As many of you may have noted, we have had numerous problems with our 175 optimax this and last season. As very light users, it's only done 70 hours and we bought it with 33, it has affected our use massively.
Anyways, the local dealer/servicing agent were meant to be seeing the boat on Tuesday (after bank holiday) when the chief mechanic is back off hols. My old old mum wrote a letter to "mercury" expressing her dissatisfaction with the reliability of a brand new engine costing so much. We thought she'd get nowhere. However when she did this to the head of welsh police, after getting two 3points and two fines in a 15 minute journey in and out of Menai Bridge, she got one fine and 3 points removed. So we let her have a crack. Go Granny!
Suffice to say Tim Bennet from Barrus rang the old man today, within a day of receiving the letter and had already phoned the boatyard to establish what was being done. (Not many car companies would do that) He stated that if the mechanic doesn't look at it on his day of return they will send someone from there and get it sorted. Excellent!
The boatyard is busy with a months worth of work and had said they would try and look at it that week sometime and may be able to fix it if it was something small. So we're pretty impressed with Barrus.
In addition, as a gesture of good will, said they would pay for the service at the end of season.
Can't say fairer than that. Amazing what a polite "hand written" letter expressing dissatisfaction with a brand that we valued after 10 years with a 3cyl 90hp opti with no problems. The old girl could teach some of these chavs a thing or to about manners and complaining.
I'd also like to note Ian Sharlot has always been excellent and prompt with any issues, we bought the boat from him as an ex demo. He himself had been on to Barrus to confirm extended warranty etc when the boatyard said it was only 3 years.
I though i should share our experience with you all, as despite niggly problems with this engine, they have come up trumps and ultimately i suppose it's all part of boating. The boat in itself is excellent and proved its worth when we circumnavigated Anglesey, hitting some heavy chop and overfalls in numerous places. Boat handled it excellently and the engine has such torque and instant response.
I just hope they can sort it for the 6th, another weeks holiday booked for a decent blast or three
Conwy and Llyn peninsula here i come....i hope
Sula
Will wait and see
Hopefully they can fix it by the 6th 
)
As mentioned, checking wires etc where they may chafe could be a worthwhile exercise.
Eastern Thunder
Northern Exposure 5
