Now I can tell It
Kudos to P&H
Kudos to P&H
The other day, the skeg on my new Cetus got harder and harder to use until I could not compress the little lever at all. I essentially had no skeg. I was very upset (and a little afraid that I had an unsolvable problem...but that's the pessimist in me) and fired off e mails to P&H and Brian Day. I didn't want to do a big blog on it because they have had some line problems with this gizmo, and I knew I was in a fould mood.Now I can tell you that I have had responses from the company and a personal call from Brian Day (remember, I still have his old Romany). They both requested pictures of the devise, and one is shown above. They promised to get back to me by Monday when the guy who knew about this stuff would be there. Meanwhile, Brian took it upon himself to call me Sunday and express his concern and to assure me it would be handled. He was sympathetic about my circumstances.
Well, he called back Monday with the news that one of a few faulty skeg controls got into my boat, and he offered me 3 different avenues to remedy it. As of now, I hope to meet him in Madison just before Christmas where he plans to replace the skeg control box with a new unit.
Meanwhile, we had an excellent discussion on boat control, feathering and edging. You might want to check out his posting on the blog I just did on feathering.
I feel better now and my faith is renewed. I am glad I waited until now to post on this as P&H, and Brian, have excellent reputations for quality work. I believe it will work out well. The bonus is the discussion I got to have with Brian around paddling.
Paddle safe...
DS
x
6 comments:
I must admit that on Saturday, and again on Sunday, I was really concerned about both you and your boat, I'm glad I was around to talk you down from the ledge.
Thanks, I am in a much better place now.
Congrats on the patience. I to would have been p...'d off if I received a poorly functioning skeg on a new boat I had ordered some time after it was well known that many others had problems with the products skeg. Again I compliment you on the patience you show for the timeframe and hassle of the repair process. I was shopping and purchased a new boat late this summer and have to say the skeg was and is one of the reasons I bought a different brand. I may try the new in between size Cetus next season with a very critical eye on that skeg system. I do like the boat very much but continuing to ship a known to be faulty product does not sit well with me. Reminds me of something Detroit would do. I am glad you have the patience as it is not like you had any other real good choice. Thank goodness for good reps like Brian Day.
I've kind of gotta agree with anonymous. Yours is not the first complaint they have had about that goofy system. Why not whlp up a 'retrofit kit' and send it out? Or better yet, cut all the kinking cables, and sliders guaranteed to fill with sand, and give us the old fashioned tried and true rope skeg??
I've got two kayaks, both old NDKs with rope skegs. Field repairs are easy, without a lot of tools, materials, and swearing. I haven't seen a more mechanical skeg system yet that I could say the same about.
Hi Gang,
We actually do have a retrofit kit that is going out to everyone we hear from. It includes the new(blue aramid) skeg line and a few accessories to make things run smoother. Anyone who has a boat with the old skeg line should get in contact with us and we will send them a kit. This kit has been fixing 99 percent of the problems that we have seen.
We go through all the boats here at the warehouse before they go out the door and make sure they have the new skeg line.
I'm sorry that people have concerns about the skeg system. My perspective is a little different than most folks. I see dozens and dozens of boats go out the door with the new skeg, but only hear about problems on a handful. This makes me feel like faulty skegs are an isolated problem. Following blogs and message board posts the problem might seem more universal. But in reality, skeg problems have been few and far between.
That said, it is always frustrating when you wait months for a super cool boat only to have some little bit fail right off the bat. I totally understand this frustration and we hate to see it happen. Thanks Silbs for you patience.
If anyone out there needs a skeg upgrade kit, please feel free to contact us here at the office. You can get our email address from the P&H website under "contact us".
See you on the water,
Brian
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