Factory Vist MKII

Thursday and Friday had been set aside to visit the factory in France to see the progress of the boat, we had originally booked the visit for the 7th of March but was persuaded to go earlier due to the factory being on time with the build and the requested photos I would need may not be available due to the two halves of the boat being joined together.

I had wanted to visit the boat whilst in manufacture to get some photos of the exact location of the pipe runs and cable runs so that when we start to fit out we have a good idea of what is behind the various panels and walls before we start to fit out the boat. Well that was the plan.

I was accompanied on my journey by Paul, who is a keen sailor and is interested in the Mahe 36, we set off early on a Thursday morning to catch a flight from Stanstead London to La Rochelle, the drive down went smoothly and after a non-stop drive of 5 hours we were standing outside the airport with time to spare. Good Start!

The plane was on time and we had a good flight over to La Rochelle, upon landing we picked up the hire car a small bright red Citroen C1, which was fine for our purposes and we set off to La Rochelle, This being Paul’s first time I thought it would be good to get straight down to the marina and see if we could see a Mahe in the flesh, Paul had only ever seen photographs. We pulled up just out side the Fountaine Pajot marina office in Port de Minimes and set of down the pontoon to view the Mahe. Paul’s first comment was how much bigger it was in the flesh and that the pictures do not do it justice. We had a good look around and then decided to go to get a room for a couple of nights at a local hotel in the centre of La Rochelle, easier said than done!

After booking into the hotel and parking the car, we set off around the town to sample some of the local produce, which as ever was fantastic.

The morning was soon upon us and I was now getting excited by the fact that today I would actually see our boat, not the factory boat or some else’s, but our boat!

We made our way out of LR and headed towards the factory, we did not have much trouble in finding the factory, after all there are only 2 roads in that general direction. We arrived at the factory about 10 minutes early and tried to make our way to the company car park, no chance, this space was taken by Orana 44’s and Mahe 36’s , they were everywhere, not much spare space left anywhere outside the factory, a good sign for any manufacturer, we went to reception to meet Jean-Vincent and register our arrival.

Jean-Vincent came out to welcome us and then said something, which really did surprise the both of us…

Why are you here…?

To see my boat!

Ah yes I think it has come out of the mould, follow me and you can see.

At this point my heart sank and I knew that we were not going to what we expected to see and to cut a long story short, we didn’t, the boat had not long been out of the mould and they were beginning to fit the bulk heads, very little on the cable and pipe run’s, so from my point of view a complete waste of time. Paul could clearly see my disappointment and then he went off to talk to Jean-Vincent to find out were the communication had gone wrong, which it clearly had.

Jean-Vincent, then explained that we were a week early and if we came a week later then that would have been ideal, the boat would have been at the stage we needed for our required photographs.

I photographed as much of the boat possible, and then went back to the car and drove back to LR, to watch some of the boats being commissioned on the commissioning key, to achieve a better understanding of what will be facing us in the now very near future and also to salvage something from this visit, which was now clearly a total waste of time and money.

I have not bothered to try and establish were the problem was in the communication breakdown between the factory and our dealer M.I. Cats. No point as we are now running out of time and the boat will be finished by the 28th of March, 24 days as I write.

Paul and I wondered round the marina’s and chandlery’s for the rest of the afternoon, then decided we would drop the car off at the front of the hotel and go for a beer, things started to look up!

Again a fantastic evening followed and we both made our way back to the hotel after a very long day.

In the morning I got up to go and put a parking ticket on the car as in LR between 9.00 - 12.00 and 14.30 – 18.30 you need to pay and display, no problem, well that’s what I thought, went outside to find the hire car gone, been towed away very early this morning, went back inside the hotel to enquire about the situation and was then told that car parking was not allowed on Saturday morning at the front of the hotel, great, so now we had to get the hire car out of the car pound before dropping it off at the airport, then flying home.

We managed to sort out the car and make our way to the airport with loads of time to spare, so no panic!

The flight was delayed due to weather in Stanstead, now the weather gods are having a go, we eventually get back to Stanstead and pick up the car for the return journey set of down the M11 to the A14 and onto the M6. Just a meer 5 hours and we will be home, not quite so, fate had not finished with us yet. The big digital signs on the M6 were telling us that junction 18 to 19 had been shut, well Paul just seemed to accept that this is now the norm and did not say a thing.

We took a diversion, which did not seem to delay us to long and before you know it we were both home safely, much wiser for our experience.