Vela Dufour Yachts, el astillero de moda en España

[jotajota]

http://nauta360.expansion.com/2016/0...463136364.html

[markuay]

Originalmente publicado por jotajota

http://nauta360.expansion.com/2016/0...463136364.html

Vaya, no sabía que había sido quien aplicó el composite a la náutica.

[Questionsailing]

Vaya porquería de publirreportaje...

[guia]

La opinion de uno que se dedica al traslado de barcos

https://www.facebook.com/TioPirata/p...&__tn__=%2C%3B

Dangerous Yacht Deliveries, and The State of Our Industry.
I have recently undertaken a yacht delivery from Panama City, Panama, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which very nearly cost me my life and this has caused me to reflect upon the state of the sail boat industry, particularly those larger manufacturers churning out production boats from Europe. I have, as surveyor and as boat repair man come across some egregious examples and as a yacht deliverer have frequently been exposed to great risk. I feel for owners who buy these vessels in good faith yet undertake these risks without the experience I have to overcome these. What seems to be happening is that manufacturers have realized that it is cheaper to build to a low standard and repair under warranty then to build to an acceptable standard in the first instance. They are well aware that much of their product will not get much use in the warranty period.
Some examples then.
A new Jeanneau 54DS whose stainless steel water tanks and waterlift exhausts were falling apart at the seams. Not only was the vessels fresh water supply leaking into the bilges but running the generator pumped both seawater and carbon monoxide into the interior. Had the owners run the genset while they slept they would certainly have perished, and the evidence sunken.
A new Catana catamaran whose decks had not been properly infused with resin, so bad was it that they absorbed water into the substrate and the anchor winch was falling through the anchor well.
A 2 year old Bavaria 38 with the starboard chainplates pulled through the deck.
A new Robertson and Caine 44 catamaran with a long split at the keelson, port hull. This was discovered offshore by the fortunately very experienced delivery skipper, had this not been the case tragedy was probable.
So then, to the delivery I have just completed.
The vessel is a 1 year old DuFour Grand Large 500 "Lionheart" http://www.cruisingworld.com/sailb&#...-grand-large-0
As you can see it is pitched as a bit of an ocean greyhound. It is a great looking boat and is able to turn in excellent performances in lighter winds and flat seas. Sadly these conditions are not always those encountered. The ergonomics alone suggest the designer's intent was for it to be a big daysailer and weekender only so I consider it disingenuous for any to describe it otherwise.
We were required to deliver it to Cabo San Lucas from Panama City, a minimum distance of 2211 nautical miles (nm) at 20nm from the coast and 2395nm at 120nm from the coast. In the event we covered 2655nm due to headwinds and having to run offshore in a storm.
We left Panama City in calm conditions and made good time to the Costa Rica / Nicaragua border, averaging 6.1 knots mostly under sail only. We were astonished nonetheless at how noisy this boat was, sleeping below underway was not possible.
As we approached Punta Blanca we noted a few extra whitecaps and, since it was sunset, we decided to deep reef. At about 1930hrs we were hit by a gust of 62knots and heeled hard over, reducing sail certainly proved a good decision. That lasted only about 20 seconds but the bimini and bimini stanchions were coming apart and bits of stainless pole were flying about like Jedi light sabers. The wind quickly settled to 52knots, still very heavy, and the seas built alarmingly quickly also. At this point the traveler car exploded and the autopilot stopped so while one of us, me, steered, the crew Jim Jet Neilson, wrestled the wildly swinging boom back under control. Kudos to Jim for being the brave and unflappable gentleman he is, that was a risky business. While Jim steered I lowered the remainder of the mainsail and it soon became apparent to us that we could not hold head to wind much longer, so badly did this flat bottomed barge pound that we feared more damage. Jim undertook to inspect below and discovered the hatches all leaked and a starboard window stove in and the forward bilge pump did not work and that the midships pump was unable to get ahead of water ingress. We had no option but to run before it, doing 9knots south under bare poles and finding ourselves 150nm off shore by sunrise. Further inspection revealed the forward cabin awash and the mattresses too heavy to move, probably adding another ton to the bow, much of the wood trim broken loose from the moldings, the armored glass divider in the master bathroom broken loose from tiny fittings and lying, fortunately unbroken, on the shower floor. This took both of us to lift, far too heavy to have a place on a boat in my view. Most alarming though was the tremendous noise, bad enough in clement conditions but deafening in these seas, an indicator that much of the secondary bonding was bad. So bad was the motion, even when we tried towing warps etc, that going below was dangerous, very wet and frighteningly noisy. The worst noise was coming from the mast base, most ominous.
We were now blown a day backwards and with a severely compromised vessel so we made the decision to find a place of repair and do what needed to be done to complete our delivery safely. We settled on Barillas in El Salvador and very slowly limped in that direction, at one point making 20nm in 18 hours, consuming almost all our fuel in the process.. Having now lost 2 days, we arrived at Barillas Marina Club in Bahia de Jiquilisco to wonderful hospitality, outstanding service and welcomingly pragmatic bureaucracy. Our particular thanks to manager Emerita Sanchez for her extraordinary attention.
We discovered that the autopilot was not a good one, merely a light wheelpilot suited to much smaller boats. That the traveler car was poorly cast of very porous aluminium, definitely under spec for a 50' sailboat. That many of the the mainsail slides had pulled out of the flimsy plastic track. That the top batten was missing. That various parts had simply fallen apart inside. That our food supplies had been soaked and the sodas inside the fridge had exploded making a hell of a mess and contaminating other foodstuffs. That the boat was soaked, including our bags, clothes, personal paperwork....Worst though was the discovery that the foot of the mast seemed not to be adequately restrained at the deck. There did not appear to be a proper mast shoe and the plastic, polypropylene or HDPE, pad upon which it stood did not have all the bolts through to the compression post, indeed it never had had them. We realized that we would not be pushing hard for the remainder of the delivery.
Within 3 days we had "Lionheart" ready to continue and headed out to sea, another half day just to get out of the estuary, and headed up the coast, a couple of light to medium days in which we made good time. At Golfo de Tehuantepec we encountered the expected heavy conditions, though never more then 40knot winds and seas only to about 16', minor compared to our earlier storm, the unpredictable Papagayo. We covered this over 2 days at an average of 3knots and experienced no further breakage. The Mexican coast yielded light headwinds and a small negative current so progress was slow and uneventful for a couple more days, though we became aware that a vessel was shadowing us. 3 nights in Mexican waters we were boarded by the Mexican navy, very polite, professional young men who went about the business of rummaging with brisk efficiency. Another mess to clean up though, and bootmarks and scuffing from their RIB everywhere. We continued to be astonished at how badly "Lionheart" pounded in slop of only 1' to 2', the worst either of us had ever encountered.
Eventually, as we were low on fuel and needed to get a move on we pulled into Manzanillo, no paperwork, to top up and motorsailed to our finish at IGY, Cabo San Lucas.
We actually sailed 2655 nm over 24 days, 20 of these underway so an average of 5.53knots underway and 4 days stopped for repairs, most without autopilot, a credible result given what a piece of shit "Lionheart" is. And about the minimum time this delivery could have been achieved at this time of year. Sadly, owner Bob Carter, who has little experience as a sailor, felt our performance was below par and only paid us for 16 days. This despite the fact that he had realized the boat was underbuilt before he handed it to us and had already initiated dispute with DuFour. So pretty churlish and naturally we are in dispute.
My biggest beef though is not with the owner, who is merely ignorant, but with DuFour Yachts. They have been cavalier with our lives as well as the buyer's money, having cut so many corners in the interests of economy, and produced so dangerous a boat.
Jim and I have each more then 50 years sailing experience all over the World and in many vessels. Both of us are cool headed in dodgy conditions and we know full well that a lesser crew would not have survived nor saved the boat. We did this living entirely in the cockpit as the interior was too inhospitable.
Earned our money? Sure did.

[J.R.]

También está el caso del cofrade Kenobi, que tuvo muchos problemas con su Dufour nuevo y con el importador, llegando incluso a la vía judicial.

Por otra parte, un tío mío tiene un Dufour de 38 pies, comprado nuevo hace 12 años, y la verdad es que mi opinión sobre él es excelente. Aunque es un barco más bien de crucero, ha ganado alguna regata y hace buen papel en ellas. He navegado en ese barco con "castaña", y se comportaba muy bien, la impresión que me dio fue de solidez y seguridad.

Espero que en esos 12 años la calidad de Dufour no se haya deteriorado...