Our Shipping Damage: The Full Story

We expected our boat to be dirty after shipping her from Thailand to Turkiye, but we didn't expect the extensive rust stains.

When we decided (after much deliberation) to ship Ruby Rose 2 from Thailand to Turkiye, we knew that there was a risk of damage during the shipping process. We read the contract very carefully, which basically discharged all of the shipping company’s liabilities, leaving us with very little protection. So when we discovered our boat was covered in tiny rust particles, we thought we were on our own.

Ruby Rose 2 being lowered into the water in Marmaris, Turkiye.

In Marmaris, we approached the cargo ship with excitement but some trepidation. We spent about half an hour waiting to be let onto the ship, but could see Ruby Rose 2 from our vantage point and Nick was able to identify that our television aerial was bent. “If that’s the extent of our damage, we’ve gotten away very lightly,” we thought. Frankly, in this day and age, what do we even need an aerial for?

When we were allowed onto the ship, we took in the sight of our poor girl, covered in a thick, brown, caked-on dust from her trip around the Cape of Good Hope and along the Western coast of Africa, before entering the Mediterranean via the Strait of Gibraltar. Nick closely inspected her hull and, apart from the dirt, was satisfied she was unscathed. We held our breath while she was craned into the water, and then boarded her, holding our breath again as we turned on the engines and all the systems. She started up just fine, and we sighed in relief.

When the boat was lowered into the water, she was being held in place by a bow and stern line, which was just being held by a couple of the crew members. They told us to take our time doing all our checks and let us know when we were ready to go and they would toss our lines back down to us. However, clearly one of them decided that now we were in the water, his job was done, and he abandoned his post and the bow line, leaving our stern attached to a cleat. I looked up and saw we were suddenly at a sharp angle to the cargo ship, and immediately realised what had happened. There was not a single soul to be seen. The foreman had disappeared, and no-one else was in sight. Nick and I bellowed out for someone to take hold of the bow line and bring us back in, but no-one appeared, and then it was too late as the bow line slipped into the water. We were now almost at about a 70 degree angle to the cargo ship, our sterns and coachroof precariously close to its curved hull. Finally, just as I was about to cut away our stern line so we could move away on our own (I had already taken up the bow line), someone appeared, running and clearly taking in the situation immediately, and hurriedly let our stern line off, tossing it back to us.

With that frantic beginning to our time in the Med, we motored away and into mooring field in Marmaris to find somewhere to anchor.

If you’ve followed our time on Ruby Rose 2, you perhaps recall that we have had some rather traumatic moments anchoring our boat. Maybe I’ll go into detail in a future post, but for now, you can watch the episode where our boat dragged a mile out to sea while we were ashore having dinner. That was fun. For now, all I’ll say is that we were very jumpy about anchoring in the deep anchorage, where depths were around 12-15 metres. (At USD $500 per night, the marinas weren’t an option). However, we knew Turkiye was full of deep anchorages and there was no time like the present to get comfortable with them, plus everyone else was managing, so let’s get on with it. We picked a roomy spot, dropped our anchor, and to our delight we held straight away. It was now time to get cleaning!

We soon realised that no matter how much we scrubbed, the red spots weren’t going away. Nick quickly ascertained that they were rust stains. He used oxalic acid and had some luck removing the stains by treating them chemically, but the closer we looked, the more we realised the extent of the damage. The rust spots were, quite simply, everywhere. On every single exposed exterior surface of the boat, except the top of the coachroof and the mast, there was a smattering of immovable rust stains. In some places it was quite faint, only discernible if you looked closely. In other places, it was far more densely covered. But we still had no idea of the true extent of the damage…

Several weeks later, we were in Foca, where Seawind Europe is based. We had made the 200nm journey north (against the prevailing winds, although we’d been lucky with a string of calm days) to get the final items of our warranty work done, as well as to tour the factory- which we did film, and that episode will be coming out very very soon. During this time, we had some feedback from other boat owners who had shipped that rust damage was a far more common problem than we had realised. Apparently it happens when someone on the deck is using an angle grinder. I had one comment from an owner saying they had been trying for two years to remove all of their rust stains after shipping! At this point, we started to appreciate the enormous task in front of us.

Nick contacted our shipping agent, a Dutch guy called Chris who is based in Phuket. We had been impressed at Chris’s excellent communication and customer service during the shipping process, and we weren’t disappointed now. Within two days we had a surveyor onboard, who had flown up from somewhere in the south of Turkiye- Marmaris I think- on a Sunday to do the inspection. He spoke to Kivanc, the manager of Seawind Europe, whose team was going to undertake the work, and inspected the boat. He told us that the repairs would cost in the region of $10,000 USD. We couldn’t believe it- surely not! All that was required was a bit of oxalic acid and some manpower. He assured us that, based on his previous experience (I started to realise that this is a very common issue), the final bill would be in the region of $10k, and the reasons for this later became clear.

A few days later, we hauled out, on the surveyor’s advice, again covered by the shipping company. Squeezing the boat into the wet dock is a whole other story which you can watch in this episode. It was only with the boat on the hard that we could truly appreciate the extent of the damage. The last time we had seen Ruby Rose 2 out of the water was on the ship, but while she was absolutely filthy it was impossible to discern the rust spots from the general dirt and grime. Now, with a clean hull, it was apparent that the rust damage was completely covering the underside of the boat: the inside of the hulls, under the bridge deck, the longeron, the anchor box, the liferaft, the dinghy itself, the davits, the… have I missed anything? Basically everything exposed to the elements, particularly on the underside of the boat, was covered.

As for why these stains appeared in the first place? Apparently some workers boarded the ship in Gibraltar and used an angle grinder near our boat. I have the distinct feeling this is a common occurrence.

The workers cleaned Ruby Rose 2 for three full days. They did a great job of getting rid of the majority of the rust stains. However, the concern is that steel fragments have buried themselves into the gelcoat and will continue to rust over time. Over winter, when Ruby Rose 2 is out of the water for months at a time, we will have the opportunity to do a full hull inspection and note any re-rusting areas. After a winter in the boatyard, we will hopefully be able to make an assessment. The good news is that we have an excellent team at Seawind Europe available to do any gelcoat repairs that are required, and Sevenstar have been very responsive so far and covered all the repair costs. Even when we start sailing again next year, we can keep an eye on the topsides and determine any re-emergence of rust stains. Stay tuned for updates on that front!

Want to know more about shipping your boat? I wrote an article for Yachting Monthly, which will be coming out very soon so keep an eye out for that! When it’s eventually made available for free on their website, I’ll be sure to share it. Otherwise, you can watch the episode below where we sit down and talk about our entire shipping experience from beginning to end.

Much love,
Terysa & Nick