A Bad Day, er month, season actually! In a word - Lencraft! - Page 2

eupa · 03 August 2006, 16:13

[B]It would be interesting to know whether that person had an axe to gri[/B

wrong conclusion. I have not seen any work done by Mr. Tilley. I have no axe to grind against anybody. I said I know nothing about tubes and was repeating what I had been told period.

All I know is that the original tubes on my boat were wrong ( near fataility 4 miles out of Dover at 0100 hrs after about 40 hrs. However the manufacturer took the boat back and re-tubed it, and it has been Ok since.He did however, want me to pay for the work and I refused. You dont have to look far to know whom I am talking about.... Perhaps if Mr. Tilley had done my tubes - the accident would never had happened

Jonathan

Matt · 03 August 2006, 16:14

By near fatality, should I assume you're now crippled for life, unable to work and living off the insurance settlement?

eupa · 03 August 2006, 16:33

By near fatality, should I assume you're now crippled for life, unable to work and living off the insurance settlement?

I did'nt say it was me. The two crew members would have drowned A may day was sent and the Dover life boat came out and took the crew off.
The Rapier has 5 independent tubes. two starboard and two port linked by a bow tube going all the way around the bow going down 1 meter each-side. Weather was about a 4 and the speed was about 40 knts. Radar was on and showed negative.Without warning the bow tube blew and it took with it three tubes leaving the rear tubes either side. Payload was about 600 kgs front and 800 back. The 600 kgs front soon became about 1500 kgs and the boat was going to capsize..The bow tube didnt come off- it just blew and the bow wasnt snuffed.

Headlines in 1994 -- ( charlton tv) boat sinks at sea - loss of all hands.

Anway that was in 1994 and the boat has been great since, despite my appalling seamanship..

Jonathan

ollyit · 03 August 2006, 16:54

a long read but blimey what a polava - hope ur get a real good deal soon for the new tubes, 5k seems a lotta brass

Erin · 03 August 2006, 17:15

You have my full sympathy. Both myself and a certain Mr Cod have had first hand experience of dealing with a similar company that obviously didn't know the first thing about good customer relations, or keeping to their side of the bargain. I had the very same problem when my hull started cracking and I was offered a replacement. Only mine took 9 months to sort out with many agonising moments when I wasn't sure I'd ever see my rib again. At least Lencraft had some money to reimburse you and presumably weren't being chased by other creditors. I assume their cheque didn't bounce!

paul tilley · 03 August 2006, 21:43

vince email me your address and i will send you a sticker . thanks for the vote of confidence from codders ,cookee ect .ps stephen i have just retubed a humber and must say that the customer was very happy

BogMonster · 03 August 2006, 21:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by paul tilley

vince email me your address and i will send you a sticker . thanks for the vote of confidence from codders ,cookee ect .ps stephen i have just retubed a humber and must say that the customer was very happy

Fair enough, you're on the (very) short list of people I would approach for a quote if the worst happened. I have heard a lot of comment about your work and all of it has been good, which is a recommendation in itself because normally people only comment on something when it goes wrong!

I do however hope that my tubular problems will come to an end just as soon as the weather warms up and I can crack open some glue...

alt · 03 August 2006, 23:09

Lads, can we please keep this on subject with Lencraft? cheers

Daibheid · 04 August 2006, 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin

You have my full sympathy. ......with many agonising moments when I wasn't sure I'd ever see my rib again. At least Lencraft had some money to reimburse you and presumably weren't being chased by other creditors. I assume their cheque didn't bounce!

Thanks Erin - and we buy boats for R+R!

You're right I knew at least they weren't sinking financially. On the contrary that may well be the root cause of their customer service issues in my case - too much market share with hitherto limited competition and not enough capacity to service it. Predictably there appears to be little capacity to recover problems - avoidable and otherwise.

The cheque is lodged - they could stop it but it's probably small beer to them if it means they can concentrate on more lucrative work.

BTW the reference to 5 grand is Euros at about 1.5 to a £stg. They could have written a cheque for twice that amount and it wouldn't make up for the hassle or loss of the entire season.

alt · 04 August 2006, 16:36

You can't put a price on missing a season on the water, its sickening. I really feel sorry for you

codprawn · 04 August 2006, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by alt

You can't put a price on missing a season on the water, its sickening. I really feel sorry for you

Wait until you hear my full story - won't be long I hope!!!

Charles · 04 August 2006, 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Wait until you hear my full story - won't be long I hope!!!

Sheesh, we can't wait

Richard B · 04 August 2006, 18:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Wait until you hear my full story - won't be long I hope!!!

What's stopping you telling it now?

codprawn · 04 August 2006, 18:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

What's stopping you telling it now?

Pending legal action.

codprawn · 04 August 2006, 18:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by ct01

Sheesh, we can't wait

Is that the Royal we???

PeterR · 04 August 2006, 21:08

I wonder If this will make my day In your own time codders and not before your ready,But please dont let me miss it

Daibheid · 08 August 2006, 10:35

When Lencraft insisted they had to have my boat back to make a pattern for the tubes I was told the tubes after removal from my boat were going to be scrapped and would not be repaired and used on another boat. In fact Jerry Lenane has since confirmed they were taken to the dump.

The eight handles transferred from my original Griffin tubes to the disastrous new tubes have not been returned when requested. Lencraft have stated they're gone to the dump along with the scrapped tubes. So I suppose that proves the tubes were indeed scrapped.

Griffins are actually quite common, for example when I picked up my rib end of June after the prolonged repair attempt Lencraft had a very sad looking Griffin 5m - same as mine - in dire need of a retube - top third all round the tubes all brown and rotted looking as though a victim of acid rain. I was told it belonged to someone with a connection to one of the (Lenane) family that they were hoping to sort out with something in the way of tubes. Again I just mention this to show Griffins are more plentiful than you might think.

Daibheid · 14 December 2006, 17:19

Isn't it just so much more pleasant to be able to give credit where credit is due?

Looking a lot better than when Lencraft dumped it back and it even stays inflated - a whole new experience!

Sorry Paul that I'm only getting round to posting now - I've actually been making up for lost time on the water since getting a proper set of tubes.

Must get round to putting the A-Frame back on for 2007.

Thanks again to everyone for their contributions, etc - both on the thread and via PMs. As this forum gets ever more popular it just keeps getting better as a resource to help avoid problems with service providers. You could almost feel sorry for a supplier who fails to deal fairly with a "Ribnutter" when things occasionally and inevitably go wrong!

Happy Christmas everyone and here's to a great 2007 in and on the water.

Biggles · 14 December 2006, 17:22

She looks really nice. Bet your glad with the end result.

simmons0 · 14 December 2006, 18:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Wait until you hear my full story - won't be long I hope!!!

Can you say yet?

Glad you got your Griffin sorted mate!

Harry