Feels like a very ********* transaction or something severly lost in translation!

We have been sailing in Greece for the past 15 years with various charter companies, this year was our first time using North Sailing. Very sadly this was also our first unfortunate incident with another sailing vessel but the way it has been handled has left us with an extremely bad taste and one we really have to question the integrity of North Sailing. The stranger thing was a week before we left to sail we were asked to deposit the E3000 holding deposit. This is usually always a hold on our credit card once we get to base.

On June 29th, as we came out of the Lefkas canal preparing to start out journey, a yacht under motor and sail, on auto pilot with no one at the helm came from a blind spot from behind us on our starboard side. At the last minute both sailing vessels were able to change course, and we largely avoided one another but not without a small bump on the side of which thankfully our fenders were still on. After this happened however is where the chaos all really started.

We immediately contacted the charter base who advised us to continue onto Nidri and to hold there. A diver was sent immediately (at our cost) and outside of a superficial scratch of the gel coating, he cleared the boat. The base manager wasn’t happy and personally came to inspect the boat. After a few hours of going through the boat with a fine-tooth comb, he couldn’t find anything and cleared the boat. Later another ‘technical guy’ was also sent and suddenly they seemed to find something on the yacht spreader (horizontal spar) above the mast which made absolutely no sense at all as this is approx. 3m from the point of contact let alone a few meters up!? We were at this time getting calls from several different sources, base manager, HQ in Athens etc and we kept being told different things. We were advised to go to the port authority in Nidri. Then we were advised not to. HQ then advised us to report back to Preveza and go to the port authority there with the other yacht owner and demand he takes accountability. There seemed to be a constant uncer*****y about how to handle insurance with hundreds of calls being made. This was all subsequently dropped and 24 hours later we were allowed to continue on our journey but with no clarity on the way forward.

We have stayed in touch with North Sailing throughout our 2 weeks sailing as well as the 2 months after our return in order to understand what the process is going forward. It seems as though we are liable to pay for ‘damages’ of which we don’t agree with and the balance of the E3000 would be returned even though the boat was cleared by both divers and technicians at our cost. On returning the boat, we were told in passing ‘your loss, don’t expect the money back’ but on mail I keep getting told that they are ‘handling the matter carefully. Once all repair works on the yachts are completed, we will be provided with the full set of invoices and documentation'.

I find this entire transaction from the start exceptionally *********. It has really made us rethink sailing and I can assure you we will never ever sail with North Sailing again.