He liked to sail quickly and to win races, so he spent plenty of boat pounds (they don't buy as much as other pounds) with a well renowned sail maker on new sails - including a no.1 genoa (a big one for the front of the boat!).
After a few years, the nice man sold Cyclone of Langstone to a grumpy, balding and slightly overweight man - her current owner.
In Cyclone (of Langstone's) place, the nice man bought a bigger boat; a Westerly Typhoon. He renamed this boat Cyclone Bea - perhaps in part to get his wife Beatrice on side (she didn't want to part with the "original" Cyclone).
Because the nice man liked to sail fast and win races (remember?) he spent plenty more boat pounds with the same sail maker on new sails for that boat - including a no.1 genoa.
Time passed and the grumpy man eventually had to concede that Cyclone of Langstone's now ageing no.1 genoa would have to be replaced (it was largely held together with sail repair tape!).
He therefore agreed a specification for the new sail with the same sail maker used by the nice man previously. To keep things simple, a note was put with this order to the effect that the new sail should be made to the dimensions of the previous one ordered by the nice man.
Can you see where this is going yet? Two no.1 genoas made for the same man by this particular sail maker - both for boats with "Cyclone" as part of their name? One boat being bigger than the other?
Now it is not permitted to hoist sails on a boat that is ashore in case the wind should catch them and pull the boat over. We therefore intended to bend on Cyclone's sails when she was put into Thornham marina's deep water pool - the day before our planned departure.
However, Thornham's boat moving and launching machine took it upon itself to break down the day before Cyclone was due to be launched. As a result, the excellent people at the marina were unable to put Cyclone into the deep water pool until 2030 on the day before our departure.
Consequently, we didn't find out that there was a problem with the new sail until approximately 3 hours before the high water we needed to leave (Thornham marina dries to mud).
Take a look at the pictures below:
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| Lovely new sail hoisted to top of forestay |
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| Oh dear! Yes, it's about a metre too long in the luff. |
The grumpy man who currently owns Cyclone was now very grumpy. In fact he was livid and, had he been able to do so, he would have been tearing his hair out!
You see, if Cyclone didn't leave on this particular very high, high water (it was a big spring tide), she would be unable to do so until the next very high, high water - at the end of April!
All sorts of scenarios were therefore going around in the man's head, including having to pay to have Cyclone blocked off ashore again, stored for another month and losing a month of cruising time. Or having to motor her to another marina and pay £30+ per night to store her for the time it took the sail maker to rectify the problem! How long that would be he had no idea, but he anticipated a delay of at least a couple of weeks. The sail is a complex tri-radial design, so it's not just a case of cutting a bit off the bottom. A new replacement would have to be made.
In this state of mind the livid man contacted the nice man at the sail makers, who did his best to placate him whilst wondering (no doubt) what had gone wrong and why his customer was so stressed about it.
During that conversation a solution was found (a fairly obvious one that the livid man would have identified much sooner had he been in a rational state of mind...).
The incorrect sail was duly left for collection at Thornham Marina; Cyclone was sailed away using her smaller no.3 genoa; and the sail maker agreed to make a new sail to the correct dimensions in double quick time. This new sail would then be couriered to meet up with Cyclone in whatever UK port she happened to be floating as soon as it was ready.
As I write it's Tuesday and I've just had a call from the sail maker (who first knew of the problem the previous Friday). The new sail will be ready for dispatch later today and will be with us here in Eastbourne tomorrow.
All a bit of a storm in a teacup as it turns out then. Maybe the grumpy, balding, slightly overweight man lost a bit of that weight with all the jumping up and down and stressing...
Joking aside, what fantastic service from Thornham Marina - working late to get Cyclone launched on the day they said they would - and especially from the sail maker in question.
Mistakes happen (and this will be a costly one for the sail maker as they now have an expensive sail in stock with no customer for it) but it is how they are rectified that counts. The sail maker's service in this case has been exemplary.
In fact, the only person that I fear comes out badly in this whole saga is me and I do feel rather guilty about it...
1 comment:
Why feel bad? Everyone knows that you are grumpy and the sail maker has some goodwill on his side!
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