People say you learn by your mistakes, I have certainly learnt a valuable lesson since I bought the boat, "There are a lot of rip off artists out there who see you coming & abuse you goodstyle!"

My boat was in Bluewater Horizons engineering workshop for 6 months, Just for a simple service & a bit od a wiring job. Now, whilste I was believing everything I was told by these cowboys I was getting turned over royally, Here`s just a few things that made me think they wern`t what they were supposed to be, They took £90 worth of petrol out of my tank by ripping off the fule sensor switch plate, then charged me to fix the plate, (petrol was probably used in thier cars) They took my stainless propeller & replaced it with a alloy one with the explanation that I "didn`t really need a stainless one, they were more for a speedboat", They broke the inspection hatch over the fuel sensor & had to replace it, They tried to exchange a brand new 110amp battery for an old 75amp, They lost the hatch from my anchor well and had to replace that one, again only after I had a go about it, I had to get another person to finish the wiring work that Bluewater was asked to do but failed to complete, They fitted my new auto bilge pump, but obviously never tested it as it only works if I manually switch it on, They fitted my radar screen bracket to the cabin roof & now I get water running down over the top & down the back of it, They removed brand new navy blue mooring lines from the boat which were never seen again, They have stood on the stainless side rails & bent them.

As one can see, I paid for a job that was not done correctly or finished & I expected a little professionalism in the way the looked after my boat whilst in their care, but they obviously didn`t care, So the one thing I learned other than, never go to these people again, was to check around, ask questions of other boat users & find the right people to do the job at the right price.

What I have to worry about now is the standard of work that was done on the engine? with the experiences I had with these cowboys it doesn`t give one much trust in the engine giving us good service, but I suppose we`l have to wait & see, at least I`l be in the safety of the harbour whilst I test it.

I now have the boat at home & have done quite a bit of work, cosmetically, to her. She has now been fitted out with new seats, steering wheel, Iceytek box, rod holders, etc & is starting to look something like a decent angling boat.

We joined the Poole bay small boat angling club, & the Weymouth angling society & the boat will soon be going onto the boat park at Hamworthy in Poole so that we can fish out from Poole harbour.

As the year progresses I will post reports & pics of how we do in the monthly competitions & on our own trips out along the Dorset coast

Lets hope this year turns out to be better than last, that the hard bit is over & we can get down to some trouble free fishing with some stonkers coming over the side.