After Sales Service
Seahorse Marine’s concept of after sales service
Should you ever sign a contract with this shipyard, let me quickly give you an idea about their “After Sales Service”.
In previous posts I had complained a lot about the shipyard.
But it is not hopeless: Seahorse Marine has an “After Sales Service”. William (aka Bill) Kimley is pretty active on two Diesel Duck and Seahorse Marine related Facebook groups. You will receive a lot of advice, many hints and if you are lucky you can ask Seahorse Marine for replacement parts.
We have received two boxes of spare parts nearly three months after the boat has been delivered. Some of those items fell under warranty parts, others were good will from the yard.
Storage box
One thing you will always be short of when doing extensive cruising on a boat is storage. Although we have ample storage in our master bedroom, we were lacking storage for galley items and tools. Seahorse Marine made us a custom built trunk. As cherry wood was not available, they made the trunk out of teak! Amazing!
It is only sad to see that the pieces were not properly wrapped and the lid was dented in the front when it arrived.
This storage box fits four properly sized plastic containers: perfect for tools and spare parts
Special screws
Before signing the contract and during the building process we had repeatedly asked for mosquito screens. We were advised that all windows and hatches will get mosquito screens.
Well, “all” might be in the eye of the beholder. Or maybe I am just too “German”… and “all” does not equal to “all” everywhere in the world – at least not in China.
Okay: All hatches and all port openings of the main hull have mosquito netting. And the mesh holders for the overhead hatches are actually a beautiful piece of art. Seahorse Marine woodwork is nice!
But: The pilot house has six windows which can be opened, only two of them have mosquito nets. And one of those two is unusable as it is stuck in it’s track in open position. With other words: either you can suffer from a hot and stuffy pilot house or you can suffer from mosquito bites. So I will build my own mosquito screens… and thankfully SHM provided the screws to have them affixed to the window frames for free.
3 meter long teak pole
Apparently there were times when the shipyard provided huge teak poles for easier pick up of mooring lines. As our current mooring spot is super tight we require two strong guys with those poles to squeeze us into the parking spot. Just thinking… maybe I should order some barrels of grease, olive oil or KY to help with the parking.
Louvers for cooling hatches
May it be that most installation manuals of the items we had delivered to the shipyard had been destroyed by flooding, may it be that only high quality fridges and freezers like those I had delivered to the shipyard require good cooling circulation, or may it be that the workers at SHM do not know the working principle of fridges and freezers: The units did not get enough air circulation for cooling as there were not enough cooling louvers. To have proper air cooling circulation you will require vent holes above and below the units, with air being able to circulate freely around the compressor area.
I had cut out nice big vent holes with my newly purchased multi tool and thankfully SHM had delivered some pretty wooden louvers to cover those ugly holes.
Again: Sad to see that one of those covers had split into two pieces as they were not wrapped for transport. Consequently one was smashed by the heavy anchor support.
Fridges and freezers like to stay cool: Make sure you have vents for air circulation above and below the units with plenty of space behind
Attachment for anchor support
One of the many things SHM did not get right from the start was the anchor support of the 63Kg Sarca Excel. Lily, the nautical architect of the shipyard, had pointed out the required long anchor support from the early planning stages. She even had specified the anchor support in one of the early technical drawings.
Whatever the cause, the shipyard’s anchor holder is not long enough. I tried to lower the anchor several times, the only success was chipping off the paint where the anchor shank hit the hull.
Anchor support is too short: the anchor won’t drop.
Note: the swivel will be replaced as well – source, quality and rating unknown. Recipe for disaster!
Asking the shipyard how they managed to deploy the anchor during their tests they replied that they gave the anchor a powerful kick with the foot. I had already injured my fingers trying to get the anchor going. I am not in the mood of risking injury by a dropping 63Kg anchor and some 160Kg chain smashing my foot and pulling on my ankle every time I want to lower the anchor. No f* way!
So, the new anchor support has arrived. It still rests on the deck. I have to find a shipyard which can install it. No, I cannot just lift a 63Kg anchor off the bow some 2.5m above the water line. Some heavier equipment is needed than just my hands and the tender.
After Sales Service: “Do-it-yourself-kit” grey water tank
Some coastal cruising areas require boaters to have a grey water holding tank on board. I discovered this necessity after I had signed the contract with SHM. So I asked about the possibility to integrate one. I was advised that only one small grey water holding tank could be installed due to limited space. It would be located in the forward bilge to collect water from forward shower, forward sink, galley sink and dish washer. Well, I thought: Better a small holding tank than no holding tank.
Seahorse Marine charged US$ 3,420 for the world’s most useless grey water tank
Some weeks after ETERNAUT had arrived I discovered standing water in the galley sink hose. The cause was quickly identified: the sink selector valve had been switched to “grey water tank”, which by this time had been filled up.
Grey water pump electric wiring incomplete
I went to the forward bathroom and pressed the “grey water” tank pump button. No response. Pulling the wiring apart revealed that the wires to the switch had no power.
I tried to investigate the wiring to the grey water pump. I opened the hatch to the bilge and climbed inside. Dismantling the wiring to the pump and the associated relay revealed: The pump itself was connected to the 24V system, but neither was the relay nor the pump switch.
A long chat with the SHM started. As I have posted previously: SHM had fired their head electrician. He was also the only electrician the shipyard had. That’s the reason why ETERNAUT’s wiring was incomplete. What a mess! A shipyard without an electrician. As part of my grey water tank “do-it-yourself” kit I received a new relay. Which is useless, as the wiring to the relay itself is incomplete.
Grey water tank not plumbed
While I was sitting in the bilge compartment investigating the grey water pump I also followed all the hoses leading to- and from the grey water tank. To my biggest surprise: Only the kitchen sink was connected.
- The shower sump: straight overboard
- The toilet sink: straight overboard
- The dishwasher drainage: straight overboard
What the heck… I questioned the shipyard why nothing had been connected to the, now useless, grey water tank. Reply was: there was not enough space!
I made a selfie sitting inside the bilge between grey water tank and shower sump and asked the staff to convince themselves about the space available.
Dealing with Seahorse Marine means: “Lies, Lies, Lies”
Mentioning that the dish washer was not connected to the grey water tank reminds me that I still have to install our new dishwasher.
Our nice, own supplied, brand new Miele dishwasher had been destroyed by the shipyard. The shipyard has a container which is above flood water. But the staff is too lazy to carry customer’s equipment to a flood safe place!
Seahorse Marine shipyard is prone to flooding: whatever equipment is owner supplied might get destroyed
The Miele dishwasher was installed, but it did not work. I wasted days trying to get it going. Buying a new “Aqua Stop” relay in Mong Kok had cost me a whole day and some HK$ 500 alone.
Anyway, after many failed attempts of getting the dishwasher in order I pulled it apart: Corrosion was all over the lower inner part. Only then SHM admitted that some of our items had been destroyed due to improper storage and flooding. We received a small compensation: about 1/3 of the original purchase price. Of course no compensation for the work and time I need for installation of the new one.
After Sales Service: “Do-it-yourself-kit” paint job
As part of the “After Sales Service” I also received a “do-it-yourself” kit for the spots where the paint delaminated.
It included: few sheets of sanding paper, spatula, brushes, roller, primer, paint. And a whole bunch of explanation photos via WeChat how to use these items.
In the meantime we discovered more and more paint related issues:
This includes the fuel filler as the shipyard has used paint which is not diesel resistant.
The bilge underneath the engine requires new paint. This will be the most difficult job. After cleanup of the fuel spill I found out that the paint in bilge is also not oil- and diesel resistant.
While inspecting the bilge underneath the engine oil drip tray I also observed areas which did not receive any paint coating on top of the primer. As access is very, very limited this will be a job for a proper yard!
The drill holes for stern anchor rollers were not sealed/primed and painted properly and require urgent attention as rust has formed already.
Rainy season has started and to get a proper paint job done the deck will have to be covered up. Seahorse Marine asked us to contact two shipyards in Hong Kong and we hope we can get those items fixed as soon as possible.
Other After Sales Service
There are many smaller items and a few major items which require attention and repair… and we just do it. Most often contacting the Seahorse Marine After Sales Service group on WeChat is fruitless. Either we get a reply with solutions which do not work (eg. adjustment of throttle), or no reply at all (eg. stern fuel tank, hinge adjustment engine room door,…).
So we keep working every day, and slowly we are progressing. But honestly: Seahorse Marine After Sales Service has room to improve!