Boat handed over without helm compass; false charge of damage
Bottom line: we received less than 1/2 of our 2,000 Euro deposit back, because of trumped-up claims that we had broken a cabin window; clearly not true: it was already broken when we took the boat. The break-point on the hinge is visible on a picture that I took with already rounded-off edges, clearly indicative of an old-fracture, and not something that we could have done. We received no details of the repair that was, allegedly necessary, no paperwork describing the cost breakdown. We are now in the midst of a legal case with the boat's owner. But that was just the final "desaster" of what was supposed to be a pleasant -- and expensive -- holiday. Here's the larger story: We chartered a supposedly high-quality yacht via PCO last July: The "Seewolf" from Flensburg, Northern Germany (Baltic coast). The boat had no functional compass at the helm (navigation compass), and was, as such, not in seaworthy condition. The middle-man between us and PCO said he'd ordered a new compass, but that it wouldn't arrive for 3 more days at the earliest. The hand-bearing compass had loads of air in it, and wasn't particularly reliable either. The boat stank because -- so it transpired there was a leak in the freshwater system; the bilge filled up and festered. Most of the plugs in the teak deck were missing, leaving screw-heads sticking out: we ruined trousers on the cockpit seats. The sail cover for mainsail was so badly damaged/degraded, it had to be lashed closed with a line. All in all, the boat -- a Hallberg Rassy from 2008 no less!!! -- was in a condition where one could only say that it had been commercially exploited, and barely maintained. What to do? We'd booked 2 week for our only holiday of that year. So we set off with a boat without the basic traditional navigational hardware in the cockpit. By the way, such missing navigational equipment is definitely a serious legal problem: we informed ourselves via the official German authorities. The rest of the boat didn't inspire feelings of "having been cared for and properly maintained". And that was the most expensive boat that we had hitherto chatered. We received no really useful support from PCO in trying to clear up the problem with the broken window: rather it was clear from the communications between PCO and the yacht owner (they used the familiar "Du" between each other) that they were very friendly with each other... We had to wonder whether the thing was a scam, and that the owner basically half-maintained (because one can't really use the word "maintained" seriously in the case of this boat) the boat by cashing in on the deposits of unfortunate customers (I found another such customer from a few years back on social media).








