boat hire in Preveza · Bavaria — 40 Cruiser (2008)

We have just returned from a week on Ariadne with five of us on board including two 8 year olds and we had a terrible experience. The boat has not been maintained and we had a multitude of problems. This was the first time I had taken my kids sailing and I wanted to start their love of sailing. Unfortunately this boat meant we had the opposite effect. The problems included: 1. The boat was berthed in Preveza and was on shore power the first night. In the middle of the night the battery alarm when off. This was because the batteries were not charging on shore power so the fridge had drained the batteries. We alerted AF yachting at 6.30am. We finally had an engineer come out at about 10.00am. They tested the batteries and found them to be bad and needed replacing. We finally got away at about 3pm. This should no longer be a problem. 2. The anchor repeatedly jammed and unjamming it took a lot of force, manual lifting etc and about 30 minutes each time. This took a lot of back and forth to resolve and meant half a day lost in Vathi. It appears that the main roller carriage had been rotated. They organised an engineer to come out and sort it out. Once sorted it was fine although it always required redistribution of the chain in the locker for the windlass to be able to bring in the last 5 metres or so. However, the markers on the chain did not relate to the colours on the laminated key (which was so faded that we couldn't really see the colours anyway). These could definitely do with replacing. The anchor also jammed against the pin when pulling in and required the use of a hammer to release it every time before we could drop it. Not impossible and we worked out a system. Just have the hammer ready! 3. The microwave had no power to it and could not be used. 4. The oven wouldn't turn on as the control knob was seized up. 5. There was only one working socket on the boat which was via an inverter bolted under the chart table. None of the other ones installed in the boat appeared to have power to them. 6. The front toilet smelled terrible and we could not use it as a result. It is a black water toilet but for whatever reason it sometimes had waste water (including faeces) flushing through it. it was disgusting and we had to keep the door closed. 7. the port side Genoa sheet was so badly frayed that we didn't feel comfortable using it. 8. The speed gauge on the instrument panel did not work. 9. The GPS screen on deck did not work. We were told when checking out that it needed a cable wiggling to get it to work - but we never managed. 10. The berth for the boat is opposite a nightclub and an arcade. They don't go quiet until about 2am. It made it impossible to sleep until then. My wife and kids checked into a hotel on the final night. 11. There was no first aid kit on board. The first aid cupboard just had outboard engine parts in it. 13. The radio was falling apart. The handset was in two pieces (you could see the silicone sealant where attempts had been made to repair it) and the insulation on the flex was brittle and falling off - revealing the copper wires. It did work - but did not instil confidence! 14. The on-deck shower was broken. I believe this is a new occurrence because they were questioning whether we had broken it when we checked in. 15. There were a lot of broken parts - cupboards, window catches, covers etc. Not a big deal but obviously happened over a period of time. 16. Kitchen - very lacking on cutlery, glasses etc. only five normal knives in total (mismatched) although they did have 8 steak knives as well. Only four glasses, all different. no wine glasses. Not the end of the world - but not ideal. 17. Not really a fault - but the interior cushions were sticky to the touch and the on-deck cushions weren't fitted to the seating area - just six folded cushions. 18. The actual boat is not the boat in the photos on clickandboat. It isn't even the same design. it does not have a teak deck and has a much smaller bathing platform. Neither really matter but with all the other issues it does feel disingenuous. If you are hiring the boat, I would insist on most of the issues being sorted as just about all of them had a material effect on our enjoyment. I believe that the owner is using it this week so hopefully they will realise the work that needs doing and get some of it sorted. I am not confident of this happening though as it has obviously been neglected for a long time. The one bright light was Babbis (sorry if I have spelled your name wrong!). He was a skipper and electrician and was a big support. He was always helpful but was working under very difficult circumstances. We won't be using this boat again. If the price is right and they have sorted out most of the issues then it might be an option but I would not have confidence that it would all be addressed. For context, I am a mechanical engineer by training and my father-in-law was a shipping engineer who had a boat for 15 years and sailed from the UK to Fiji. We are both comfortable sorting out issues - but this was a joke. And not a funny one!