Lost in Translation

We are still at Cantieri Navali del Golfo Srl, Sardinia, awaiting the arrival of our rudder.

But let's back up a bit. We had a gentle grounding last week. We thought we got away with it, but alas, no; there was some damage to the rudder. We first went to Porto Torres and tied up at the marina; that was nine days ago! I walked down to a boatyard and tried to talk to the person there, but his English was no better than my Italian. We were saved by a Dutch lady who had her boat on the hard and could speak fluent English and Italian. I explained that I had a catamaran with a broken rudder, etc. She relayed this to him, and he said, "OK, we can do it on Monday." She explained that the yard was owned by two brothers and that they were very good. I left happy with his shipping address in hand. Nautitech has a new rudder in stock, and I had told them I'd take it and have it ready for shipment, so I passed on the address to them. They said the rudder would ship on Monday. So we enjoyed our weekend in Porto Torres Marina.

On Monday morning, I walked back to the yard to let them know I was ready to come in. This time I talked to the other brother, who spoke English well. I re-explained the situation to him, and he immediately said, "Your boat is too wide for our lift!" I said, "OK, then can you drop the rudder with the boat in the water?" He came back to the boat with me, took a quick look, and said, "NO!"

So back I go to my new Dutch friend, and she said that there was a yard around the corner at Cantieri Navali del Golfo Srl. She called them but did not get an answer, but later messaged me with the contact details for the office manager who spoke English. I called her, and we immediately concluded that their hoist was also too narrow for our boat (they can take 7 m; we are 7.4 m). But she said they would come around immediately and take a look. They did and said that they could take the rudder off with the boat in the water and that they could repair the rudder too, but the repair would take two days as the resin had to cure. They told us to bring the boat around to their yard tomorrow morning (Tuesday). That we did, and we were met by a small army who helped get us stern-tied to the dock. They immediately went to work removing the rudder. Once off, it was clear that the rudder would need a full rebuild. With that, the two-day repair estimate turned to seven days! So rather than repair it, we went back to Plan A: ship the new rudder from Nautitech! I gave the new address to Nautitech, and a short 36 hours later, they had printed a shipping label and passed the rudder to DHL for shipping! Estimated delivery Monday, September 30th—today. It is 6:00 p.m. here, and no rudder has not shown up yet—hopefully tomorrow.

Just realizing how hard it is to get things done when you do not speak the local language, but to late to. learn Italian now! Arrivederci per ora

7m Lift with 7.4m wide boat