FCT3 tower crack, Correct Craft and Roswell just say sorry

[Bansheein]

I have a 2009 SANTE 230 with both legs of my tower busted, found about it over Memorial weekend this year. After discovering about it, I did some research and found out about the service bulletin. I then emailed Tracy, to which I got the response, we aren't dealing with this anymore. I called my local dealer (who I have service my boat, and have it WINTERIZED there) they say I didn't buy the boat from them so it isn't their problem, call Correct Craft and see what they say. I emailed the service department there and got a response saying there are many instances why the tower didn't get taken care of. He wanted the boat hull number and to get a hold of the dealer. I sent a pic of the hull number and pics of the damage of the tower, I emailed it to Larry (Correct Craft), to Tracy (Roswell), and to Croft Marine in Draper, Utah. This was all done at the beginning of June. As of now, I have had no response from all 3 parties, and all 3 parties pointed responsibility to somebody else. Point being, cost out of the boat owner's wallet. I read a post on here saying you should have known. How the **** do you know until it happens??? I am on this forum quite a bit and read many posts. When I researched about the cracks, posts from 2010 popped up. I did buy the boat used, and if I am paying money to a dealer to properly maintain my boat, I expect everything to be taken care of. I am really hesitant to use any of these businesses at this point, no matter how they maintain their innocence. The end result is I still have a crack down both side of the tower, had I known last summer when I bought it, I would have drilled two 1/8" holes four inches above the bottom of the tower and been completely fine. It doesn't matter if time has ran out or what excuses they come up with. It is how these companies are dealing with the situation. Not a happy customer.

[scottb7]

I am the guy that thinks you should have known...I bought a car once that had a known problem. All I had to do was go to that enthusiast forum and I would have seen it. Just like you did. All you or I had to do was either read for about 15 minutes, which is a pretty modest amount of time for a large purchase or post saying, hi, what should i look out for....I personally choose to step up and admit (to myself) my own portion of culpability.

I am kind of confused in that you said you saw the posts when you researched. Did you "inspect what you expect" to make sure the repair was done?

That being said, if your dealer is correct craft dealer they absolutely should have fixed it before they sold you the boat, and nautique needs to hold their dealers accountable. I personally feel like liability is 50% dealer and 50% correct craft. (Unless you admit to 1/3). And I would ask the dealer and nautique to split the cost to repair. When you talk to dealer ask them if they will pay half if nautique pays half. And you talk to nautique ask them if they will pay half if dealer pays half...

[Bansheein]

My point was, you only know what you know, the tower having an issue ( I was completely oblivious to). In hindsight it is always easy to say Duh! When I have my boat at the dealer and ask if anything needs to happen or be fixed, and they say nope, the boat is perfectly fine, the last owner took real good care of it. There was a feeling of trust and experience at the dealer, now they look the other way because something they knew about could have been prevented. I got the "We can't look at every boat" answer, when I paid to have them look at my boat. My aim, is not to point and get upset with other user's opinions, I value them. Just was shocking to see the amount of posts, after the fact.

[Nordicron]

Certainly sucks Bansheein. And I agree how do u know to search if u don't know? Yes you coulda found out with some digging maybe or atleast posted up a thread asking for anything and everything about your boat from us forum members. Or u could have did like u did and taken it to a Nautique dealer and asked them to check it out which u did apparently and even they missed it!!!!
I'm not sure the total cost but maybe it might be worth talking to your insurance agent about a claim.



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[scottb7]

If it was me I would get the letter from roswell that went to the dealer. Roswell will give it to you if you don't already have it, and if it is not already posted. And tell the dealer to "man up". They are nautique dealer and they got the darn letter. There is no question in my mind that they are at fault and nautique needs to hold them accountable. And with the same letter I would tell nautique to hold their dealer accountable.

This is an easy one, compared to the guy that bought a boat from a non-nautique dealer that could legitimately say they never knew about it.

[farkash3rd]

Get back with Tracy at Roswell and make sure he knows you haven't gotten anything resolved yet. I went down the same road you did - dealer, Roswell, Correct Craft - initially without any success. Then got back in touch with Tracy and he was able to work it out with the local dealer. It's super frustrating that multiple dealers looked at my boat and missed it, and it's something that is DEFINITELY their responsibility to have taken care of with the simple/cheap fix. We rely on the "experts" that get paid well to service our boats to tell us the truth and sometimes that just doesn't happen. I bought my boat from a dealer in Idaho, then had it serviced locally here in TN so I feel your pain. Thankfully the local dealer here stepped up and is taking care of the labor.

[Nautiquehunter]

Simple fact is the owner is not an expert . Roswell,Nautique and the dealer supposedly are. If you want to play the blame game I see it as 50% Roswell for producing a defective product 25% Nautique for not following up on every 09-early 10 boat with a Roswell tower 25% Dealer for being Too Stupid or Lazy to take 5 sec and look at the tower at the time of service. So far I have not seen anything about people getting hurt yet . If it was a part on an airplane would it be handled the same way?

[lucky7t]

Stupid question.. What year boats does this effect??

[farkash3rd]

2009-2010 210/230 and I believe some Sport nautiques with the Flight Control (FCT3) tower, as pictured below.

[Montana Boat Guy]

Stupid question.. What year boats does this effect??

I cannot stress enough that this IS NOT a stupid question. Although this should have affected only some 2009 and 2010 model year Nautique boats with the FCT3 tower we have advised dealers to inspect all FCT3 towers with the exception of the 200 and 200 Sport incase towers may have been swapped between boats at the dealer level. This is rare but is possible. When the boat is in for service the inspection can be done in less than 30 seconds. Thank you for asking the question.

[lucky7t]

Tracy, as always you are very attentive . I own a 2012 210 and my dealer is 200 miles away. Can you advise what I should look at or inspect ?

[farkash3rd]

Since you have a 2012, you have a different tower and this is not an issue you need to worry about.


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[Montana Boat Guy]

Farkash3rd is correct your tower would not be included. Ride on my friend RIDE ON!

[Bevostein]

Thought I would bump this thread to remind folks to check their 2009-2010 boats with an FCT3. I bought a an '09 216V in the spring and I found I needed to drill the drain holes. I will also say this was despite having a trip to a very reputable dealer this summer for some other warranty work and another dealer just this week for winterization. Neither caught it. Not being critical of either but that's how it worked out.

[DealsGapCobra]

Tracy,

I have a 2010 Ski Nautique 200 with FCT3 and the dealer has told me this is nothing to worry about. Having said that, the boat will be spending this year in an unheated space...does this tower require inspection and if so, is it something I can do?

Thanks in advance,

Rob