Here we go again, another warranty issue and another company ducking and weaving to avoid paying for repairs.
For those of you who are new to our story, we purchased and took possession of a new Lagoon 42 catamaran on 6th July 2019 in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France. Over the ensuing months we sailed the catamaran to Brisbane Australia, arriving on the 14th December 2019. The issue with the sail-drive first came to light on the 3rd October 2019 while in Panama. On routine check of the starboard engine Peter noted that the oil was milky indicating ingress of water. (Starboard engine hours at this time were 371.5 hours). In response he pumped out and replaced the oil, and for the remainder of our voyage there was no indication of water ingress into the sail-drive. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the issue.
Following a day sail on Australia Day (26th January 2020), when conducting a routine engine check, Peter noticed that the oil in the sail-drive had turned milky once again. In response, we initiated a warranty process via email with Wind Craft Australia, the warranty agent for Lagoon in Australia. Wind Craft organised a diver to check the sail drive (underneath the boat) for any fishing line, plastic bags or other debris that may have become entangled around the sail drive. This was a quick process and he was able to confirm that there was no sign of any lines, wire or other debris.
As the warranty for the engine including the sail drive rested with Yanmar, Wind Craft advised us to contact a marine diesel mechanic and not to use the starboard engine, which meant we were stuck on the dock until the issue was resolved. Not something we wanted to do long term, so we moved forward as quickly as we could. We arranged for Sea Goddess to be hauled out in February 2020, which was necessary in order for the sail-drive issue to be investigated and any repairs conducted.
The sail-drive was subsequently inspected at that time and the mechanic found no evidence of fishing line or rope ever being wrapped around the propeller, and that the likely cause of the water ingress was due to a calcium build up on the shaft underneath the seal which indicated that water was seeping through the seal. At our request he also checked the seals on the port engine which did not have a water ingress issue, however a similar build-up of calcium was found. (Again, there was no evidence of fishing line or rope having wrapped around the port engine propeller shaft). He then proceeded to polish the shafts of both engines and replace the seals. In terms of identifying and resolving the sail drive problem, so far so good.
However, we hit a glitch regarding our warranty claim for costs associated with the sail drive inspection and repair. Warranty claims are lodged with the Australian Yanmar distributor. In our telephone discussion with the Queensland representative regarding our warranty claim, he stated that there could have been fishing line or rope around the propellers, and as such he would not support our warranty claim. This statement directly contradicted the mechanic’s assessment of the propellers and that of the diver arranged by Wind Craft. When Peter raised this, he changed tack and started talking about engine hours as being the issue.
In relation to engine hours there is no mention of an hour’s limit on sail-drive usage for the recreational use of the vessel. Section 4 and 5 of the Yanmar Marine Products Limited Warranty Handbook, provided to us at handover of the catamaran, only mentions that the warranty is subject to time. With respect to comments regarding the possibility of fishing line and rope around the propeller, in our view it was unreasonable for the Yanmar representative to arrive at such a conclusion since he had no direct involvement in the investigation or sail-drive repair process.
We considered our options and decided to escalate the warranty claim by lodging a formal written complaint with the Yanmar Asia-Pacific office based in Singapore. Apart from our concerns regarding the management of our warranty claim, we were seeking warranty compensation for the repair to the starboard sail-drive, marina cleaning and environmental levies as well as a contribution to the boat haul out fees, totalling $1,170AUD. The letter of complaint was posted on the 14th March 2020 with no response as yet. We will keep you posted if and when we receive one.
Update 16th April 2020
Still no reply from the Yanmar Asia-Pacific office regarding our sail drive repair experience or compensation, so Sandra rang the Singapore office at different times of the day to speak to someone. It was a bit concerning to get a pre-recorded message each time stating that the Customer Service Department was unavailable. Changing tack, she did find the contact email address of an actual person on the Singapore office website, and duly sent off an email with the original letter of complaint attached. Fingers crossed we get a response soon.
Update 18th May 2020
Since our last post, our formal complaint has been escalated to a Customer Service representative at Yanmar Marine International, based in the Netherlands. We have had two emails from this representative requesting all relevant documentation and a detailed chronological account of ‘our story’, both of which we have forwarded. Since then …… silence. We are not giving up and we are not going away, follow up planned for the end of this month.
Update 10th June 2020
We have recently been notified by Yanmar Marine that our warranty claim will not be upheld because the last engine service was conducted by Peter. To date, Yanmar representatives have provided three different reasons for rejecting our warranty claim as follows:
Initially we were told by an Australian based Yanmar agent representative that the warranty claim would not be upheld as it could not be established that fishing line or the like was the cause of the sail drive issue. When we pointed out that both the diver engaged by Wind Craft Australia, and the mechanic clearly discounted any evidence of such fishing line, plastic etc., the representative, having no direct involvement in the inspection or repair of the sail drive, then moved onto another reason for discounting our warranty claim. The next reason put forward and supported by the mechanic was that the engine had done too many hours, and this was the reason that the warranty claim could not be upheld. We pointed out that there is no reference to ‘engine hours’ as a criterion within the Yanmar warranty information.
Now we have yet another reason why the warranty claim cannot be upheld, that is the previous engine service was not completed by a Yanmar agent/dealer. We attempted to engage a Yanmar dealer/agent to service the engines in Le Marin (Martinique) and Panama City (Panama). In both instances the agent/dealer did not have capacity to undertake the work in a reasonable time frame i.e. a 2 week wait or longer. Such a delay would have significantly impacted on our travel schedule. Furthermore, we did not wish to traverse the Panama City to Tahiti sail, our longest passage, without completing a service on both engines so Peter completed this using his knowledge of diesel engines and the required engine oil and parts. We also note that the issue with the sail drive was on the propeller shaft under the front seal, which had a calcium build up, which would have occurred whether the engine was serviced on time or not and by a Yanmar agent or not, as the seals would not normally be replaced when performing a service in the water. We provided Yanmar with this explanation, obviously to no avail. Rather than compensating us for financial costs associated with sail drive repairs ($1,170.70AUD) Yanmar Marine International in conjunction with the Australian distributor have offered to supply a service kit to us as a ‘commercial gesture’. We are currently seeking further advice in relation to this matter, and as such will not be providing any further updates to this post.
Our advice to any yachties out there, and particularly boat owners with equipment under warranty, is to heed the warnings inherent in this post, keep records of any equipment issues even if these issues appear to resolve in the short term, and make sure you understand the criteria and limitations of equipment warranties.