Powercat 525 Evolution-Our Experience of Ownership

Powercats have two current models the 525 and 695.  We bought our Powercat 525 Evolution in February 2008 for over £37,000.

It is now out of the water condemned by a marine surveyor as 'unfit for purpose' and as having 'unsafe electrics' amongst other defects.  Here are a pictures of a couple of them.

The keel band on one of the two hulls of the Powercat 525 powered catamaran.  This was bought as a brand new build in February 2008 directly from the builders -  Powercats Ltd of Redruth Cornwall.  As can be seen the keel band is coming apart already.  It also shows signs of corrosion.

These are just a few of the numerous sharp points sticking out into the passenger area (the cuddy) of the Powercat 525 Evolution.  We were unable to see these until we got the boat to the Med as the cuddy had been packed full of bimini and other items so we couldn't go all the way in and examine closely.  We had hoped to sea trial our purchase but were persuaded not to - I know, I know - hindsight is 20/20

There is a Catamaran show at Gosport from the 6th -8th June  - I don't know if Powercats are exhibiting as well as at Seawork 2008  If you are at either of those shows - ask them if they have changed any of their procedures and practices since selling our boat?  Maybe they might be able to tell you what they are doing to aid Trading Standards of Cornwall in their investigation of this case?

If only one person stays safe on the water by learning from our experience, then this blog will have been worthwhile.

Another great article about the new Challenge Yacht in Swansea

The boat looks great and all reports back from the happy owners are that it handles like a dream and is a skippers fantasy in reality

Now back to slightly less grandiose sailing

I mentioned yesterday that I knew of two boats that were all that they were expected to be. 

Obviously the beautiful and premium price tag Challenge was one of them.

But here is something in the reaches of most people's budgets and which is superb fun and marvellous to use and handle.

Ladies and gentlemen, sailors and landlubbers will all find this a dinky little fun packed bundle.

The AquaGlide - tarraa!!!

I will be getting some video footage of this little inflatable sail boat tomorrow will add it then.

It only cost about £300 at the Southampton Boat Show in 2007 - so it came in at around much less than one hundred times cheaper than a Powercat 525 Evolution - which cost over £37,000 in February 2008.

But surprisingly it has lasted longer - given us more on water hours and is safe to allow small children on deck as it has no sharp or piercing protrusions on it.

So you don't always 'get what you pay for' - sometimes laughably cheap turns out to be better quality than expensive.

We had a lovely day yesterday on the beach at Antisamos.  Our son took our friends children out for their first experience on the water.  Their ages ranged from 7 to 13.  They had been expecting to go out on the powerboat.  But it isn't safe for use.

We will be going out on a caique  (pronounced Ka Yee Kee ) on Sunday as it is the only way we can attempt to provide them with the 'hands on' experience we had promised.

Ionian Discoveries is run by Jamie Stirling and we expect to have another great day out on the water on his traditional Greek Fishing boat which has been kitted out for educational trips.
 

There are two fantastic boats that I know of that turned out to be everything that was expected of them.

The first is owned by Swansea Bay Sea School and the principal of the School was the friend of ours we introduced to Powercats Ltd as he was seriously thinking of purchasing some of their boats for the school as safety boats.

Unfortunately that is now unlikely to happen - a shame as the Powercat should have been ideal for the purpose.  But alas reliability (such as being able to be sure it will not suddenly have a powercut underway) and safety (duh) are the most important features of safety boats and our experience with our Powercat 525 has not highlighted those features as particular prominent aspects.

Anyway back to more positive things.

The new Challenge Yacht has now arrived at the Sea School and will soon be delivering courses and making a real difference to under privileged teens in the South Wales Area.

How's that for a gorgeous boat?  I wish her all the very best and expect she will do a grand job for many years to come.  I also predict that she will be just the start of a real move to improve the lives and prospects for many young people and that the ripple effects of that good, will benefit the entire population of the UK and even the world one day.

tomorrow I'll tell you about the second boat I referred to in the opening paragraph that turned out to be value for money and great fun, safe and well made (alas it isn't our Powercat 525)

Here are a lovely family of swans on the lagoon in Argostoli next to Drapano bridge.

Here are lots of fish under the sea.

If we can't be on top of the water in our Powercat 525 Evolution powerboat, then at least I can be under the water instead!!!

Here are some underwater pictures I took yesterday of the fish at Antisamos beach near Sami in Kefalonia.

Beneath the surface are myriad fish.  Teeming to get some of the bread I am holding for them.

Above the surface a few fish can be glimpsed if you have good eyesight, but nothing to suggest the throng beneath.

Life is like this.  Often you have to be very careful about surface appearances. 

Every little fish is connected to many, many others.

Some of the 'others' may be potentially useful to you, maybe they are the 'big fish' that you would love to catch.

But the 'little fish' could communicate its distress to the 'big fish' and the other many 'little fish'and soon you only have empty water in which to cast your bait.

I was hoping that by now I would have something positive to say about our current dispute with Powercats Ltd of Redruth Cornwall.

We have been completely open and communicated all our concerns to them as and when they cropped up.  They made very sympathetic responses to begin with, but unfortunately things went from bad to worse with the boat until we reached the stage where we had no confidence in it as a safe mode of transport.

I would be deliriously happy if they could explain to me how we have been mistaken in our assessment of the situation.

If we are mistaken and our boat is safe and 'fit for purpose' then we can get out onto the med and enjoy the blue skies and lovely clear water.  It would also mean that our boat would be worth considerably more than we suspect it does at present.  I would love to know that rusty steering bushes are an acceptable and normal thing to expect on a brand new boat with only just over double figures in hours on the engines and that all the other things we found are just figments of our imaginations.

Unfortunately Powercats are not in a communicative mood at present.  We have had a letter from them that frankly mystifies us.  WE have always been very clear with them.  The original problems preceding the electrical failure had been in our opinion badly dealt with and we had threatened rejecting the boat as an attempt at that stage to try and concentrate their minds on making more of an effort to help us resolve the initial issues.  They then got as far as offering us a refund on the bimini - which would have left us still with screw points sticking through until we received the elusive 'caps' to cover them - although even with caps they would still be intrusive.

When the electrics failed and left my menfolk invisible in the dark in the path of a bulk carrier - enough was enough.

As I've said before we didn't expect perfect, but we did expect safe.

The impression that we have got is that they think we have somehow taken a dislike to our boat and that we are lying or something in order to get out of the contract.

I wish to make one thing perfectly clear to everyone - THIS IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN ABOUT MONEY.

It is about being extremely upset at feeling messed about, trivialised, and ignored.

Any business that treats its customers this way has got to expect them to get a bit wound up.

The minute that Powercats starts behaving as if we are valued customers (and bear in mind we introduced them to someone who was seriously considering buying up to THREE of their boats as safety boats) and gives us some sensible responses to our difficulties then I will be happy to put that on this blog.

As it is we are the customers who didn't even rate being provided with enough screws and who were sent off with no spares or allan keys.  Even MFI provides allan keys for its furniture.  Even Primark sells cardigans with spare buttons.  But £37,000 spent with Powercats doesn't get you similar consideration.

This is about a huge gap between expectation engendered by the online brochure, the presale and prepurchase conversations with the Powercats team, and the actual real experience which is nothing like what I would expect from a reputable and professional company.  The last time I experienced anything like this was when I bought a dodgy secondhand car as a student.

since our Powercat 525 Evolution catamaran was declared 'dangerous' and 'unfit for purpose' we have had to find other ways to fill our time.  Time that we would have been spending out on the clear blue waters of the Ionian sea around sunny Kefalonia.

One way of using my leisure time is to keep this blog and surf the web for useful information.

Sometimes I get sidetracked by various interesting by ways.  One such sidetrack was a visit to the BBC website to check up on the news and goings on in the UK.

I found this story about a recycling lady who was arrested on suspicion of theft when she liberated four plastic chairs from a council landfill skip.

Ms Bove said she was initially offered a caution, but declined because she did not feel she had committed a crime.

She is waiting to see if any further action will be taken.

A North Wales Police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that we received a complaint that plastic chairs were stolen from a recycling centre on 2 May.

"On 8 May a local woman was arrested on suspicion of theft and has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

"We are duty bound to investigate all allegations of criminal offences and this includes theft."

Now from my days studying law at Southampton University I was taught that for theft to be proven you need something called 'intent' or 'mens rea' , the intent in this case would have to be 'appropriation with the intent to permanently deprive the rightful owner'

This is the reason the specific crime of 'taking and driving away without owners consent' or twoccing of cars was passed by parliament.  Because of joy riders who just drove cars away and never intended to permanently deprive just ahve abit of fun and then abandon them or even sometime return them to the spot from which they found them.

Now for Ms Bove to be guilty of theft she would have had to know the chairs had a rightful owner and as the chairs had been discarded as obviously unwanted - the person who bought them had obviously given up their ownership of the chairs. Belief of abandonment by owner means that theft cannot be charged., as there is no crime.  What about the council? It was their skip they were in?

Well the chairs should not have been in the landfill skip.  Does the council own rubbish or is it merely charged with its disposal?  If the accused beleives that the council is charged with the rubbish disposal and does not see the council as the rightful owner (in fact I am not sure it could really claim that it was) then intent to deprive the righful owner is not provable.

In my unqualified opinion Ms Bove was right and no crime was committed.

A council spokesperson said -

"This practice is clearly very dangerous and not allowed under any circumstances.

"We have not pressed any charges."

I'm willing to bet that some Wrexham council workman had an eye on those chairs and was miffed when Ms Bove got there before him/her and called the police out of spite.

It is common knowledge that anything 'good' that goes into council refuse centres gets 'appropriated' by workers - when are we going to see some of them charged with theft I wonder?

I'm sure I remember a joke about this place which ended 'Wrexham?  Well it doesn't do them any good!'

Can anyone remember the beginning?

Here's a link to the English Translation version of 

Directive 94/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 1994 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft

it really is written in fairly clear language and I would reccommend that if you are considering buying a new boat or if you are involved in making them and or selling them, then a good read would be useful hour or so spent.

I wish I'd read it before I made my purchase and I wish I'd asked a few pertinent questions regarding this statutory instrument  instead of just trusting the boat builders at their word.

Warnings went out urgently today to RYA Powerboat Instructors.  Hubby being one of them received an email to counsel against being confident that CE markings on a powerboat actually meant that the craft was safe!!!

This is ironic given our own situation.  The warning refers to an accident suffered by a  powerboat instructor who was taking a client on 'own boat tuition' - which means teaching someone on their own craft rather than an instructor or school's craft.

Own boat tuition is often a good idea for new power boat owners if they haven't any previous experience or if they just want to ensure their skills are up to scratch for the level of craft they have purchased.

In the case being warned about by theRoyal Yachting Association, a brand new powerboat complete with full Recreational Directive Markings (the CE mark which is supposed to guarantee compliance with EC safety directives) bluntly, fell apart while they were underway!!!

I quote from the email sent out by the RYA

"On the second day of a recent Powerboat Level Two course an instructor and owner were both thrown from a RIB when the centre console and helm position became detached from the deck. This happened during a gentle turn to starboard at approximately 20 – 25 knots. Fortunately, neither the owner nor the instructor were injured. Upon further inspection it was discovered that the console had only four short self tapping screws securing it to the deck. The boat was brand new and displayed an RCD mark. This incident highlights that it is not always prudent to put ones faith totally in CE markings as a guarantee of satisfactory manufacture and assembly. 

Full details of the incident and the ensuing MAIB investigation will be in the next edition of Wavelength. "

(MAIB = Marine Accident Investigation Board.)

It occurs to me that if I personally have experienced buying a brand new powerboat that does not comply with EC markings AND this incident has also happened recently, then something is badly wrong with the powerboat building industry.

My particular boat - A Powercat 525 Evolution was not a cheap purchase at over £37,000.  The builders - Powercats of Redruth Cornwall are winners of the Marine Awards 2006 Innovative Boat of the Year, they state they have supplied boats to the Environment Agency and their website emphasizes safety as a 'hallmark' of the Powercat 525.  It is heavily marketed towards families.

Yet that didn't mean that our RCD CE marked boat was even fit for purpose or safe to use.

Powercats self certificate their 525 Powercats as they are a Class C craft and under 12 metres long.

I wonder whether it is really wise to allow builders to self certificate ANY class of craft?

Given that people's lives depend on the safety of the vessels in which they put their trust, is it reasonable to believe that boat builders are the right people to decide if they are keeping to the standards required?

Running a business is a tough job.  There are people to manage, budgets to keep to, and deadlines to achieve.  Is it fair to expect a business to also be its own policeman? Is it safe to do so?

If the CE marks are not to be properly policed by independent third parties, then are they really worth anything at all?  Isn't it a confidence trick by the authorities not to make it clear that certain classes of vessels have been certified by the builders themselves?

Until things change I suggest every potential new boat owner should insist on getting a discount on the craft they are buying in order to spend it on a pre delivery full marine survey - just to be safe.  If a builder is confident of the quality of their craft then there shouldn't be a problem.

Seawork International holds a boat show at Southampton in June 10 - 12 and listed amongst its exhibitors is Powercats Ltd.

Apparantly they will have two floating stands on which they will be unveiling the new Powercat 695 and also showing the Powercat 525 Innovation.

Click here to read their publicity blurb on the Seawork 2008 website. 

The blurb refers to "hallmarks associated with a Powercat, stability, handling, performance, safety and space, but with some significant additions."

Its a shame those properties weren't factors on our Powercat 525 which we purchased only in February of 2008.

Handling was poor, due to poor installation of hydraulic steering and rusty steering bushes that were unstable, and lack of hydraulic fluid in the steering.

The only performance was the constant need to keep communicating with Powercats as yet another defect or safety issue cropped up.

Safety - to quote from our professionally carried out marine survey - our Powercat 525 had 'unsafe electrics' and was 'unfit for purpose'.

If you are popping along to Seawork you might like to have a look at their stands and the new Powercat 695 and the Powercat 525

Maybe you might like to ask them what provisions they make to ensure that batteries are in ventilated spaces according to CE compliance regulations, in order to reduce risk of fire and explosion?
 
Maybe also whether and how they have improved their quality control processes to prevent the same sorts of things going wrong with any new Powercat 695 or Powercat 525 powered catamarans as went wrong with our Powercat 525 Evolution which we spent over £37,000+ to purchase in February of 2008?

Also whether or not other existing Powercats are out there with their owners blissfully unaware that their boats are non compliant and maybe unsafe?

I would be interested to hear any answers you get on that score.

Here are some gorgeous photographs taken out and about Kefalonia.  Although we don't have the use of our Powercat 525 (see previous posts for long sad story), and although we are justifiably disgruntled by that, at least we live in one of the most beautiful, peaceful relaxing places in the entire universe.

Here's a lovely little beach not too far away from our house.

and another

and another!!!

The water here is so clean and clear it deserves its own photograph just for itself

The camera I use is a Vivitar which is waterproof.  I will be going swimming this week and I will get some underwater shots and maybe some video as well, with sound.

I have laid the sob story on all of you so I feel I ought to share some of the good stuff as well.  Life can't all be doom and gloom can it?

Here's hubby resting on one of our balconies and catching some rays.  He would rather be out on the water but a good cup of tea and a view of the mountains is a bit of a consolation. You can see the vivitar camera in its carry pouch on the table next to him.

In every life a certain number of lemons will crop up.  The trick is not to be soured by them

Yia mas.

Well yesterday was the busiest yet for my little blog.  350 visitors and 1409 page views!!!

I don't expect it will keep up, but to all my readers I say a big gobsmacked welcome

I was talking to hubby (a starnge word that has never passed my lips but which seems to work well on the internet for some strange reason) this morning about how we feel about the Powercats people.

As a male he feels a rather antagonistic towards them because of the fact that their mistakes put his family in danger and I understand that attitude. My own personal feeling is more of disappointment and bewilderment.  I can't understand how someone could allow this to have happened in the first place, nor why they weren't immediately jumping over themselves to put it all right.

This blog was always intended, but I had originally planned it to be a joyous celebration of our boating exploits.

Hubby on the Powercat 525 Evolution a couple of days before the 'incident' that prompted us to pull it out of the water and call in the experts!
 

When it quickly became apparant that it was not to turn out that way I first felt that I wouldn't be able to blog our towing road trip.  But then I thought 'Oh why on earth shouldn't I?' 
It was bad enough being let down about the boat without feeling creatively stifled as well.

So I started my blog as planned but it is almost impossible to prevent underlying knowledge creeping into the tone, and as things progressed and I realised just how dangerous the boat had been, I felt it was important to tell the whole story.

It felt that the builders weren't taking it seriously enough and if that was the case then who else might be at risk?

Maybe some people could just sit tight and hope for the best, but I couldn't do that and sleep comfortably at night thinking someone else might not be as lucky in getting through it unhurt if their boat failed them the same way ours had.

If at some point we are reassured that Powercats have made changes to their procedures and materials decisions to ensure that their boats are safe then of course I will be happy to publicise that as well.

But so far we haven't been.

When you are ripped off it is easy to get down hearted.  The feeling of being made a fool of is a very nasty thing to go through.  You look back at your pre-discovery optimism and happy go lucky cheerfulness and it all looks very embarrassing.

That is the worst part - unless of course the rip-off actually seriously harms anyone, but thankfully we side-stepped that one, so for us the feeling stupid is the worst of it.

Then you get the dismissive attitudes from those that seek to minimise the seriousness of the situation for their own reasons.  It is easy to be made to feel that you really are a silly billy to be complaining about a little life threatening incident.  Any sensible person would have expected this and the kind offer of an electrician to fix the electrics is really all that is required to put everything right.

But if you are lucky and have a bit of steel in your back bone, you bounce back from the self-doubt, even though you would love to believe it has all been a temporary glitch, and will all be right again.

There is the internal conflict between the bit of you that wants to believe the product (in our case our Powercat 525 Evolution) is really fine and just has some leetle teeny teething problems, and the other part of you that is screaming 'this is bad enough, what else is wrong that we don't know about yet?'

I have always believed in facing troubles head on and staring them out.  Head in the sand just leaves a large bottom sticking out asking to be kicked.

But it is nice these days to be able to go online and find people in the know who can reassure you that although you have been duped, hoodwinked, swindled and had your entire life savings removed from you - there are folk out there who sympathise and understand.

I have found a couple of very nice boating forums online who have lovely people with loads of knowledge and experience and who have helped soothe some of the pain we have been feeling at this humiliating situation.

So here's a big thankyou to the forum at Sports Boat and Rib Magazine Online and also the folks at the Sports Boat Forum of Yachting and Boating World you have most certainly been my ports in a storm and your posts have made a world of difference -  to you all.

Some of the faults and defects of our Powercat 525 Evolution - collected brand new on February 11th 2008 from Powercats Ltd, Redruth, Cornwall and which was signed off as CE compliant according to the EC Declaration of Conformity to Directive 94/25/CE by Barry Philpott on the 18th February 2008 to comply with EC Regulations and Standards:

ISO 12217
ISO 14946
ISO 14945
ISO 10087
ISO  10240
ISO 11591

Keel band improperly joined.

Insulating tape used wrongfully to join important electrical cables.

Generally messy wiring with batteries beneath which are difficult to access and without evidence of ventilation which can lead to a dangerous build up of hydrogen gas.  Batteries have bare terminals which in conjunction with the potentially built up hydrogen gas could lead to explosion and or fire.  No wiring diagrams supplied with vessel and when we had our electrical failure in the dark in front of a bulk carrier, we were informed by Powercats that they had 'no idea' how this could have happened!!!  So one can only assume that  they can't have had any diagrams that agreed with the actual wiring we had on our boat either.

Here's an excerpt from the email we received about the incident from Barry Philpott the boat's designer

"
I accept that the packet of screws should not be left in the 12V power
socket and, if so, had been overlooked during our pre-delivery inspection.
I agree that this is a likely cause of the electrical failure though, like
you, am at a loss to explain why the failure should be so far reaching and
not simply confined to a blown fuse on the accessory circuit.  "

Factory fitted echo sounder.  Unsightly and easily damaged by rocks or other hard objects.  Does not work at speed because the twin hulls funnel air bubbles and water around the sounder and prevent it from operating.

Boarding ladder secured by spring loaded ball catches only.  No safety clips to prevent the ladder being loosened by vibration at speed or to prevent it being pulled out during operation.

Keel band showing evidence of corrosion.

Ski pillar not of stainless steel and showing evidence of verdigris as due to the design of the boat this item is constantly getting wet. Not even been used once yet!!!

Throttle shown at full power. It can be seen that it crashes into the chart plotter which would result in trapped/crushed fingers.  The switches are also not in the same position as in the models we trialled and which are on the Powercats website.  In the position we have them, they are very easily pressed into whilst underway as they are just where the helmsman's knee goes.  This means that nav lights, chart plotter, radio, cabin light and accessory socket can be switched off by accident.  In the models we saw and on the website brochure, the ignition key and the switches are the other way around. 

See the Powercats brochure here http://www.powercats.co.uk/powercat_brochure.pdf

This is an example of the way the cushions are fitted on the PowerCat, inside the cuddy.  As can be seen it is impossible to easily access the locker whilst the cushions are in position.  They have to be completely ripped off their velcro otherwise they get mangled. Even with the cushions removed the design means that the lockers cannot be fully opened, so they are difficult to use.  Neither do they have any method of keeping them open so again they are difficult to use and it is difficult to get at the anchor or other equipment stored within, without banging your head or getting your fingers crushed.

Bear in mind this craft is marketed as a pleasure craft which is category C which means according to the Recreational Craft Directive it is supposed to be safe for wave heights of up to and including 2 metres (Significant wave height means the average height of the highest 1/3rd of the waves over a given period. Waves of double that height may occasionally be experienced.) and for a windspeed of up to Beaufort 6.

There are no grab handles in the cuddy which is described on the Powercats website as 'additional storage space and protection from the elements.' - so one could reasonably expect it to be somewhere safe to be during rough weather.  I got thrown about and had to come out after getting my head banged at a wave height of between 75cm to 1m.

Oh and did I mention that it appears there is no oil in the hydraulic steering?  That was discovered when we told the surveyor that our Powercat handled significantly differently from the demonstrators we had sea trialled.  Turns out hydraulic steering doesn't work so well on thin air which explained it.

Powercats have been mailed a copy of the report to peruse at their leisure.  Cornwall Trading Standards have been provided with a copy as well.

We shall see what transpires.

On the 15th of April I sent the following in an email to Marine Surveyor Jim Walsh of Overseas Maritime to explain why we were requesting his services. 

It encapsulates the experiences we had with the boat and why we had reached the stage where we no longer had any faith in its safety and why we had reached the stage where we felt we needed an expert to take a look over it and provide us with the information we needed to make a sensible decision on how to proceed.

The boat is brand new and was collected on the 11th of February this
year.

The boat is being lifted out of the water today, which is where Andy is at
the moment so I am replying to you to save time.

Mr Walsh attended and spent the day with the boat examining it and determining why we had experienced the power failure that we had.

Here are the main findings from the report.  I have edited simply to improve readability and I haven't changed any words or order of words.

7. Summary of Defects
          7.1. Design Defects
              7.1.1. No grab handles in cockpit
              7.1.2. Cushions not made to allow easy access to lockers
              7.1.3. Locker lids with no retaining mechanism to keep them open
              7.1.4. On/Off switch panel for fuse board poorly positioned
              7.1.5. Forward boarding ladder secured with spring loaded ball catch but no
                         provision for safety pin securing.
              7.1.6. Echo sounder not working at high speed due to positioning.
              7.1.7. No provision to hide unsightly cabling in cockpit.
              7.1.8. Bimini Frame with insecure fittings that fell apart while underway.
              7.1.9. Bimini Fibre straps had unsatisfactory mode of securing.
              7.1.10. Batteries difficult to access
              7.1.11. Batteries not ventilated
         
          7.2. Materials Defects
             7.2.1. Windscreen sealant had not set and was adherent and dirty to the touch.
             7.2.2. Water ski pillar base of galvanised not stainless steel.
             7.2.3. Steering bushes and bolts of mild steel.
             7.2.4. Keel bands with corrosion as not stainless steel