Your safety concerns with these kit set units should be.

• Are they being made in a proper factory? Or under a tarp in a backyard?
• Is a qualified laminator laying these kits up?
• Is this laminator experienced in catamaran lamination as there is a vast difference?
• Are quality materials being used? I.E good quality vinylester resin being used for the first two passes?
• Can he verify the make and supplier of all material used? It would be a good idea to independently verify the supplier and use of materials to ensure your not getting second grade materials. Expiry dates should also be verified.

My recommendation would be that anyone considering a kit set is you employ a trusted boat builder who has experience in the laminating process to oversee and check the manufacturing and materials being used.  Its well known Mr Appleton has a solid reputation for caring out dodgy building practices as proven on by the many customer photos and testimonials submitted to this site.

Buyer beware.

Rex.

1. Wednesday 30^th April 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, Engines were not protected after installation and were heavily covered in construction debris material, dust, fibreglass remnants etc. Steyr were contacted and asked about the engines being exposed to this type of dust, material and they informed me that the engines need to be immediately cleaned off and covered by plastic and or the engine covers provided.
2. Tuesday 27^th May 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction ,plumbing fresh water line to bow deck wash fitting had nasty kink this defect needed to be brought to Derek’s attention
3. Tuesday 27^th May 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, during my visit I inspected to skin/through hull/plumbing fittings and found that there was a mixture of metals linked together in our boat this is a dissimilar metal issue which would have created galvanetic corrosion. This issue was raised with Derek after chartering konomie spirit and was specifically mentioned in our work book that this was not acceptable in our boat, this defect needed to be brought to Derek’s attention.
4. Tuesday 27^th May 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, during my visit that the water fillers on both sides of our boat were not fitted into the deck recesses that were originally cast insitu in the mould to allow flush fitting to the deck, our water fillers were moved without our consultation forward approx 600 mm forward on the deck now fitted through the non skid and not flush as they could be and we are left with smooth blank recess sections that stand out like dogs balls. This defect needed to be brought to Derek’s attention. THIS WAS NEVER RECTIFIED AS THEY COULD NOT REPLICATE THE DIAMOND NON SKID PATTERN.
5. Tuesday 27^th May 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, our work book specifically asked to have the position of our light switch panel to be mounted higher than the standard position to discourage the kids from tampering with the switches this panel then had to be removed and repaired which was only just acceptable, because a repair is never as good as the original. This defect needed to be brought to Derek’s attention.
6. Sunday 22 June 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, the original factory specification list reads am/fm/cd stereo system with upstairs and downstairs speakers. We did not receive the fly bridge speakers and when this issue was raised with Derek he claimed that Tammy and I decided not to have these fitted, to this day both Tammy or I cannot recall this decision and when you look at the attention to detail in our work book then I can confidently say these were left out due to the friction caused by me picking up on a lot of factory defects and raising these until rectified. We had Harley Mason install these units and remote control at a later date at our cost.
7. Monday 23 June 2008 email to Derek after site visit during construction, our work book ordered black and silver logo on the fly bridge seating not the teal factory colours. This defect needed to be brought to Derek’s attention it was rectified but only after bringing his attention again to our boat specific work book which we thank god we produced and having to put up with another condescending phone conversation. His response “ bugger you’re right”.
8. Saturday 28 June 2008 boat ready for inspection and hand over on Friday 27/06/08. During our initial inspection first time boat now in the water at marina. Our findings we separated into internal- external date now Sunday 6th July 2008.

INTERNAL fridge front panel bowed out and not fitting in the bottom track of the door.

Davinci flooring lifting / bowing up and large raised lump above the port side steps that leads down berths

Water leaking through the down lights situated the saloon forward area near the front screen

Starboard side berth door frame damaged and poorly repaired, no clear coat sanded condition only

Excess contact glue on lower sections to secure Foss lining

Shower flick mixer leaking from backing plate in bathroom

EXTERNAL starboard engine room liner floor damaged [impact from something dropped from height

Cracks in gel coat in fly bridge steps near esky left hand side

Stainless rails damaged in several sections some required welding and grinding due to the size of the damage

Very dull and rough to touch finish gel coat around stern lockers and sink area

Rubbing strip on stern starboard side large gap not fitted correctly

Fly bridge stainless hard top support frame damaged with drill chuck marks during installation near bolt positions needs repair

Gaps, poor sika joints around fly bridge wind deflector allowing water to enter inside the saloon area

1. More rectifications required Sunday 13 July 2008 I sent an email stating IT SEEMS THAT AFTER THE TRANSACTION IS COMPLETED THAT COMMUNICATION AND CORRESPONDENCE FROM VOYAGER IN REGARDS TO PROGRESS OF THE REPAIRS IS LACKING. ANTHONY NEVER RETURNED ANY OF OURPHONE CALLS OR EMAILS TO THE OFFICE.

Now after having some repairs performed we notice that the starboard forward locker is very wet inside with the water entering through the cleat bolts, this also happened on the port side and damaged all the timber around the perimeter of the locker.

During these repair attempts more damage was taking place such as Foss under the port locker had a very large melted section cause by a heat gun attempting to fast dry the clear coat that had just been applied and vinyl had been damaged/scarped during timber repair.

More vinyl damage was caused during the attempted repairs to timber work and Foss not glued correctly.

1. Monday 11 august 2008 Tammy and I notice the starboard side water tank leaking out of the top of the tank where the tank was ground down/ recessed to allow elbow room under shower recess to sump, on closer inspection I found the area to be extremely thin with small pin holes in the fibreglass wall of the tank which was allowing water to leak when the tank was full.
2. Tuesday 2 September 2008: contracted Harley Mason to undertake our own repairs due to lack of response from any Voyager representatives. Harley contacted Derek regarding the cracks in the transom and was told that it was Anthony’s problem as he is principle contractor and handles all warranty issues. Anthony was contacted and Harley was given the cold shoulder and was told it has happened outside of normal circumstances. Anthony did not even inspect the cracks prior to dismissing our claim. At our cost we had Harley detail the boat, fixing many sika wipes throughout , fixing a leak at bow rail foot (which was letting water into the forward berth locker), and glassing in of floors in engine bay.
3. Friday 10^th October 2008: Harley contracted to complete the long list of defects found that he believes should have been taken care of by Voyager before or just after hand over.
4. Galley floor along the cupboard kick plate dropped approx 10mm and we could not stand on the floor due to the chance of snapping the cantilevered floor edge completely off, the piss weak tiny block that supported the entire floor edge fell out, Harley installed and glassed in new support blocks and the floor now after another repair at our cost has been completed and is better than the factory ever could have done.

Problem list (as per document from Harley Mason)

OUTSIDE BOAT:

• Gel coat has dis-coloration in areas throughout cockpit
• Gel coat has mould marks and defects throughout entire hull, deck and rear platform
• Gel coat has perforation an almost all edges and corners in cockpit
• Cracks in transom knees port and stbd side (from stress at joining of boat)
• Cracks to back of transom wall along floor
• Cracks to step through on floor under transom door
• Barrel bolt to transom door unable to function seizes closed
• Both engine room hatches unable to close properly and bind on inside edges.
• S/S rails and gunwale strip marked and scratched
• Cockpit drains sit to high up and don’t allow water to drain properly
• Engine room hatch drains partially blocked
• Engine room liners damaged and untidy
• Engine rooms dirty and full of rubbish
• Sicka wipes untidy and uneven (through out boat)
• Non-skid full of bog, mould chips and sicka
• Leaks in fwd cabin lockers port and stbd side
• light not connected to power in hardtop
• Helm under dash area full of rubbish
• throttles out of alignment
• Anchor locker had red overspray to entire roof
• Damage to helm seats from welding (stains continue to re-appear)
• Poor fitting of deflector screen causing gel coat chips and damage
• 1/4” hole in hull (antifouled over)
• Large air bubble in glass work to keel on port side (full of water)
• Antifouling was light and see-through and not fully keyed up (some spots had peeled off)
• Rear extension supports were not bolted
• Fwd windscreen leaked (silicone had holes in it)
• Gas bottle does not fit into gas ring (no bottles do)
• Drains in lockers messy and chipped
• Under side of hull (tunnel) not polished or clean
• Engines did not come full of coolant

INSIDE BOAT:

• Water tanks not cleaned out still have fiberglass debris and discolored water in them.
• Stbd side water tank leaked into the bilge
• Bathroom door does not close properly
• Timber work had water damage
• Timber work clear coat was rough in spots an had pin holes
• Foss work was coming unstuck and was uneven in area’s
• Galley floor had dropped down and was moving under foot
• Timber joins in door frames and fwd cabinet frames had been split and don’t match up
• Vinyl floor had moved and was forming large gaps
• Water filter under sink leaks out of filter connections

Please note that at the point that the boat was checked over it was of “new condition” only handed over from the factory in under a month, the problems listed are not from the owners fault but are issues left unfinished by the contractors and/or management.

Derek’s response to all of the above items that were brought to his attention at time of handover was that, and I quote: “ Voyager standard, while quite high, may not be as high as some.” In other words, you people are just too fussy and what do you expect for half a million dollars.

The above items have all been repaired /rectified at our own expense to far exceed “Voyager standard”.

Also replacement of the insufficient fixings holding the swim platform to boat and sealing of all through swim platform fixings to stop water filling up inside the swim platform.

1. Sunday 30^th Nov 2008: Harley completed final repairs.
2. July 2009: Out of water for annual antifoul etc. Just prior as we were at anchor, standing in the galley we noticed that the boat was sitting lower on port side. We discovered upon inspection that the port side hull was completely full of water. As there are engine liners this build up of water went unnoticed until the boat sits lower on that side in the water. The engine water pick up was removed and the pressure was so strong that the water shot out of the hole and hit the side wall of the shed. The amount of water was such that we thought the fresh water tank had burst. The hull had filled up with water due to the join (deck to hull) under the gunwale strip not being completely sealed at construction. The whole gunwale strip was removed, sika cleaned off the hull and gunwale strip (which took quite some time).

Since the water had entered the hull, we wanted to ensure that there was no more water in any of the other voids at the rear of each hull. We opened up the voids that house the shaft tubes to the external of the hulls, which we were lead to believe were foam filled. Starboard side had foam, however port side had very little foam and a pile of rubbish. The join between the engine liner and the internal transom was not sealed at the rear leaving approx 10-15mm gap which allowed water in. Foam in the starboard void was waterlogged and deteriorating so had to be all removed and replaced.

Upon inspection the port side shaft tube had only been tag glassed, leaving the potential for the shaft tube to rip out the hull.

At this time Harley noticed that the bow sprit rear reinforcing plywood block was missing.

The flybridge hardtop had also filled with water through the fixings on the top not being sealed properly. Upon inspection some fixings had not been sealed and those that had sika were poorly done. Water would drip out of the rear ends of the hardtop constantly.

Regards,

Darrin Carter.

Note: Harley Mason was going to write an article for us explaining the repairs needed to be undertaken, But after threats from Derek is reconsidering.