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Warning for transport company "Seven Seas Yacht Transport"
We are a Swedish family, with 2 children, who after four years of sailing suddenly have been forced to give up our sailing adventure because of our son´s health problem. Therefore my wife and the kids returned to Sweden. Very soon we realised that our adventure was over and it´s here the story begins with Seven Seas Yacht Transport located in Florida.
Seven Seas Yacht Transport made the final payment to Mr Bjarve in December 2017.
A comment from Seven Seas Yacht Transport has been posted at the bottom of this report.
Seven Seas Yacht Transport were contacted for comment prior to publishing this report, however no response was received until August 2017 when Seven Seas contacted noonsite confirming that a refund payment plan had been put in place consisting of three payments. Currently Mr Bjarve has received half his deposit back.
In May 2016 we found a shipping company from Florida "Seven Seas Yacht Transport". I got in contact with the manager Dmitry Farber. He offered a price of 32.500 US including all costs to ship our boat from Brisbane - Bremerhaven, Germany. It was a price that was slightly lower than other shipping companies. Though not cheap, I must point out. We paid a deposit of 25% of the shipping price, after we carefully read the contract.
The agreement with Seven Seas Yacht Transport was as follows: The boat would be transported with the mast standing on deck, by a bulkcarrier at the end of August. But the transport never turned up.
The first explanation was that the ship had changed route and would therefore not arrive to Brisbane. That made the shipping no longer possible. However the manager, Dmitry Farber, at the Seven Seas Yacht Transport, promised that he could still arrange the shipment for back to Europe. The only thing was that the total height of the boat couldn´t exceed 4.7 m. The transport would also be postponed to 25th of September.
After this discussion, I took down the mast and I also had to cut the entire targa, which included the solar panel system, the radar, the wind generators and the davits.
"When do you plan to come over with the cradle?"
I explained, that according to the agreement with Seven Seas it is them who would provide a cradle to make the shipment possible. The shipping company in Brisbane informed me that this was not the case.
No one from Seven Seas has made a request for a cradle. What Dmitry Farber had done however, was to attach a picture of a cradle taken from an entirely different context as he booked the freight of our boat with the shipping company. Without a cradle a shipment was not possible this time either.
To build a cradle approved for maritime transport costs about 10.000 US. Then Seven Seas tried "desperately" to get an order for a cradle with a big shipyard in Brisbane. At the same time Dmitry Farber, from Seven Seas, suggetsed that I should pay the price for the cradle. Then he would pay me back from the final bill, after our boat was loaded on the ship.
Then I realised that the agent's (Dmitry Farber) plan was from the beginning to cheat us on our money. As soon as our sailing yacht would have been loaded on the ship, we would according to the contract, pay Seven Seas the remaining sum of 75% of the shipping cost.
Until then Seven Seas has not paid anything in advance to the shipping company in Brisbane. I asked the shipping company what happens with our boat if Sevens Seas doesn´t pay the bill for the shipment. The answer was that in such cases they retain our boat until the invoice is paid + the penalties and costs associated with shipments to Europe.
Then I told him there would not be a next time as I have to fly back to Sweden after 4 months of nothing. Seven Seas then wanted me to cancel the contract. I informed him that it is Sevens Seas who has to cancel it as the company couldn´t fulfill the shipment.
After a while Dmitry Farber e-mailed a cancellation notice and promised to refund the 25% of the shipping price. We have reminded him a several times without any success. The latest mail from Dmitry Farber said the deposit will paid back between 7- 13th January. Still no money on our account.
Right now we have the extra costs for marina fees, we have found out that it will cost 50.000 US to ship our boat with another company, plus all the extra costs to restore our boat back to initial sailing conditions.
We want to apologize for the inconvenience caused and we have made sure that our service will now differ in light of what happened and that we will be extra careful in the future with screening prospective ship owners and confirming that ships are 100% available with track record and performance history for given ports in advance before signing a contract and accepting a deposit for transport from clients. This particular instance with Patrick we entered into charter agreement with company called Nova Lines who gave us a booking note for a vessel via Australia and Med to N Europe and had turned out to be a total fraud. We had taken measures to make sure that we will only deal with vetted and reputable carriers in the future and want to reassure the cruising community that we know the business and are trustworthy to deliver their precious cargo across oceans.
Further reports by cruisers about their own yacht shipping experiences can be found on the noonsite page Global Yachting Services (scroll down to bottom of page).