Bali 4.2 SERENITY

We had a great week sailing in the Ionian Sea, but unfortunately the condition and maintenance of Bali 4.2 SERENITY was well below what we expected from a charter yacht in this price range. From the beginning, there were clear signs of insufficient maintenance. The cushions on the bow were dirty, torn and practically unusable. There was also a broken door handle in one of the cabins. During the week we experienced numerous technical problems. One toilet stopped working and had to be replaced, and one of the bathrooms had a problem pumping out the shower water. Later, the generator stopped working because of the rubber impeller in the water pump. We were told that this part had recently been replaced, but after seeing the removed impeller ourselves, its extremely worn condition made this very difficult to believe. The air conditioning was also problematic. On the entire starboard side it was not working at all, while on the port side only the ventilation worked, without actually cooling. When we wanted to use the dinghy, we discovered a problem with its propeller which made it unusable. We lost around three hours in Corfu travelling around by taxi and searching for a shop to buy a replacement propeller. We were extremely lucky with our skipper, Christos. He had the technical knowledge, skills and willingness to deal with these problems himself, including sourcing and replacing parts. He went far beyond what should reasonably be expected from a skipper. Without his efforts, we could easily have had to return the yacht to the charter base for repairs. Thanks largely to Christos, we were able to continue and enjoy our trip. The cleanliness was also below expectations. We found rubbish from the previous charter inside the cupboards, despite a €400 cleaning fee. We were told that the previous crew had left the yacht very dirty and that there had not been enough time to clean it properly. This should not become the next customer's problem. Because of the repeated technical issues and the holiday time we lost dealing with repairs, we asked for €850 compensation, approximately the cost of one charter day. We considered this reasonable under the circumstances, but our request was directly declined and we were informed that no compensation would be paid. Of course, technical problems can happen on any yacht. But this was not one isolated failure. In a single week we had problems with a toilet, shower drainage, generator, dinghy, air conditioning and other smaller items, combined with poor cleaning and visible signs of insufficient maintenance. Overall, we genuinely enjoyed our week, largely thanks to Christos and his efforts. However, in our opinion, SERENITY in the condition in which it was handed over to us was simply not suitable to be offered for charter. A yacht should be properly maintained, checked and prepared before being handed over to paying guests, rather than relying on the skipper and guests to deal with multiple problems during their holiday.

We had a great week sailing in the Ionian Sea, but unfortunately the condition and maintenance of Bali 4.2 SERENITY was well below what we expected from a charter yacht in this price range. From the beginning, there were clear signs of insufficient maintenance. The cushions on the bow were dirty, torn and practically unusable. There was also a broken door handle in one of the cabins. During the week we experienced numerous technical problems. One toilet stopped working and had to be replaced, and one of the bathrooms had a problem pumping out the shower water. Later, the generator stopped working because of the rubber impeller in the water pump. We were told that this part had recently been replaced, but after seeing the removed impeller ourselves, its extremely worn condition made this very difficult to believe. The air conditioning was also problematic. On the entire starboard side it was not working at all, while on the port side only the ventilation worked, without actually cooling. When we wanted to use the dinghy, we discovered a problem with its propeller which made it unusable. We lost around three hours in Corfu travelling around by taxi and searching for a shop to buy a replacement propeller. We were extremely lucky with our skipper, Christos. He had the technical knowledge, skills and willingness to deal with these problems himself, including sourcing and replacing parts. He went far beyond what should reasonably be expected from a skipper. Without his efforts, we could easily have had to return the yacht to the charter base for repairs. Thanks largely to Christos, we were able to continue and enjoy our trip. The cleanliness was also below expectations. We found rubbish from the previous charter inside the cupboards, despite a €400 cleaning fee. We were told that the previous crew had left the yacht very dirty and that there had not been enough time to clean it properly. This should not become the next customer’s problem. Because of the repeated technical issues and the holiday time we lost dealing with repairs, we asked for €850 compensation, approximately the cost of one charter day. We considered this reasonable under the circumstances, but our request was directly declined and we were informed that no compensation would be paid. Of course, technical problems can happen on any yacht. But this was not one isolated failure. In a single week we had problems with a toilet, shower drainage, generator, dinghy, air conditioning and other smaller items, combined with poor cleaning and visible signs of insufficient maintenance. Overall, we genuinely enjoyed our week, largely thanks to Christos and his efforts. However, in our opinion, SERENITY in the condition in which it was handed over to us was simply not suitable to be offered for charter. A yacht should be properly maintained, checked and prepared before being handed over to paying guests, rather than relying on the skipper and guests to deal with multiple problems during their holiday.