Astarea Yachting problems

Our disastrous experience of renting a sailboat with Astarea Yachting in Dalmatia, June 2013.



In recent years we used to rent sailboats in Dalmatia in the summer.
In June 2013 we rented a Sun Odyssey 40.3 in Baska Voda with the charter agency Astarea Yachting.
The boats have often some problems and are never perfect, but generally satisfactory. Not this time.
We found the boat very dirty. Lumps of dust and hair everywhere. Shelves full of black dirt. Dishes, pots and pans coated with a layer of fat. A chewing gum stuck on the bench in the cockpit.
Water under the mattresses, we had to pull them out and dry them under the sun.
We pointed out these problems to Domagoj Maros, owner of Astarea Yachting and base manager, then we set to work. It took more than three hours of hard work to clean the boat. We pointed out to the base manager that we paid for the final cleaning, but at the end of the cruise the boat will be much cleaner than we got it. Domagoj Maros solemn promise that we will reimburse these expenses.
We found water in the bilge. The base manager told us not to worry because they are only few liters. But during the voyage, the boat careened and the dirty water wet and ruined the clothes that were hanging in the closet.
Two tanks of fresh water, but only one was usable.
Taxiing mainsail and jib sail were blocked and needed help to rotate.
One of the two winch handles got stuck, luckily I had a rasp with me and I was able to fix it.
The rope of the mainsail was very worn, you could not trust to pull it with energy.
The instruments were unreliable. The shown route was 15 degrees below the one showed by the compass. The wind direction was about 30 degrees different from that of the vane at the masthead. Upwind apparent wind was half that real, while stern apparent wind was twice that real; it should be the opposite.
The anchor lights, deck lights, and the lights in two cabins were broken.
The door of one of the two bathrooms swung open and slammed continuously, I tied it up and then fixed the lock.
The jib sail halyard broke, the jib sail dropped down, and we could see that it was very worn. The base manager told us that he would send someone with a new halyard, but we did not see anyone, forcing us to continue by engine.
The base manager Domagoj Maros had promised us to give back the cleaning costs, and compensation for the many problems and inconveniences, but now he denied his word, justifying it with bureaucratic problems. He promised only a generic discount the next time we will rent a boat with him. With all these problems and promises and his denial, we'll stay away from Astarea Yachting and Domagoj Maros in the future.


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