airship is back (with a vengeance)...?!

Some of you may recall that I lost my father (and favourite pudicat) in the days before last Xmas. It's been the hardest few months (ever) of my life coming to terms with it all. What I've learned over the past few months though, is that even some of the most 'troublesome and toughest of customers' literally have hearts of gold , usually well-hidden behind the masks of all the legalese and formalities required in their jobs...?!

Many times over this past winter and spring, I've perused these forums, wishing to be able to contribute, but not having the confidence to do so anymore. But as I said, I'm back now, with some major gripes. These concern:

1) New-build shipyards: they sell someone a 50-90m motoryacht for anywhere between €20m - €100m+. A few months later, these masterpieces find themselves in the Med., perhaps even Antibes (my own location). Where by all accounts, local chandlers and other more specialised-equipment suppliers find themselves literally inundated with requests to supply XYZ spare parts in order to restore essential functions. On equipment which is ostensibly still 'under warranty' but in reality, in view of the prices and delays quoted by the shipyard/s, would require that the owner literally 'charters another yacht' when held to ransom in this manner...?! Lots of major yacht-builders make a big issue of their after-sales support - but if it's the same organisation that had 2 or 3 months to order in the original equipment, can they really be blamed when there's an urgent request for spare parts required, not for delivery in 2-3 months, but 2-3 days...?! The end result is that local chandlers and other companies more specialised, suffer ceaseless demands for spare parts for equipment that they never specified nor supplied to the original build. And then the yacht's engineer or manager complain that we cannot supply the parts quickly (or at a suitably-competitive price)...?! Surely, the blame if there is any, should be more properly attributed to the original shipyard whose cash-registers 'never ceased to ring' throughout the construction period and their original suppliers, who were either not advised that a certain level of after-sales service would be required as a consequence, or else choose not to offer the type of 24/24H support that their clients depend on...?! I offer the example of a 60m+ German motoryacht launched in 2006. They already needed to replace 2 x safety valves fitted to the fresh-water supply ostensibly within the 'warranty period'. As it turned out, the owner had to pay in full for these spares. The new chief engineer of this yacht with whom I've dealt with since 2002 recently asked me to supply 2 more identical safety valves to keep aboard as spares in view of the yacht's cruising schedule over the next 18 months. I charged him about € 523.12 each. The Captain complained about the expense. That was when the chief engineer produced a .pdf copy of the shipyard's invoice for these same valves when the yacht was 'just out of warranty': the shipyard invoice was for over €1,800 per valve or well over 3 times what I charged the yacht...?! There are profits to be made, and there is a term generally acknowledged as profiteering - just ensure that when you go aboard a yacht today, you fly the correct flag (skull & crossbones) in the latter case.

2) The very poor levels of expertise in the use of computer software generally by (superyacht) officers at almost any level and their coincidental production of requisitions (in particular) addressed to suppliers. Few and far between (IMHO) are those that can properly itemise and detail their requirements sufficiently in order to avoid any confusion. Engineers are better, 1st officers worse: "Here's my list which I'd like delivered to Monaco when we arrive (ETA non-determined):

A) yellow water hose
B) connections for water hose
C) soft yellow brushes and handles
etcetera...

No quantities or sizes, no ETA, in fact, hardly any serious efforts displayed at all. But be sure, even if you do your best in spite of the lack of information and requests for more information, you'll be welcomed by 'someone's offspring' (thank goodness not your own) wearing a shirt with epaulettes comprising sufficient gold-braid to blind you even before you get your thoughts together...?! And ready to lay all the blame on you for not being able to read minds.

2A) Then, there's all the superyacht crew who don't know how to use modern communications like email or fax altogether. They need to order something, you must be there physically in front of them with pen and paper...?!

3) I received a copy of a yacht's registration certificate today by email. It was sent as an image file, in fact a single page which if scanned as a .pdf file might have finished off as a file under 100kB. How was it actually sent though? As a .bmp file, size over 8.5Mb....?! No wonder marine satellite data providers are so happy these days...?!

4) As happened last Monday involving an 85m commercially-registered superyacht: "airship, we need to replace 2 wave runners, please quote...". I know they already have 4 old Yamaha XL700s (it's the way I operate...). They ask me for 2 stroke GP1300R wave runners. Considering that they're a charter boat, I suggest that the choice of such a high-performance toy may not be the ideal choice...?! So they confirm their choice of the basic and cheapest Yamaha 4 stroke (VZ) replacement to the old 2 stroke XL700s. "Please organise delivery of 2 wave runners in Cannes Tuesday morning before 10H30". What happens though? They only take delivery of 1, citing space problems...?! Tuesday night at 11H45, I get an SMS from the yacht's superintendent, "please go ahead and deliver the 2nd wave runner that we refused earlier"?! In the interim, the 2nd VZ they refused was sold to another customer (it happens). So this morning Wednesday, I was faced with accusations that I was making a drama out of a crisis by inventing that the 2nd VZ which they originally refused on Tuesday was no longer available. They took exception to my remark that perhaps their oil sheikh majority owner could expect to have a vendor of wave runners deliver to the quay a whole array of models for His Highness' subsequent choice. So perhaps in Saudi Arabia, a wave runner vendor would be happy to sell one camel out of the dozen or so offered, I don't know. But I was adamant that 'it was not how business was done here in Europe, OK'! You have to understand also that I was merely an intermediary trying to regain the confidence of the current managers of this yacht having held their full confidence for almost 8 years before their new purchasing director and her apparently young and voluptious daugther appeared on the scenes 2 or 3 years ago. Which may or not have influenced the decisions of a hitherto much-accomplished and self-made man in the commercial yacht-charter industry.

I'm back, and I'm ready to fight back. Whether or not your 1st name is Andreas or Fabrice, I'm going to be deeply involved in the superyacht industry for a very long time to come (I require another 20 years or so of social security contributions before I get a full pension). Tolstoy's War and Peace springs to mind...?!

PS. Sorry about the rant, there's 6 months' worth stored up there...