Due to the inoperability of the...

[thierry_germain]

Due to the inoperability of the Sea Ray dealer in the Dominican Republic, Nautimar and the Sea Ray company itself, I am bringing this letter to the attention to those who intend to purchase a Sea Ray boat. On March 7th, 2019 I bought a Sun dancer 320 OB boat. It was supposed to be delivered in Miami on May 15th, 2019, but they did not comply with the delivery in the scheduled time, so it had to be done on September 12th, 2019, in Casa de Campo, La Romana, Dominican Republic, with a freight surcharge of US$17,500.00.

From the moment I received the boat, it presented multiple problems, which I immediately reported to the dealer. After 5 months, and since the seller had not solved the problems that the boat presented, I had no choice but to send a letter of complaint directly to Sea Ray. Below are details of the letter sent to Ms. Kate Schumacher on February 26, 2020:

SEA RAY Customer Service

REF: HIN: SERV2226D919 – DA0320-03020

INVOICE: 6145597

To whom it may concern.

Following the amount of difficulties encountered during the purchase of one of your boats, I am sending this letter so that you can provide solutions to the problems that your Dominican dealer, NAUTIMAR, has still not resolved more than 5 months after the delivery of the boat. Below you will find a list of the problems encountered, resolved or not. The delay in the initial delivery, not being a technical problem, is not considered in this list.

1) Boat tilted several degrees backwards when stationary.

2) Faulty underwater lighting, turning off after a few minutes. Problem solved.

3) Battery charger constantly charging, even without consumption. Problem solved.

4) Stripped electrical cable. Problem solved.

5) Cockpit ceiling leak. Problem solved.

6) Faulty lamp. Problem solved.

7) VHF radio which turns on by itself and triggers an alarm. Problem solved.

😎 Trouble loading fuel. Forced to hold the gun and load very slowly. 1 gallon per minute… Problem solved (4 months later...).

9) Failure to load 220 gallons of fuel. Maximum of 195 gallons. Unresolved issue.

10) Auto trim tab stabilizer that flashes when the engines are off. Problem solved.

11) 2 DOA batteries. Problem solved.

12) Faulty fuse for anchor control.

13) Generator blocked and alarmed upon delivery of the boat. Problem solved.

14) Boat delivered without SIMRAD update. Problem solved.

15) Rear sunshade jammed and is missing a remote control. Several times the sunshade has remained in the open position without the possibility of closing it. The dealer took 5 months to do the repair, even now it is still faulty at times.

16) Boat ordered with anti-fouling. Since then, it had to be redone 2 times.

17) Paint of motor bases flaking only after a couple of months. Unresolved problem.

18) Boat delivered with a cabin door adjustment problem and door paint. Problem solved.

I would like to add to this list, some design problems:

The ladder is dangerous, as it is difficult to get it in and out, as it gets stuck. In addition, there is nothing to grab on when you get on the boat. The quality is pitiful because it is already all rusty, hurting our hands and preventing it from coming out or closing easily…5 months later!

The fuel loading point is too low. It should be positioned on the side at a height of 3 ft.

Putting all the fuses in an area that is not protected from weather does not seem wise to me.

I wanted to share my dissatisfaction with this situation, because it seems to me, that not solving all the problems to date is a proof of incompetence. The boat was delivered on September 12 and to this day, there are still issues. These situations should have never happened since the beginning, considering the expected quality from Sea Ray, therefore, I am asking you to fix this as soon as possible and extend the warranty period of the boat.

Looking forward to your response,

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The next day I received an email from Ms. Kate stating that someone else would handle the claim. 10 days later, I received an email from Sea Ray stating that:

 As further response to the concerns regarding your Sea Ray DAO320, we have been working directly with Jose at Nautimar to evaluate and address your concerns. Your dealer has reviewed these issues with us and we have provided information that will allow them to address these items. Talking with Jose, it was determined that it will be best that he arrange to meet with you at the boat to assure we understand all issues.  Jose will be in contact with you to make this arrangement, as soon as possible. Let us assure you Thierry, that we will work to assist Nautimar in any way possible to meet your expectations.

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It seems to me that the letter was very explanatory and detailed. If the dealer does not understand what is mentioned, it is evident that he is not capable to solve the problems mentioned. Due to COVID 19, the ship was laid up for 7 months but with the weekly care of a sailor. In October 2020, we went back and checked the work that should have been done. The painting of the engines was poorly done, as the dealer painted the engines without taking the boat out of the water. The generator still had problems and the starter was stuck, the air conditioning did not work, and it has problems with all 3 engines after 96 hours in the open sea. The engines were fixed with an early maintenance, but the others still. The painting of the engines was done again, taking the boat out of the water but unfortunately it was done by the same painter and he did not prepare the surface to be painted before doing it. As a result, the boat has 3 engines with paint that is fading more and more every day. The tank filling issue remains the same with a 30-gallon shortfall. In addition to these outstanding problems, from November the boat presented some new ones, including problems with the GPS antenna. I waited a month and a half for it to be "solved". I purposely wrote "solved" because this man changed the antenna but did not bother to reconfigure the 2 screens of the navigation devices and he did not update the software of these devices due to the change of antenna. Now, to finish with this allegory of incompetence I will tell you what happened the last time I went out with the boat. I went with 3 friends to spend the night in a small bay located 40min from Casa de Campo, La Romana, Dominican Republic. Around 23h we tried to start the generator to recharge the batteries and turn on the A/C. The generator once again refused to start, and we had to go back to the marina as the batteries would not last the whole night. But the night was moonless, so I decided to turn on the radar to avoid problems... But the radar did not work. So, we had to return at midnight with no radar, no instruments, guiding us with the ground lights. In addition to that, there were some details such as a water pump problem in the cockpit, front canopy support etc. In addition to all this, I no longer have the slightest confidence in this boat. I had bought it for trips in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands but given the risks I don't dare to go to the open sea. It should also be noted that we didn’t received even a phone call to discuss the issue...This lack of consideration and the dealer's inability led me to write this letter so that my neighboring captains do not go through the same.