Action: Customers Sue Novis. Re-Action: Novis Sues Customers

Well, I can hear a few of the Tartan Yahoo! Group crowd cheering at this news and wishing me good riddance and bon voyage from the internet after Bill Ross of Novis Marine has decided to sue yet another customer.

Earlier this evening I picked up papers that seek to punish me for telling the truth, asking tough & legitimate questions and expressing opinions based on hard data from other owners and dealers on things from stainless steel corrosion, sail drives corroding out, cracking and split epoxy hulls.

Yes, that is right. Today I received a summons from an OH court that Novis Marine is attempting to use to prevent me from sharing all that I know and have discovered since May 2007 on the Tartan and C&C epoxy boats. As you know from this blog, I am suing Novis Marine and Yanmar in Harris County, Texas. I guess today's retaliatory and baseless lawsuit on the part Novis Marine is one way to prevent my discoveries making their way to fellow owners and for the intelligent buyer to make up their own minds. The library of data I found outside of the ongoing formal legal discovery process is significant - especially for any Tartan with a Yanmar sail drive built between 2004 to mid-2006.

You will note that John Vito has also been very quiet in recent weeks on the Yahoo! board that the Novis monitors. Looking at the Lake Co. OH court records John to has been silenced by the same legal tactics (aka lawsuit) as I have been. Two clients with good data suing Novis over defective product and all we have is prevention of Free Speech here in America. The only difference would appear to be that Bill Ross (an attorney) and Novis' attorney, Dan Gourash, waited until 11/15/07 to process the papers on me and ironically it was put in to action just 1 business day after Bill Ross sent his expert, Andy Drumm, as the defendant's [Novis] examiner alongside Yanmar on my boat on 11/9/07.

Anyway, I am sure the many happy four-digit owners cannot fathom how your manufacturer can launch such action against a fellow owner, but rest assured I will not wither when Free Speech as protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution is under attack. Now just imagine owning one of these ~$300,000 boats and discovering what I did about the build quality and when I was not shy about raising legitimate safety centered questions and in back channel you are called a 'blog extortionist' and have been 'defamed'.

As John Vito said on Yahoo! of his experience with Novis Marine, I would not wish this ownership and warranty/customer service experience with Novis Marine on my worst enemy.

I will leave you now with a quote from one of my favorite US Presidents and from which I think we can draw a great parallel (below).

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." ~John F. Kennedy

"We are not afraid to entrust the American yacht buyer with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, real customer experiences and competitive values. For a modern boat manufacturer that is afraid to let its market judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a boat manufacturer that is afraid of its current and potential client base." ~ GTS

Regards to all my readers for now and until I have my day in the courts of TX and now maybe in OH if that applies!

About me: An owner of a new 2005 Tartan 3700 that has had just ~20 engine hours on the2nd Yanmar sail drive since 1/26/06 and has been largely unavailable to me and my family because of the standard of manufacturing. Two weekends away on a broken boat with no LPG at $149,000 and counting per weekend!

New Evidence: How Much Can a Little Zinc Support?

The picture above says so much. Based on the ongoing investigations and new statements by vendors I highly recommend that every Tartan or C&C owner with a Yanmar sail drive owner check your drive well. (This may be especially important for Novis boats manufactured from early-2004 through mid-2006).

Go beyond the zincs: check the drive body well for any surface defects. Signs of paint bubbling could be signs of an imminent break out and then a freely eroding aluminum drive leg like you see above. Do not ignore even the smallest amount of pitting!

Certain owners who have Gori propellers may be better off as the bronze 'cathode' is being somewhat 'supported' by the zinc on the prop, but remember that the small Yanmar sail drive zinc, according to Novis staff just last week, is only designed to support the aluminum drive leg and not all the boats other systems and submerged metal.

While the Novis range of boats do benefit from having 'plastic' through hulls remember you have a lead keel (highly cathodic), bronze through hulls for the air-con water intake (cathodic) and a stainless steel rudder stock (less cathodic). Remember the bonding system too and as noted in previous posts while you are checking your drives, check for bubbling, or worse broken paint on your keel - especially the forward and trailing edges.

Owner offer: If anyone has a failed sail drive from a Tartan or C&C (2000 onwards) please let me know at mako3700@gmail.com. If your corroded drive qualifies, I will buy it from you with a small donation to your favorite charity. I will pay shipping and all you need to do is drop it off at a UPS Store. For more details, please email me.

Remember, what you are seeing above is a Yanmar SD50 sail drive that was on the boat for a little less than a year, approximately 20 engine hours and had the zincs changed every 60 days before the casting failed. Yes, it had zincs on at the time it was hauled!