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The tramp ramp is done 🎉 (Patreon)
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Hi guys!
Happy Friday :) While I'm waiting for the weather and the last supplies to get started on the hull repairs and, of course, the last few spare parts for the engines, I figured we might as well finish the tramp ramp once and for all. It's a little bit of an odd milestone but it's the first part of the catamaran that is done. Yay! There is a small asterisk next to the word 'done' (see the end of the video) 😉
Meanwhile, I've made some progress on the steering front. I have figured out that we're definitely NOT going to go with Lewmar. A little bit of backstory. The PDQ 44 and the Antares 44 are the same boats. Along with the difference in name, the manufacture of the steering system also changed in 2008 when production moved to Argentina. The PDQ boats have steering systems from Lewmar, and the Antares boats have steering systems from Jefa.
I went through our steering and figured out we would need to replace the rear gearbox and the autopilot drive unit and service two other gearboxes. I reached out to Lewmar to get a quote. After a week and a half of dragging their feet, I finally got the quote. $8500, and that doesn't even include the two service kits I'd need to refurbish the two working gearboxes. That is completely outrageous! I'm so sick and tired of "marine" companies so blatantly overcharging the living daylight out of everyone. I hoped to use Lewmar because I could reuse parts of our old steering system, and switching to Jefa will mean additional work. I know for a fact that a brand new COMPLETE steering system for an Antares 44 from Jefa is less expensive than the two components from Lewmar. Whether or not I can get the same discount from Jefa that Antares can get remains to be seen. I asked Lewmar if there was any wiggle room on the price after explaining the situation with Jefa - in a long and polite email. The reply I got was "Sorry, but prices are set". That was the entire response.
And on that bit of a rant I hope you have a fantastic weekend 😁 Thank you so much for your support.
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