We bought a beautiful white hypalon Mercury dinghy and 5 hp outboard in 2017. The package was three years old and had been sitting on the shelf for three years, and discounted a couple hundred dollars for each. Warranty started date of purchase and with the discount and shipping was under $2k. Not a bad deal.
Claire and I used it very little. Once in the Keys, a couple times in Demopolis. Total time maybe thirty minutes. It ran that long in my pool. Was stored rolled up in the garage.
I ran the outboard for a few minutes when I thought about it but they are kind of a pain to drain the fuel out of. It rides up on the roof of Choices and the outboard on a rack behind the salon wall.
So imagine my surprise when zipping across the marina in Demopolis the stern starts to separate and fall off, and outboards don’t float.
We deflated it, rolled up the boat, and dug out the invoice to call Defender. What a shocking surprise. The extended warranty we were promised on boat and motor was not in writing, and they had no idea what I was talking about. The real kicker was the warranty was expired by a month, by their records, but the Mercury warranty was only a year on the stern, oar locks, rub rail, and bottom. So kind of a bait and switch. No wonder Mercury had been sued.
Now Defender offered to repair it in their service center for a reduced price, but I was stuck with repair cost and the $400 freight bill. Basically I was out the cost of the boat new. Needless to say, I was pissed, and still am.
So I have told the Trawler Forum, Cruisers Forum, and everyone I can about it. If you think I am wrong, “stick it.”
So we are going on a several week trip with friends, and I decided to fix it myself. How hard can it be?
My last act was to call Eddie at Inflatable Boat Repair in Pensacola, 850-418-1323 cell, or inflatableboatrepair@gmail.com. For some reason he had escaped my previous searches.
We talked and I sent him pictures and he agreed to fix it in a couple weeks before 4th of July.
So, there is a guy doing good reasonable work out there on the Gulf Coast. Give him a call and tell him I sent you.
Choices 