Sailors Wharf — Attraction in Saint Petersburg

REVIEW OF WORK PERFORMED BY SAILORS WHARF BOATYARD ST. PETERSBURG FL

In September of 2021 my 35’ sailboat was towed to Sailor’s Wharf for insurance claim repairs. It took over 2 months to get the quote to send to the insurance company.

Apparently, Sailors Wharf was very short of staff, and in December, they hired a new, and untried person and put him to work on my boat, without adequate supervision. When asked why so little supervision the Service Manager said he had little time to supervise anyone and that the new hire had said he could do all the work.

I inspected the work, after two weeks, and noticed many errors. It was apparent that they were not following the detailed wiring diagram of the boat which they had been given and was the basis of the work. The quality of work was poorly executed.

A few examples: Holes were drilled in teak veneer paneling where Sailors Wharf had installed equipment not in accordance with prior agreements and the wiring diagram. An electrical instrument plate was made from poor quality plexiglass and cut out without a single square corner. Battery charger installed upside down. New windlass contactor was installed in the anchor locker against Lewmar specification that prohibits a windlass contactor being mounted in the anchor locker.. Documentation from Lewmar, was given to Sailors Wharf and they changed the installation back to where the contactor had previously been installed. However, they did not install it in an enclosure , per original installation, and left exposed size 0 terminations in a galley locker used to store steel pots and pans. The size 0 cable terminations were not properly crimped and could be pulled apart by hand. The new PSS shaft seal had not been installed with the correct bellow compression.

Many more errors were noted and a defects list sent to Sailors Wharf.

I contacted the owner of Sailors Wharf (Jopie Helsen), on the quality of the work. Jopie Hesens’s response was he was retired from active work and had paid for the Service Manager to attend ABYC certification training and that he was not going to get involved. I was very disappointed in this lack of interest in a clients issues. ABYC later reported that the Service Manager, Robert Valdez, was no longer a holder of the ABYC electrical certifications as his membership was terminated due to failure to sit the 5 year re-examination.

After several months with the work not completed, I spoke to Sailors Wharf about the quality of their work and the number of errors. Sailors Wharf response was that “they would throw my boat in the water and I could tow it anywhere I wanted”.

Sailors Wharf was told that they should now only do work that would enable the boat to be launched and removed to my marina berth.

Further errors were found: Battery terminals not being covered with protective boots. Lack of over current protection on windlass control circuit. Battery terminals incorrectly crimped so that cable was held only by the heat shrink shroud. New wiring laid in bilges without fastening as per ABYC. New bilge pump fitted but bilge left full of debris. New110v junction shore power box fitted which then had the new shower sump pump mounting screws drilled into it. 5 ft of excess cable left hanging next to an instrument tied up with a cable tie. Paint spatters on varnished chart table. No masking done on areas of new paint so that paint is on adjacent parts of boat. .New wiring run incorrectly to voltmeter. Debris left throughout boat where holes had been drilled in bulkheads for new wiring. Control circuit for windlass taken from live side of circuit breaker so control circuit was always live.

Many other errors were corrected by the Owner of the boat.

I filed a complaint with the Florida Better Business Bureau. Sailors Wharf refused to return calls or answer correspondence from BBB. The Bureau downgraded the business standing of Sailors Wharf due to its unresponsiveness.

I do not recommend using this boatyard for any...

Wow, just left Sailors Wharf with 4 hatches I dropped off November 1. Sandy, the owner (along with Yopie), told me that I am only mad because I couldn't afford their work. I was told 2 weeks on 4 hatches to be rebuilt. 90 days later, I still had to have them refit the lenses of 2 of the hatches (which was done the same day!). Erik Hausch, the service manager, was apologetic but not the owners. Erik said that he had failed me and the work he promised but discounting the work was the owners choice.

Sandy said she could't comment on the work b/c she didn't understand it. wow. I asked her to come and see the mistake and she said I could show her 1000 times and she wouldn't understand the problem. It was like pulling teeth to get her to follow me to her shop to see. The latches wouldn't grab the hatch making a SAFE, WATERTIGHT seal, like a door that won't shut. Sandy said she didn't understand and told Erik that I wanted her to see his "crappy work", words I never used.

I asked Sandy, as an owner, to come look at a mistake and to understand my frustration of the lousy timeframe the work was completed in. She made no effort to apologize or even recognize they made a mistake.

I hope this review cost them more than the $2700 it cost me to rebuild 4 hatches (new lewmar hatches would have been around $2000). I tried to tell them I was giving them an opportunity to make it right before this but they said I would never be happy and again that I couldn't...

Summary: High quality yard with experienced staff willing to go out of their way to do a good job. In my case, I had Sailors Wharf install a bow thruster and repair a blistered bottom on my 50 ft 2002 sail boat. The bow thruster install scored 100%. Great work! However, there was a problem with the application of a vinylester/epoxy/anti-fouling system. Simply, some sort of chemical reaction caused the new paint to bubble up. With today's chemicals and application processes, such problems are very unusual, but they still happen. Sailors Wharf promptly called in chemists from the paint manufacturer and remedied the problem. I departed a satisfied, albeit-poorer customer--I should've bought a smaller boat..

A month later, a diver reported a large section of the epoxy had peeled away near the stern. I reported the problem, expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised. Sailors Wharf worked closely with the paint manufacturer to identify the cause and fix the problem-essentially stripping the entire bottom and redoing the work. That in itself justifies a great review, but by that time the boat was in South Carolina, which makes Sailors Wharf truly...