have a neat and user friendly garrage.

So far alll the little problems such as, faulty Simrad instruments, or repairs under warranty, additions to the boat (ex-Warranty), has been done very smoothly. I have to say, I hardly experienced a service of that quality on any thing I bought before.

All the smalll stuff (leaks or breaking stuff etc) are dealt in time by Phil, and Simon. No pain, all gain...
The important stuff such as the rigging are in perfect condition since the begining.

My experience so far shows that it is not the boat, but from whom you buy it and to who you trust it for servicing it is the most important decision. I think all the boats have similar probelms. Independent of the price.

If any one wants more information, you are very welcome to send me a mail.

Cheers...