Whoa! Our dealer just sent us a dropbox folder with the surveyor’s report as well as 100+ pictures of our new boat!
“We got the pictures!”, I shout to Charlotte, who is still in bed, trying to sleep.
“Oh? Can we look at them later”, she replies drowsily.
(No, no! Now!) I take my laptop and jump onto the bed, next to her.
“No.. well this is special, I don’t want to open them alone but I do want to see what the boat looks like, like right now”, I say and grin.
“Yeah yeah, sure”, se says and forces a small smile.
I put the laptop so we both can see the screen and click the first picture.
“Wait.. mmmmmm, ok?”, I say a bit confusedly.
“It looks like someone put their cigarette out there”, says Charlotte.
“Or maybe some dirt or grease? Let’s look at the next one.”
“This is, hmm, is it a crack or what?”, Charlotte says and laughs a bit.
“I don’t know, I hope not”, I say and crinch a bit at the thought of cracked gelcoat, and how frustrating that is to repair, on any boat.
We continue clicking through the pictures, but one after the other they are all close-ups of different kinds of defects in the gelcoat, furniture, etc, each defect marked with a strip of red tape.
(“It’s really good that someone has looked this carefully at the boat”, I think to myself, at the same time slightly afraid of clicking the down arrow to see the next picture.)
A few dozen pictures later we get to the pictures without any defects, showing what the boat actually looks like. (Hooray!)
But first things first: a call to our dealer Lennart, to hear some (hopefully!) reassuring words about what will happen to all the red stuff.
Yes, It Will Be Perfect
“Naturally everything will be fixed before the handover!”, Lennart exclaims in his normal happy voice. “I was talking to Hanse and the red tape was actually placed there before our survey, by Hanse themselves, to mark things needed to be addressed by their own after sales.”
It’s cool then, I guess.
Hanse after sales will fix most of the things within the next two weeks. Then we’ll have another survey to check for any remaining (or new) problems. If winter sets in before the fault list is finished, some repairs might have to wait until spring.
“So, as a buyer, can I expect the boat to be in perfect order when it’s finally handed over in spring?”, I ask, hoping that the answer will be short and convincing.
“Absolutely”, Lennart says, with a confident voice, handing me exactly the reassurance I was looking for.
And Here It Is, From the Inside!
The pictures are taken with poor lighting, but it’s so nice to finally see it from the inside as well! (And the pieces of red tape aren’t that visible when you zoom out :D)
One Step Closer
Here we are. Once again one step closer to having our own boat.
I left the acceptance documents at our financing provider, Handelsbanken, a few days ago, and once they make the final payment (to our dealer and Hanse), we might have the courage (and great privilege) to start calling ourselves boat owners.