Thanks for reading my post #193. Each and every sentence is factually true and is backed up by documentation including video from our lake trial, emails, the contract, the survey, the FDOT weight report, and audio recordings made by the bodyguard who accompanied my husband Dan to his last two visits to the Great Harbour facility during Dan’s attempt to extricate our boat from Mr. Fickett.
It took my husband and I about 5 days to write that post #193, just to make certain that we could not be sued. After I posted it, Flywright sent me a lovely note and suggested that we ask the moderators to close that thread, again for legal reasons. Today I don’t give a fig and will go into more detail.
Incidentally, we have 12 people from TF to whom we have been sending regular email updates with photos concerning the progress of the repairs to the boat, and if you would like me to add you to the email list, please send me a PM with your email address and I would be delighted to add you in.
So far, Mariso has been undergoing a massive redesign of her stern, cockpit and gas tank installation to address several issues including a permanently awash cockpit & tailgate, and tanks installed in violation of ABYC standards. After that she will have all of her ABYC electrical violations addressed. We discovered that the cockpit and tailgate were below the waterline when we had our lake trial of the boat during the survey.
Several other TT35 owners have also contacted us and we discovered that the insanity did not begin or end with us. The saddest thing for me is this: All the boats that I am aware of so far have failed, among other items, electrical portions of their survey. One of the owners reported to me that that when he met with the younger Fickett and the shop manager and a salesman to request repairs for the problems found by their surveyor (a different surveyor from ours), GH shrugged off the bulk of the electrical problems and as happened with us, the builder is not inclined to repair them.
What bears pointing out is that this builder does not care that when all of us eventually decide to sell our boats, the same problems will be found by the next surveyor and most certainly would result in a large reduction of the resale price. This is one reason why my husband and I are having all of the issues repaired before we begin enjoying our boat; the other reason is that we prefer to cruise in a safe & seaworthy boat.
Several TF’ers have commented on the length of the boat with words to the effect of “Hey, you got more boat for your money.” Here is the problem with that. We were promised a 36-foot boat. Our dock is 28 feet long. This bears repeating: Our dock is 28 feet long.
We have not yet attempted to berth her behind our home, because we wanted to get her to the fiberglass shop, American Boatworks, a.s.a.p.
In addition, when cruising, all marinas measure the Length Overall from the tip of the bow pulpit to the end of the boat. Sure, we can exclude the bow pulpit and that brings it down to 42 feet. The outboard brackets are fiberglassed in, so they are integral to the hull. And the outboards, which will always be in the tilted upright position (to keep the running gear out of the water) when the boat is at rest in a berth or on the hook, account for the rest of the length.
My family owned a marina for 45 years, so in my lexicon the LOA is from the tip of the bow pulpit to the end of the swim platform, or in the case of an outboard vessel, to the end of the outboards in the raised position. It was the exactly same for our surveyor who recorded the LOA at 43 feet.
But the builder viciously attacked us and our surveyor for not using his "Coast Guard" measurement of hull only for the length. My issue with this is that when we were shown the little wooden model of the boat before it was built, there were no outboard brackets on the model with the outboards were attached to the stern. The builder also promised us before the boat was built that he did not plan to include a bow pulpit.
While I am aware of the Coast Guard measurement that is hull only for gauging the weight of a vessel, I do not believe that with this boat the Coast Guard would exclude the heavy fiberglass brackets which are integral to the hull.
After the survey, the builder stated that ABYC standards “are only voluntary” (in an email) and which while literally true is not standard business practice in boat building. He also had the gumption to state (in a freakin’ email!) that “your contract does not guarantee you a high-quality boat.” Yes, yes he did.
Again after the survey, one of the builder’s shop managers claimed to Dan that outboard-powered boats “don’t really need to be grounded.” I would love to hear him say that to a judge when the dog owner or person electrocuted in a marina or anchorage sues them.
The greatest thing going on for us now is Kevin and Paul of American Boatworks. These gentlemen have been such a refreshing change from the original builder, who treated us with utter contempt and disdain once he had our downpayment. American Boatworks is a remarkable, classy operation, unlike GH. This explains my boat model name in my signature here.
When we got our survey, we still “owed” the final payment of $20 thousand to the builder. The builder refused to put the boat into our name until he received the final payment, and we could not get the boat insured until it was in our name.
We hired an attorney and a private investigator. The P.I. informed us that Mr. Fickett had been sued numerous times by purveyors and boat owners, and we chatted with one attorney, John Hayter in Gainesville, who informed us that he had personally represented six separate plaintiffs in lawsuits against Mr. Fickett and his various boat companies. Attorney Hayter also knows several other attorneys who have filed claims against Mr. Fickett & his various boat companies. You can imagine what a HOLY $#!T! that conversation was for us.
Our maritime attorney informed us that we had basically two options:
1) Spend upwards of $300 thousand on legal fees to litigate against the builder. This would take years, and during that time the builder could experience a “fire” or other means of going out of business. We could easily win the legal battle and yet never see a dime of our original investment, our legal fees, OR OUR BOAT.
2) Pay off the clown and spend $40 to $90 thousand and have a safe, unique boat.
We are pals with several people who own the GH trawlers (the real trawlers) built before 2007. Those boats are awesome vessels, survey very well, and are beautifully built and designed. We don’t know what happened with GH with the TT35, but it is not pretty.
In my personal opinion, it is because the builder, for whatever reason, decided that he could design the TT35 without the aid of a naval architect. The builder told us before we signed the contract that he had designed the TT35 on a napkin and then handed it over to “his naval architect” Lou Codega. The GH website states that all of their trawlers were designed by Lou Codega, and they call the TT35 a trailerable trawler. We contacted Lou, and he had nothing to do with the design of the TT35.
Live and learn.
Cheers,
Pea
