Beneteau Warantee Trobles

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by jg91604

Thanks SAILINGFOOL... I appreciate your wisdom, makes me feel more comfortable. But, fresh water is much easier on the faring and steel. Would you expect this from a fresh water lake boat also? Of course, still think Beneteau has dropped the ball.....

well fresh water is much easier on all other aspects of a boat, I always think four years in fresh is equal to one in salt, but I have to say I haven't the foggiest how a steel keel fairs in fresh...just never been there. My intuition would be steel and water is pretty much the same, fresh or salt, but I can't speak specifically on this.

My negative on Beneteau would be they don't include a disclaimer on this situation, as they can anticipate the problem. Keeping mum just causes a predicatable turmoil when a new owner like you finally ends up facing the situation.

For example, in the past I've seen some warantees (Tarten and/or Sabre I believe) which explicitly excluded fading of colored gel coat hulls from waranty protection - such fading is as predicatable as death and taxes - this is the way to do it.

[bestfriend]

Yeah, you're right, they won't dump on themselves. When you are looking at new boats, go to the Catalina dealer and ask about the Beneteaus and they will tell you all the problems. Then go to Beneteau and do the same for Catalina. Thats how I learned to stay away from steel keels.

[sailingfool]

PS - although I call this situation BAU, that's just between us, I would go through the exercise of trying to get Beneteau to pick up the yard repair bill, find out from the other owners whether Beneteau folds in situations like this...$4,000 is not much money for warranty repair...and I personally wouldn't thnk Beneteau has a lot of repairs to deal with...other then the steel keels...why do they do that???? Frankly the steel keel situation was the only problem with my Beneteau, otherwise a very nicely consturcted boat.

[jg91604]

Thanks all for your feedback. So, I have read the warantee... Is the keel waranteed to be free of blisters too or just the hull. Read yours, and you tell me? If the steel keel is faired and painted, and below water, shouldn't it be?

[k1vsk]

It is clearly the hull which is covered by the warrantee, not the keel. I'm not familiar with the logic behind the argument that Beneteau should warn people they are buying a boat with an iron or steel keel - kind of like warning people that the coffee is hot...
I'm sure you would want someone else to take responsibility (the mfg or dealer or whoever) but this is just another example of someone not taking personal responsibility for their own choices. You bought a boat with an iron (or steel) keel - no one forced you.
The far better question is why they sell boats with this type keel.

[Brezzin]

I also wonder if part of the problem is that the OP is not the original buyer. The original dealer at this point has no horse in this race and they are always the best advocate for the owners.