Beneteau Oceanis 46.1 | Marilyn

Put in some more kitchen equipment (some more plates, and a coffee pour over). Also some more ropes and a retrofit of running rig could be nice.

Very unhappy with the charter company. Turned out to be Russian and with an attitude of wanting to screw us . We had a 32 hour trip from New Zealand .we are two couples in our late 60S. An optional extra offered to us was a transfer from the airport .We accepted this offer as we new we would be tired and jet lagged and this would take us direct to the charter co office. The transfer went well but the driver was nothing to do with the charter company , had no idea where there office was , or what boat or anything . We had to pay him direct and that chewed up the small amount of euros we had organised until,we hit Athens. So we were in the marina , tired , hot and with all our bags. What now? Asked around the restaurants etc and nobody new where the office was . So went looking for the boat. No boat with Marilyn on it but did find a oceans 46.1 with it’s transom down and we new from photos the name is on the transom . But it was open , unlocked , and an old flat dinghy was on the foredeck. Nobody was inside. So I went inside (hoping I was not trespassing ) and found a document with the name of the boat. So all four of us got out of the sun on the boat . Then we got a call from Vlad to say he will come early the next day and that we can go in and sleep. That there was a card in the boat for showers and, toilets at the Marina. One of our team shot down for a long overdue shower but the card would not work. Fortunately a friendly security guy let us in each time we needed to. In the morning we got up early and walked up town to get cash from the bank for the trip. Making sure we were back in time to meet Vlad. We shouldn’t have worried as he turned up late. When we meet him we found his English to be poor. We discovered he was a Russian who had lived in Athens for 8 years. We were confused if he just worked for the company or he was in fact the owner but this did become clearer later. Anyway he gave us the hand over briefing and all that was left was to pay the deposit and we would be off on our sail. The deposit in the contract was €3000. So I handed him the credit card but he wanted cash .this immediately had us concerned about just who we were dealing with . We had assumed the deposit wOuld be like car rental where they take a credit card swip as pending. So I told him we only had €1800 in cash . He said they don’t have a credit card set up. So I said I will do a bank transfer in front of him. He said they don’t have a bank account. I got further alarmed. So off I walked back up town to the bank.But my daily limit had now kicked in and I could not withdraw any more cash. Went back to the boat but he had disappeared .lost a few more hours of our sailing.When he came back I told him. So he said he had to ring the accountant. So off he went again leaving us on the boat thinking what now. On his return he announced that he will accept the €1800 So I videoed him counting the money into a envelope. We had a quick look around the boat for other problems and off we went.(mistake number 1) I should have videoed every little part of the boat Fo latter reference. Because we got such a delayed start the first port was full and we had to anchor off for the night but could not go in because the dinghy was flat and the pump had no fittings on the end. Next day we moved on without even seeing that port. But when we put up the sails and turned the motor off the auto pilot came up with a low battery warning. So in Poros we rang Vlad. He asked us to buy a new pump and keep a receipt. But as for the batteries he was sure they were reasonably new so we were to stay in port until he gets there by ferry to sort it out. He arrived the following day ( to his credit).He had a look and then engagaged a local mechanic to have a look . Hey concluded that one battery in the house battery bank had failed and was dragging down the rest. So to get us going he disconnected the one battery from the bank and that we should fine from now on. Just after they left we used the toilet but it would flush it just made a small noice. So I rang Vlad who came straight back to look. He concluded that the toilet was blocked and that we will have to pay to get it unblocked. He seemed to think we had eaten olives. After wasting a lot of our time I agreed but I remained sure it was not us. So another day in port waiting for the mechanic to come the next day. The poor guy emptied it and could find nothing blocking it. So he took the whole unit back to his workshop Later that evening he returned saying it’s going and just need to fit it. Once fitted it still did not go so he traced back the wiring to the battery bank and discovered the toilet was connected to the one battery that was faulty . He said he would charge Vlad and the next day we were off again. Never got any opology what so ever from Vlad. Just advice that we should not anchor off at night as it’s bad for his batteries. That we should seek shore power every night. This got us thinking that he new something the state of the batteries. Sure enough we found that each day within 2 hours of coming off shore power the volts would be down to 10.5v If we had been motoring it was a shorter period still. We decided to just run the motor a lot if we could not get shore power for the rest of our trip as we did not want to waste any more of our valuable holiday . We had to be very careful with food in the fridge and purchased a lot of ice. At one port we were forced to pay about €80 to go to a proper marina rather than the town quay. We had a lot wrong with the boat and remember we picked this boat as it was only 3 seasons old and should not have issues. We could have paid less for an older boat. The bottom was covered in barnicles .a door handle kept falling off ,we had no outside light in the cockpit as the fitting was faulty and Vlad admitted he new about that. So eating after dark in the cockpit was out.the stern mooring ropes were frayed to such an extent it was embarrassing . When we had to anchor and take a line to shore we only had on very long rope whereas most boats have two floating ropes . One toilet leaked . In our original contract we were clear that the only optional extra required was the transfer. We came with our own linen . One night it was cold but there was only one blanket. ANyway we planned our last day carefully. Our plan was to be in the marina the night before flying out leave the boat early the next day and sight see in Athens before being at the airport by around 3pm. Vlad was to be at the boat at 8am as the fuel guy was due then. The fuel guy was on time and Vlad was late and the fuel guy left. He wanted payment but I told him Vlad is paying from our deposit . We all had a gut feeling that Vlad was going to be problem as we had discovered that the company was owned by Russians and they ran 3 charter boats. We were worried about our €1800 deposit as we had heard the war had created issues with paying the company bills. When Vlad finally turned up he insisted we go and have coffe while he does his checks. We did but then he disappeared again. He appeared to be playing a delay game with us. We were keen to get going. He stuffed around on the boat for ages and kept disappearing. In the end I had to get stern with him to get on with the job as we are leaving. Then he came with a list of around 5 or 6 items he wants taken from the deposit. He was having a go and we ended up arguing. He kept delaying and I am sure it’s part of his game knowing people need to catch planes. He tried to charge for linen , he tried to charge extra for cleaning above the €220 agreed because the bathroom floor was more dirty than usual he said ,he found a small gel coat rubbing on the stern and produced photos to show it wasn’t there before , there were other items as well and the discussion became very heated until I said I want the police involved. Suddenly we came to a deal and I paid €150 to fix the little gel coat rubbing that I had no recollection of causing. No compensation or opologies for the wasted time on our holiday It was too late by then to go sight seeing it was off to the airport with a very sour taste in our mouth. On reflection we have a suspicion that due to the war the company is operating on cash and can’t get money from Russia to do maintenance. Vlad was so determined to rip us off that we think he survives (cash wise) on the deposits. Boat around need to sort these guys out. We had the impression we were dealing with a Greek company. Given the war it is very relevant . It hasn’t put us off chartering. We will see what response we get from boat around. I have learnt a lot of lessons and maybe I am too trusting. Mike Stuart On the positive side the Greek people we dealt with were great. We never locked the boat and never saw any sign of crime. The design of the yacht is great and islands great

The boat was in rather poor condition for it’s age and the dinghy kept on deflating and taking in water so we couldn’t use it during our trip. The owner of the boat seemed to have some conflict with the port officers in the marina, and they told him ”This is the last time you dock here uninsured” which didn’t give a very serious impression. The boat owner spoke very little english which made communication vary hard, so the questions I had at check in I had to find out about for myself as they were not understood.

Missing snorcling equipment, or I didn't find it:)

I miss Inverter