Waiting for Godinghy - An in depth review of a Mercury inflatable dinghy

Our replacement dinghy, well most of it,  arrived today.  What follows is an owner's (Barb and me) review of this product and the joys of a replacement under warranty.

That's us exploring in the Bahamas

Mercury Inflatable Boat

310 Airdeck Hypalon, White

10 ft 2" long,  Weight about 90 lbs

Purchased on 07/01/2004

10 year warranty on the hypalon tubes

1 year on the vinyl airdeck floor

Practical Sailor rated this dinghy highly, especially in its ability to be rowed it was rated #1.  It is rated for a max. 10 hp motor.  We have a Tohatsu, two stroke, 5 hp motor mounted and with two of us and an average grocery load the dinghy will plane.  We are not fast, but we get there.  The dinghy handles predictably and we can stay fairly dry in a moderate to heavy chop.  Is it the best dinghy in the world - no.  Is it a great compromise - yes.

We inflated the new dinghy at Pueblo Reservoir, CO and enjoyed zipping about on the lake on a weekend in July, 2004.  Satisfied that it would meet our needs, we deflated the boat and rolled it into its storage container and in September, brought it to our brand new Island Packet 370 in Bradenton, FL.  We stored it in our cockpit locker until December.  We sailed into Yazoo Harbor in Pascagoula, AL and the tide left us on the bottom so we took the dinghy out of the locker and inflated it, mounted the motor and used it for the first time in salt water on December 11, 2004.  We towed the dinghy to Kemah, TX and stored it in its container at home in Colorado, until September, 2005.  When category five Hurricane Rita threatened our boat, I went to Texas with the dinghy along with other survival equipment in the bed of my covered pickup, prepared for the worst, but I never needed it since Rita headed to the east of Galveston and spared Kemah.  It was not until February of 2006 that I had an arch installed on our boat that I mounted the dinghy on davits at the stern.  That arrangement has served us well ever since, allowing us to quickly launch the dinghy, to hoist it out of the water at night and to raise the dinghy with the motor mounted if we are underway in protected waters or light seas.  The two of us can lift the dinghy with the motor attached, across the beach with modest effort.  We have enjoyed the use of the dinghy (almost daily) while we cruised over the past three years from Maine to Florida, the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Colombia and Grand Cayman.

We experienced a leak in the airdeck in 2007, but that was successfully patched in Marathon by Eric Hanson of Inflatable Boats of the Florida Keys.  In early 2009, in Panama, the portside tube began to leak such that it needed to be re-inflated every third day.  I couldn’t locate the leak.  We spent the summer and fall of 2010 in Washington, DC with the dinghy stored in its container and inflated it again in October anticipating a departure southbound.  By then, the dinghy was needing to be re-inflated every other day and the two other tubes were softening as well.  We were in Washington, DC to care for my father, who mercifully passed away on November, 18th.  After leaving Washington, I discovered we had spent the summer in a marina just down the street from an authorized Mercury Inflatable dealer and could have dealt with the problem at our leisure, but we had had family matters on our minds.  That is all water under the bridge now and as we traveled out of the Potomac I discovered that the leak in the port tube was at a seam.  Would this be a warranty issue?  I thought it would be.

It would not be until we arrived near Jacksonville, Florida that I would be able to address the problem of the leaks with a Mercury Inflatable Authorized Dealer.  I called Marine Max when we arrived in Fernandina Beach, FL. January 3rd.  I arranged with Walt Wilson to have him inspect the dinghy in Beach Marine’s marina on January 4th where he took photos and was 90% certain that the dinghy “skin” would be replaced under warranty especially because the skin was delaminating.  He called with news that the skin would be replaced and that the cost of the replacement airdeck would be $385.70.  The airdeck would not be in until January 24th.  I would need to keep my old oars, seat and lifelines.  Marine Max would assemble the boat for us and he would check on availability.  I was told it would be 4 - 6 weeks before a replacement would arrive. 

I had already weighed the necessity for a new dinghy and was pretty set on the aluminum RIB from ABS as my first choice, but that would mean getting a beefier motor to push it.  We had already experienced great expense getting Jupiter’s Smile ready for cruising in the past month and I did not want to spend the money for a new dinghy/motor at this time.  A replacement for the very satisfactory Mercury for an outlay of under $400 was very attractive, so I told Walt to set the wheels in motion.  As to delivery, Walt told us that MarineMax had offices farther down the coast and we could accept delivery at one of those other shops and not suffer the inconvenience of waiting (in the cold weather) in the Jacksonville area.  Walt passed us on to the Marine Max office in Pompano Beach.  Eight days later, we received an e-mail from Anthony Armao from the Pompano Beach office on January 12th, stating that the skin had been ordered, reiterating the 4-6 week time frame.

On Feb. 11th, I sent Anthony an e-mail inquiring about whether there was any news about the delivery, the feasibility of using Hillsboro Inlet and if we should plan on entering Lettuce Lake to exchange boats.  The Miami Boat Show preparations were underway, but I thought I might get a return e-mail, but didn’t.

On Feb 16th, I called Anthony (954-868-3061) and he said that he would be speaking to the Mercury people at their booth at the Miami Boat Show tomorrow and that it would be better if I spoke to them directly.  Someone would call me.  He said that he was just a middleman and that it would be better for me to hear directly from Mercury people.

On Feb 18th, I called Anthony and he seemed surprised that the Mercury people had not contacted me.  He would talk to them again.

On Feb. 19th or 20th, our friend Stephen on S/V Nightingale visited the Miami Sailboat Show and stopped at the Mercury booth inquiring about our inflatable problem as a favor to us. An associate got on his Blackberry and saw that there were several boats in the warehouse in Ohio.   Stephen called us with that info. This gave me hope, but I had questions as to whether these were “skins” or entire boats and were they Hypalon or Vinyl?  The answers to those questions were not important as we would hear from Mercury soon anyway.

 On Feb 23rd, I called Walt Wilson (904-524-5403) and basically cried on his shoulder that I had no information about the delivery of the skin.  He asked for five minutes and called back.  He said he had asked “his boss to talk to their boss and if they didn’t call back in 45 minutes to call him back.”  We got a surprise visit from an old high school family friend and that deadline passed.  I am sorry for not calling Walt back, because he does everything that he says he will do and he is a great face out front for Marine Max.  I hate to have to involve him again.  We’ll see what I can do with out bothering him further.  I feel I should advocate for myself.

On the Thursday, Feb. 24th, I spoke to Travis at Mercury customer service (920-929-5040) who told me that their “analyst” (I think he said, analyst) was working on the problem and that I would be hearing back if not that same day, soon after.  Travis said that the problem is that the skin is back ordered from the supplier. If I needed to call, I should call Greg or Eric at 920-929-5000 as they were handling the order.  I also called Anthony and he responded that afternoon.  I informed him that Mercury had never, ever contacted me and that as far as I was concerned, Marine Max was doing what they could and that, in my opinion, it was that Mercury that was letting me down.  None the less, whatever he could do would be appreciated.  February 24th, is six weeks and 1 day since Anthony’s e-mail predicting a four to six week delivery.  It is seven weeks and 2 days since Walt’s visit and photography on January 4th predicting a four to six week delivery.  I told Anthony that, “the rabble is getting restless.”  I got no news on the 24th or the 25th!

On Monday morning, Feb 28th, I got Kevin in Mercury’s customer service who spoke to Greg or Eric between phone calls and I got the same answer as I got last Thursday: the skin is back ordered.  This is a problem and not a solution.  I need a solution.  Kevin, through the operator, got me to Joe in the office of the VP (of sales?) and he checked the case number through the boat’s serial number (suggesting that there was no record of my previous calls, “but that was not important.”) Well, no, up until last Thursday, I have been working through the dealers at Marine Max - following regular procedures.  I spoke of our aborted Bahamas plans due to the dinghy problem dragging on and that now I needed help in resolving this matter.  I spoke of the fact that Mercury representatives have never, ever once called me back as they said they would.  Joe said he would check on things and call me back. 

On March 8th, we left the Lake Worth area and headed toward Santa Barbara Lake near Pompano Beach where, on March 11th, Marine Max sent a boat out and we gave them our dinghy.  We would head to Bruno's in Fort Lauderdale and the new dinghy would be delivered to us there.  The dinghy was delivered on March 17th, but without the floor board from our old dinghy.  On the 18th, I bicycled to the Marine Max store, found our old dinghy, extracted the floor board, returned and assembled our new craft. Finally!

It was a frustrating experience, but in the end, worth it.  The ABS dinghy is still in my sights, but not for a while.  The new Mercury will do just fine.

Any inaccuracies in this account brought to my attention would be appreciated.