Powercat 525 Evolution-Our Experience of Ownership

So there we were my teenage son and I.  He was in the back seat and hubby had been sent back to the ferry offices to see what was going on.

We had been told where to park and wait until the loaders could work out whether there was any room on the car deck / lorry bay for our boat on its trailer plus our car.

They had promised that 'if they could they would squeeze us in' but I was pessimistic.

Lorry after lorry after lorry drove onto the ferry.  Surely there would not be room?

The smartly uniformed guy with shiny buttons and a two way radio shouted orders, and another guy drove a clever little vehicle that hooked up to lorry containers that had been left as freight.

This little vehicle looked a bit like the one they use in hospitals to pull little trucks, but he drove it much faster.

For a while I forgot my anxieties as I watched him manouvre gigantic freight trailers expertly.

Then suddenly there was a head at the drivers door.

A bearded lorry driver opened the door and attempted to sit on the driver's seat.

From my limited understanding of Greek I managed to work out that because other lorries had parked and blocked his way he now wanted our car moved immediately - so that he could board the ferry with his lorry!!!

And he was intending to move our rig himself!!!

As I was fully aware that our insurance did not cover us for any damage to the boat if it was damaged by a stranger driving our car, I was very verbal in making it very clear that he was NOT to drive the car.

'OXI, OXI, OXI!!!; I bellowed at the top of my lungs and pushed him back out of the car.

He screamed back at me at the top of his lungs and while the tone was frightening I noticed that he maintained calling me Kyria at all times - which at least was very polite of him.

Teenage son leaned forward and pulled the door shut and I put the locks on.  But the windows were still open due to the heat so I removed the keys from the ignition after a struggle and clearly sat on them so the guy could see there was no point making any more trouble.

As is always the case, help arrived just as soon as the crisis had passed.

Hubby arrived back from the offices of the SuperFast Ferries waving our boarding passes.

The lady in the office had secured us a space.  The only snag was that hubby would have to get up at four in the morning to move the car and trailer to let lorries disembark to Igoumenitsa.

At last we were safely on board and the Powercat 525 Evolution Powered Catamaran was in the hold.

We had a cosy and relaxing time on the lovely Superfast XI Cruising ferry. This boat is amazing in comparison with UK ferries.  It is like a floating hotel.  We had a meal in the restaurant as I didn't want to risk seeing the hijacking lorry driver in the self service area.

So I can thank the lorry driver, for that as the meal was superb and the service fantastic.  I have had much more inferior meals in expensive restaurants in both the UK and Paris!!

The cabins were very comfortable and apart from the early morning wake up we all had a lovely sleep.

The founder of SuperFast ferries is from our tiny village on Kefalonia so we felt pleased that his company had provided us with a brilliant voyage and it somehow made the experience feel like we were almost home already.

We arrived at Patra at around 11.30 in the morning.

This is the famous Rio Antirio Bridge at Patras - which is the longest suspended bridge in the world!!! 

It has to be strong enough to withstand earthquakes, tsunamis, liquifaction of sea bottom and the movement of the tectonic plates!!!

It is an amazing example of Greek engineering skills and I find it quite an inspiration.

Next post will be the last leg of the journey - as we finally bring our brand new Powercat 525 Evolution home to Kefalonia and start the story of our first few weeks ownership!

I have had a day off blogging to steady my nerves while I gathered my faculties to resume the tale of how we collected our brand new multihull powerboat from Powercats Ltd, of Redruth Cornwall and how we towed our £37,000+ new boat across Europe on a trailer attached to the back of a Suzuki SX4 4X4.

Last time I had got to the point where we had just got through Italy and we were getting to Ancona.

Now the plan was to catch the Superfast Ferry XI from Ancona to Patras via Igoumenitsa.

We knew what time the ferry was leaving and our travel agent had not got us return tickets including our boat on the trailer as the system had trouble giving return tickets which had no trailer on the outward journey and a trailer and boat on the inward journey. So we had ordinary return tickets and she had told us to 'just pop into the office and get them upgraded and pay the extra and it wouldn't be a problem.'

This is where the difference between me and hubby gets highlighted. I wanted him to phone ahead or contact the Superfast guys well in advance to get this upgrade at least sorted out in principal - even if we couldn't pay til we got there.

But hubby believed implicitly in the agents pronouncements and insisted it would be fine to leave it to the last minute.

Me and 'last minute' have never been happy company.

To be perfectly open about it, me and 'last minute' hate each others guts. I try and avoid coming into contact with 'last minute' as much as possible, and 'last minute' does its best to ruin my life wherever it gets the opportunity.

This day was no exception.

After a pleasant night spent wide awake in terror in the front of our car 'guarding' my peacefully sleeping menfolk as the entire armed assassin section of the Mafia prowled around us in the motorway carpark, my normally placid personality had taken a slight detour.

Anyone who knows me well will attest to my gentle affability, my ability to ride adversity like a child rides a roller coaster at a fairground - but without the screaming and being sick part.

Easy going is my default characteristic.

But Italy had done things to me. My eyes were wild and bloodshot. My hair was tangled and it was the first time I had ever been able to feel anger actually in the roots of my hair.

All I knew was that until I set foot back on Greek soil everyone around me was going to suffer if they did one single thing to thwart that aim.

What I didn't know was that thwarting was the order of the day and 'last minute'  had ordered up plenty of it with a side helping of irritation.

Let's have a soothing image now.

The lovely waters of the Adriatic as seen through our porthole when we finally got onto the ferry. 

Back to the narrative.

In the queue for the ferry, lorry drivers and drivers looked admiringly at the large spanking new boat on the back of our trailer.  Hubby had gone to enquire about our 'problem free upgrade' safely to be left to the last minute, while teenage son anxiously sat watching me in the same way that army bomb diposal experts regard a particularly tricky incendiary device.

I could tell from the slope of hubby's shoulders as he emerged from the office doors that all was not well.  Let's face it, I had known before he even went in there.  But would he listen to me?  Oh no, hubby loved to flirt with my arch enemy 'last minute'.  He would flaunt their salacious relationship with me regularly, and accuse me of over reaction whenever I protested.

But was I right? OF COURSE I WAS BLOOMIN RIGHT!!!!

More tomorrow - I am off for another decaffeinated beverage to calm my post traumatic stress LOL

By the time my husband, I and my teenage son had reached the beginning of the series of tunnels that lead up to the Biggie -the Mont Blanc (official website english version) tunnel itself, we were all a bit frazzled to say the least.

Although surrounded by spectacular scenery, it is hard to relax and enjoy it when you are pulling behind your car a boat on a trailer that is the physical representation of the sum of your life's savings!!!

This was the first time that my husband had undertaken such an arduous task and he assured me that one way or another it would definitely be his last!!!

If you are new to this blog I will just quickly precis the story so far (although it is well worth reading the preceding posts and there are some cool photos and even my first ever video clip!!).

We had bought a brand new Powercat 525 Evolution, twin hull (catamaran) with twin Yamaha engines and kitted out with a full bimini cover for the meditteranean, which was where we had recently moved to live.

We had been planning this purchase and communicating with Powercats Ltd of Redruth Cornwall since July 2007 including two visits to boat shows (a boat show in South Wales and the Southampton boat show) and at last the time had come to collect our long awaited powerboat in February 2008.

We had paid over £37,000 including VAT for this custom built craft and were now towing it across Europe, having started from Cornwall and having crossed the channel to Cherbourg from Poole harbour.

Back to the current point in the story of our epic trailer trek across a continent!

Passing through snow covered terrain we made our way towards the first tunnel.  There are actually many tunnels both before and after the Mont Blanc and although some people might be entranced by the informative signs which enumerate the length and breadth etc of each and every one, I'm afraid we have a very low boredom threshold!

Looking back we should have got so much more from this experience, but as it was the anxiety seems to be the one thing we all remember most

Apologies for the blurry picture - at this stage my eyes were a bit strained, during the moments when I actually was brave enough to open them!!

The roads were quite icy but we were trusting to the Suzuki SX 4x4's superb road holding abilities and of course our driver's superior skills.  We weren't at all worried about the Italian lorry drivers hurtling past us - honest guv, we weren't, we always whimper like that, it keeps our vocal chords exercised.

    

The first of these psychedelic masterpieces is what happens when you take a picture inside a mountain while an Italian lorry hurtles past you and you don't know much about cameras.

The second is a picture taken inside a mountain but without the added fun of said Italian lorry.

We emerge into the light at the end of the tunnel.  Here we arrive at the point where we pay to enter the Mont Blanc tunnel at last and here is where the photgraphs stop for quite a while as things started getting fraught.

We got to the pay booth and started getting anxious - yes even more anxious, nails were rapidly descending in length.

Here's why.

Tolls

Vehicle with two or more axles
and a total height greater than 2m
and less than or equal to 3m                                                                   42,70 Euro

Vehicles with three or more axles                                                         248,90 Euro
 with total height greater than 3m.

Quite a difference in toll between 42,70 and 248,90 Euros!!! We didn't have the larger amount in our toll cache in the car and in any case we were hoping that we wouldn't have to spend that kind of money.

Problem with the Powercat 525 Evolution is that if you include the height of the radar arch we were just over the 3 M mark!!!

The lady in the booth came out of the booth and looked at the boat on the trailer.  She went back into the booth and came back with a very long ruler.

She measured the height of the boat and trailer.

We all held our breaths.

She made a non committal noise and returned to her booth.

Looking down at us from her lofty height, she pronounced her decision....

42,70 Euros !!!   

Much happiness ensued and it may have been the most joyfully given toll she ever received!!

Into the Mont Blanc tunnel (Wikipedia info) we went, and it was much the same as the other tunnels, just more so, and more so and more so.

A lifetime later we emerged into italy.

Sadly we prefer to draw a veil over our Italian experiences. But in a very short description here it is

Mad Italian Drivers, speed speed speed, narrow narrow roads, road works at maniac speed and inches away from nasty poky out walls threatening to rip the boat off its trailer and throw us across the motorway to our certain death.

A night spent asleep in the car in a motorway services (when I say asleep I mean awake in wide eyed terror convinced we were surrounded by murderous mafiosos (or mafiosi or whatever they are called - true terror knows no grammar) and a final miserable rush to catch the ferry at Ancona.

I will recount the Ancona experience tomorrow.  Right now I need a stiff cup of decaffeinated something to restore my nerves after that awful traumatic recall of Italy, or as our teenage son calls it Sh - Italy!!

Normally I frown on strong language, but in this case it is only too justified.

We had stopped for the night in a nice little motorway lodge and had croissants and coffee for breakfast.  Our  brand new Powercat 525 Evolution on which we had spent all the equity from our recently sold house, has been safe and sound for the night in a locked car park.

We checked it over, checked the car, and set off again.

The plan was to get over Mont Blanc and as far into Italy as possible before stopping for another night.  We had felt quite uneasy travelling through Italy on the trip to Redruth, Cornwall.

The auto route from Ancona to Mont Blanc through Italy seemed to be the UK equivalent of driving through such salubrious areas as the industrial sections of Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester and so on.

The smell of pollution had been dreadful, and whenever we stopped for petrol or toilet requirements, we were accosted by dubious types trying to sell us laptops or other dodgy items.

So we didn't want to spend too long on that part of the journey.

Here's a picture I wasn't sure would come out well.  I stuck the digital camera out of the car window, pointed it in the general direction of the Powercat 525 Evolution as it was towing along on the motorway, and just hoped for the best!!

So this is what a powerboat driving along at 110 kilometres an hour looks like!!!

Powercats 525 Evolution's first glimpse of snowy mountains.

The road looked nice and straight, but I suppose we should have known it was too good to be true and that there were problems and danger up ahead.

At this point we were blissfully ignorant of the challenges to come.  The sign was just a direction we were following.

But we were soon aware of the dangers!!!

This road looks like a thin and very high shelf, teetering what seemed like miles above the valley.

Yes we did have to tow our £37,000+ powercat 525 evolution over that precipice!!

Don't look down everyone!!

Everyone closed their eyes, except for the poor driver who just kept them firmly on the road ahead and tried to ignore the chasm either side.

Brand New Powercat Owner - the stress and fear and concentration !

Our poor driver had already suffered above and beyond the call of duty to bring safely home our Powercats 525 Evolution  only to face another warning sign !!

Next post will cover - how to get a powerboat through a mountain and why we took no pictures of Italy!!

It was dark and we were all very very tired when we arrived at the Poole terminal with our new boat to catch the Brittany Ferries ship to Cherbourg.

We were the first to arrive and we sat listening to our CD of 'Yes Minister' as we waited.

The neon sign was nice and clear, so we knew we were in the right place - it was just a matter of time...

Before we knew it, we were safe and sound in the hold.  We checked her carefully like a mother hen checks her new chicks.  Then we left her alone to find our cabins and get some much needed sleep.

There was to be a lot of driving the next morning!!!

La soleille est brille!!!

We were very lucky with the weather during our trip from Powercats Ltd, in Redruth Cornwall back to the Mediterranean where we live. 
The sun shone down on a fresh new day and we set off full of hope and enthusiasm and with a very large burden on the back of the car.

We stopped for some petit dejeuner after a few hours.

The car we had bought in preparation for collecting our boat was chosen for its all round versatility, safety, towing capabilities and fuel consumption figures.

It is a  Suzuki SX4 and it is a 4X4.

Where we live the roads are often rough and we like to go down to the little beaches that are inaccessible without an 'off road' vehicle.

The Suzuki was quite biddable whilst towing the boat, although reversing was a bit of a struggle as the trailer brakes came on and there was no trailer break lock off so the car had to push against the trailer brakes which made for a nasty smell of clutch burning.  But the car couldn't be blamed for that, and indeed we were impressed at how it coped.

Otherwise the trailer handled very well.

We decided to take the Route National on the way back through France and down to Italy.  We had used the auto routes on the way up to Britain and although fast, it had been a bit of a dull journey.

The N roads were anything but dull!  We saw some lovely old buildings and scenery.

This section of the journey was a bit treachorous though.  The pavements had little steps onto the road.

With the extra width of the powerboat trailer on the back this made this little stretch somewhere that the driver had to concentrate hard to avoid disaster!!!

Not far to go now, before the Mont Blanc Tunnel and Italy!!!

Here is our brand new Powercat, we first set eyes on it in real life - as opposed to email pictures on the Saturday before we collected it.  So this is a picture taken in early February 2008.

This is what all the excitement was about - and what we paid over £37,000 inc Vat for!!!

Jay Pengelly took us to the Cornish coast and gave us a demonstration ride on another cat, as we had been persuaded that to take ours out for a sea trial was impractical for various reasons.

Electrical fault in the rear lights of the trailer being attended to at the last minute.

Monday February 11th 2008 and we are off!!

The first drive towing the Powercat was a white knuckle experience.  Particularly as we had our European car to pull it with and the first leg was through the UK to Poole, to catch the ferry to Cherbourg, so the driver was on the wrong side!!!

We drove very carefully not wanting anything to happen to our new treasure.  Full of excitement and looking forward to getting it home.

There were lots of local fishermen eagerly awaiting our return as well.  They were keen to see this new cornish boat.  We had told them about the handling characteristics and they were hoping we would take them out fishing on it.

Another friend who runs a local watersports centre and another pal were also keen on going water ski-ing.

The future looked like it would be packed with fun and aqua ecstasy.

We had paid premium bucks for a premium craft.  It had been built specifically for us and we had been told by Jay how we semed to have 'thought of everything' in our discussions about what we needed in order to make this the ideal boat for us.

We had researched the kind of accessories and fittings required for a med boat and got a lot of info from Rod Heikell's blog in particular his advice regarding bimini designs and mosquito cover for the mediterranean .

Hubby was familiar with Rod Heikell as he had numerous books by him as hubby is a long experienced sailor with Yacht master Theory under his belt and tons of sailing hours under his belt as well.  He had eschewed getting his Yacht Master Practical Exams sorted, and decided instead to get his qualification as a Powerboat Instructor - in preparation for our new purchase.

Hubby does not believe in doing things by halves - if he gets qualified - HE GETS QUALIFIED!!!

Number one son also got his PB2 sorted out - so we were well ready for our meditteranean boating.

We spent over £37,000 in total on a Powercat Evolution 525 which was built in Redruth by Powercats.
We collected it from the builders in February 2008 and towed it through Europe.

We were very excited with our new purchase.

To start with I will include photgraphs of our journey through Europe towing the Powercat 535 Evolution from Cornwall, onto the Ferry at Poole, then off the ferry at Cherbourg and across France and through the Alps via the Mont Blanc Tunnel and then down to Ancona through Italy.

We then caught a ferry in Ancona to Patras in Greece and then from Patras to Kefalonia which was to be the Powercat's new permanent home in the Ionian sea for which it had been built.

Please visit again for a no hold barred true story of new Powercat ownership.