Hi all, we sustained damage to the aluminium pipe on the inboard end of the passarelle when it was briefly caught between the boat and the quay by a large wave - we had secured the passarelle above the quay but the wave was large enough that the end came between the boat and quay.
There is now a crack in the down tube of the fitting, right at the point where it bends before inserting into the socket on the deck of the boat. We had asked the boat yard to weld this crack, but they said that it will be weak and will easily break again, and that they would fabricate a replacement the same shape in aluminium.
The piece finally turned up today, and instead they have fabricated a straight T piece that connects between the ends of the passarelle then comes down at 90 degrees, as shown in the picture attached. They also informed me that the downward piece is solid stainless rather than a hollow pipe "because that is stronger." Apparently the aluminium tubing wasn't available and they didn't think to ask me.
When I pointed out that the new piece isn't shaped like the old one, and as a result the wheels no longer sit on the tracks on the stern step, they have offered to weld the old piece as an alternative. I'm also concerned that the much stronger solid steel piece may result in damage to the fibreglass of the deck if a similar incident were to happen again.
Has anyone else replaced the fitting on their passarelle with a straight T piece similar to this? If I hear that lots of people have done this and it is a great improvement I will keep it, otherwise I'm inclined to reject the new piece which I did not agree to, and go back to using the original welded to fix the crack, which we asked for in the first place!
Thanks
Neil
SM390 Revelation
Valencia, Spain
