Building Eternaut
The building of Eternaut took much longer than expected. We had expected delays. But I have to admit: a delay of this scope was well beyond our worst imagination!
2016
In July 2016 we signed the contract with Seahorse Marine to have a Goerge Buehler designed Diesel Swan 55 built for us. This was about half year after the plans to acquire a Slyder catamaran sadly had not come true.
To this date we had visited the old shipyard close to the city center in Doumen (Guangzhou province, CN) several times. We had long talks with shipyard boss Bill (William) Kimley and Lily who is the nautical architect of Seahorse Marine.
We had agreed on interior design and contract. Buyer beware, a written contract does not mean much in this part of the world!
2017
Initially the progress on the boat was overwhelming. And it kept us busy. All the items we wanted to have “western quality” had to be ordered and shipped to the yard. And that’s where the problems started: Due to the strict customs regulations most items had to be shipped via Hong Kong through a specified monopolist shipping company.
We tried to collect all items and ship in one go… which also proved impossible as the shipping company did not offer that service and I was not able to store a container full of aircon units, household appliances and other equipment in our apartment.
The Seahorse marine staff responsible for the import and customs declarations lost track as the yard lacked electronic logging of shipments. This in term meant several visits to the shipyard and the shipping company trying to find our items.
The shipyard also lacked a dry storage place. Later, after delivery of the boat, we found that some of our equipment had been destroyed by flooding and rain damage.
We also have the suspicion that items had been “inspected” by customs very thoroughly. It appears that the Webasto Diesel heater had become one victim of such an inspection. Find out more about it in our post “under pressure“.
2018
End of 2017 / early 2018 it became apparent that Seahorse Marine could not fulfill their part of the contract. In between the building process had come to a complete standstill despite me paying always on time.
The shipyard had to move to a new site. And that took time. Instead of continuing work on the boats the staff was busy building the new yard.
What they had done: starting the interior work. I paid as per contract: 90% of the total sum agreed on was paid. Seahorse Marine had a special “Thank you” gift for me: they stopped work on my boat instantly.
2019
At times I had visited the shipyard after a couple months to find out that there had been no progress at all. None! Nade! Nothing!
Yes, you will see photos how the teak and holly floor is made. There are photos of some sort of building process. But all in all: a slap into my face for trusting Seahorse Marine.
2020
No one could see this coming: A pandemic. It affected everybody’s life. And it surely did not improve the speed of the shipyard building on Eternaut.
From time to time Lily updated me about the progress by sending photos.
Inspecting the photos carefully: There was work going on at the shipyard. Just not on my boat.
2021
In summer 2021 Seahorse Marine promised to have the boat ready by end of the year.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I believed their promise, quit my job to be ready to start a new chapter of my life. But Eternaut was not ready. Find out how it continues in our first blog post: “Home office“.
