Vuda Marina, I am happy to give a very positive recommendation to Ritesh Kumar, an independent mechanic. For us, he did an excellent job servicing and repairing diesel engines and finding an issue with an outboard that the local authorized dealer had not been able to diagnose. He stays with the job until it is complete, working late and on weekends if necessary. His rates are very competitive and he is straightforward to deal with. His contact details are +679844 0860 and krishnayachtservices@gmail.com

Mr Bruce is a very humble person and is a well-known person in Vuda Marina. He is an experienced guy in this field and I am pretty sure of whatever work has being assigned to him or his company will be taken good care of it. And regarding the mast wind instrument problem, if it would have been a genuine case then the owner of the boat would have fight for his right and wouldn’t have paid the bill. And just to let the owner of the boat know that nobody would send his lesser experienced employees to do such work. They are well trained and have successfully completed and handed over bigger projects in this field.
Thanks

Be aware of a service being provided by a man named Bruce of Westside Rigging & Wire Ltd, who operates out of Vuda Marina.
Our experience with this person is far from satisfactory.

We wanted two sheaves replaced at the top of our mast.
In carrying out the installation, his worker who went up the mast managed to break the wire going to our wind instruments (data cable). Bruce (the owner of Westside Rigging & Wire Ltd) got us an electrician, but when he tried to remove the wind instruments he somehow managed to break off the wire completely and now the data cable was down the bottom of the mast somewhere.

Upon inspection, we noticed that Bruce’s worker who went up the mast used multi grips to undo the bottom of the wind instrument, so instead of loosening it, he tightened it instead. So now there was damage to the wind instruments themselves as well as the broken wire.

All our instruments were in perfect working order when we came into Vuda Marina, and we very much enjoyed the marina and the staff were wonderful, but this has put a bad taste in our mouth as far as outside services go.

To add to the saga we had a meeting with Bruce from Westside Rigging & Wire Ltd and advised him of our findings, but neither the rigging company nor the electrician took responsibility for the damage. Instead, Bruce asked for payment for the work completed, so we said we would not pay him until the damage his workers had done had been fixed. He then went to the police and they came back with him and made a threat of going to court to get the payment that was owed to him. Further, still, he proceeded to tell us he would get our boat impounded for up to 4-5 days until a court date.

We got his bill of 700 FJD and nothing was repaired or replaced. As well as the bill we got a letter from him denying any wrongdoing and accusing us of going up the mast earlier in the installation and vandalizing our own equipment to get old for new at his expense. This is not true! All we wanted him to do was fix the damage that was caused by his employees.
We advised the marina about this problem and they too aren’t happy, but it is not their problem as it is an outside service that is passed by verbal recommendations. We paid the bill with gritted teeth and got out of Vuda Marina still with broken wind instruments and wire down the mast. We will now have to source someone in New Caledonia to fix their damage.

Adding my praise for Ritesh Kumar out of Vuda Point and Denerau. He’s an independent marine mechanic who also babysat our 44 ft cutter while stored in a trench for 9 months. Sent us videos of the engine exhaust running monthly while connected to shore water, kept her roach and pest-free and looked after her for a very reasonable cost. And he’s a lovely guy who took us home with him and to a Hindu Kirtan evening–a highlight of our adventures. krishnayachtservices@gmail.com

I do not want to get into a, you said I said situation but would like to point out a few facts.
Robert Straghan cannot make a judgement regarding our electrician for that matter any off our services as he was not prepared to pay our rates for our services. He was told what had to be done to solve his electrical problems by our electrician. He then took his advice and imported a new 220volt Victron inverter- charger himself.

Regarding the hired transformer which was with the previous owner, this is a service we provide to our clients and are the only company doing so. With regards to our rates, we are the only marine repair company that have fully equipped workshops and professionally trained staff so you cannot compare our rates with other contractors local contractors. As the boat owner has the right to choose his contractor we have the right to choose who we work for. We choose not to work for you. This complaint is totally money driven and unfortunately, we get boat owners and operators like this from time to time.

Marshall Sails did great work for me and a very short walk from Vuda marina

we also had an attempt made to steal our dinghy and outboard in sawing, they even boarded our boat in the nite! they couldn’t figure out how to cut the chain on the dinghy…lucky for us I chained it before turning in. Do you guys have that yellow trimaran?

we arrived in Fiji in November 2014 and first set up in Suva on a mooring near Mosquito Island. It was hard to find workers that could do a job on our vessel as we had to be there to supervise constantly. We also had a lot of gear stolen from the boat whilst there, all our galley equipment (they didn’t even leave a spoon). We had around AUS$5000 worth of our things stolen (from electrics to tools and engine supplies).

Most of the work done in Suva had to be ripped out and done again when we moved to Vuda marine in Lautoka, which is a beautiful place to stay. The staff at the marina are very helpful and friendly. The Boat Shed restaurant and bar is well priced and serves the best fish and chips anywhere in Fiji.

We continued the refit on our boat here but had nothing but trouble with the large contractor we used, who were constantly changing things to suit themselves without checking with us first and dragging jobs out to try and delay us in leaving for our next port. Some jobs were of good quality, others, in the end, we had to re-do as they were very unprofessionally finished.

Lessons learned:
– Never allow anyone to work on your vessel unsupervised;
– Always log the exact hours each worker does and what they did, as bills were constantly incorrect and we had to fight to have them corrected;
– In the end, we found the smaller contractors we used were much more helpful and professional and willing to do a good job.

All in all Vuda marina was a great place to take our vessel, but don’t get taken in by the larger professional-looking contractors, as the smaller ones can do just as good a job and for cheaper and better quality.
All the best to Adam and staff at the marina, we highly recommend to visit them and use their facility.

Posted on behalf of Yacht Help Owner-operator David Jamieson:
I am sorry to say that this complaint is absolutely outrageous. It is so full of blatant fabrications I can hardly believe anyone could write it.
It feels awful to put in this position when the reality is the yachting industry in Fiji is going from strength to strength with 750 foreign yacht clearances into Fiji last year. There has been a huge growth in yacht visits to Fiji and the increased length of stay. Statistics show that yachts are voting with their keels and completely rubbishes the statements made. The brilliant success of Fiji’s marine industry is built on constantly improving and upgrading of facilities (i.e. just look at facilities at Port Denarau they won the Marina Industries Association Marina of the year award 2016/16), training and up-skilling of the workforce and improving legislation (i.e. Vuda Marina becoming a clearance port).

Regarding service companies in Fiji. There are the 3 mentioned and a few others. There is healthy competition between these companies (a good thing) and consequently, like any business we have to strive for excellence in order to succeed. I have 25 employees; 14 have worked for at least 3 years, they are led by myself a professional captain of 20 years and my expatriate boat builder who I employed from Australia (up-skilling). All the service companies have been here for years and don’t just suddenly employ people each year, they are fully staffed all year round and hence trained. I am constantly up-skilling.

Regarding this particular job. Yes, we did remove the Propspeed from the shaft and the Prop. The captain claimed afterwards that he only wanted the Propspeed removed from the shaft, which made no sense as the Propspeed on both were dead. It was removed with an angle grinder using a plastic poly web abrasive disk 100 x 16 standard grit. There were some scratches that I believed were there before, but rather than argue we sanded them out with 240 grit just in case. We antifouled the yacht and re-launched it. The owner then claimed we had damaged his prop and he was experiencing vibration when running.

At this stage, I told him I will haul him out, send the prop to Henley’s Propellers in NZ at my cost. If Henley’s said the prop is damaged I would pay for everything and if not he would pay for everything. This agreed to, the yacht was hauled and the prop sent. The report from Henleys came back and we were completely absolved from the accusation that we had damaged the prop. We were asked to apply Propspeed at my cost. I could not see the logic in this as he had asked us to remove it in the first place.

I offered Capt Per an F$1000 as a goodwill gesture to try and placate him and the marina only charged F$200 for haul and launch (although the stated value was much more), also as a goodwill gesture, so I paid that too.

We also noticed when the yacht was out that the antifoul was damaged on one place on the side of the keel. It looked like a rope or similar had gone down the edge of the keel and there was no sign of any of the antifoul failing. Capt Per said the antifoul damage was also our fault, so rather than argue I said we would fix it as it was not a big deal.

I realised at this stage that perhaps giving a goodwill payment may not have been the best idea as it was being taken as an admission of guilt and not a gesture of “no hard feelings” as it was intended. I am perplexed as to why Capt Per wants to slander Yacht Help, Vuda Marina, the entire marine Fiji Marine industry, Fiji and Fijians.

Wanted to let other cruisers know about the excellent service we received from Krishna Yacht Services, run by Ritesh Kumar (Mob. 844 0860, email: krishnayachtservices@gmail.com) for engine servicing and repairs. He was extremely knowledgeable and competent, turned up on time and stayed late til the job was done. Excellent service and our engines are running like new. Highly recommended. He works independently at Vuda Point Marina or at Denarau Marina via YachtHelp, who was also extremely helpful.

We are currently in Fiji for four months this season (2016) )and have found the Digicel is by far the best provider here for phone and internet over Vodafone (contrasted by earlier posts to this forum). We’ve spoken to a number of local people who guided us to Digicel and we’ve been really happy with the service and speed (and really low cost!).

For an in-depth review an article about the Internet in Fiji, see the article I’ve posted to our weblog at http://www.zero2sixty.ch/internet-access-in-fiji-is-great

S/Y Feelin’ Good

A free mapping application with 250 points of interest and 50 routes to sail around Fiji islands is available at http://cruisingfiji.blogspot.com/

Mapping use satellite images which are more reliable and precise than any chart in Fiji.

We are new to this forum. I would like to log a warning regarding theft in Savusavu. Please be cautious if you deal with a local “artisan” who may lure you into his very small shop and invite you to his home for dinner. We accepted their offer to dine with them in their home. We laid our backpack on their dining room table and had our backs to the backpack as the shopkeeper’s wife told a story. The next morning I looked for my wallet in my backpack and it was gone. We went to his shop and confronted the shopkeeper and his wife and two of their houseguests and told them that we would like our wallet back, keep the cash $200 USD, we just want the credit cards and ID, etc.

They denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the wallet. We gave them 2 hours to come up with the wallet and advised them to “search” for it in their home or vehicle as it may have “dropped” out of the backpack. (The shopkeeper was wearing brand new shoes) We further informed them that if they could not come up with the wallet and the contents of it in 2 hours that we would file a police report. We returned 2 hours later and naturally, they did not have the wallet so we filed a police report.

Luckily there had been no suspicious activity or fraudulent charges on the account and naturally, all credit card companies were notified. We cannot prove anything but I can say that these people were NOT ABLE to passionately deny that they could ever do such a thing. They are con artists and are very good at what they do. They work as a team. Police informed us that this shopkeeper and his wife have been on their radar for some time. From their shop, they have a direct vantage point of an ATM machine. Once they see that you have withdrawn cash, the shopkeeper runs across the street and informs you of his “50% off” sale and invites you into his shop.

He then may offer you a shot of beer and then invite you to his home to enjoy fish curry. As I told my children after the fact, if they did what we did, we would admonish them for foolish and impulsive behaviour. We should have known better, however in the spirit of adventure we trusted these people who told us “Our home is your home.” This translates to “your stuff is our stuff.”

We initially thought that these were kind and open-hearted locals who wanted to give us a taste of Fijian hospitality. In retrospect, they are low-class petty thieves who have no concept of the difference between right and wrong. We do not judge all of Fiji from this unfortunate experience. We love Fiji and all other experiences have been wonderful.
Just please beware of this shopkeeper. We will continue to enjoy your time here.

Cruisers in Fiji have setup a web site to help yachts sailing around Fiji islands and including anchorages, waypoints, … at:

http://cruisingfiji.blogspot.com/

I support the positive comments on Baobab Marine who were helpful and on time. Nice people to work with; just do not expect them to be world experts on electronics and the like and you will be OK with them.

The staff at the marina were wonderful; the bar a great place to meet for sundowners.

All in all, I highly recommend Vudu as a place to call in, get work done or to clear.

Anthony sv Wild Fox

Sara (above) cleared in at Savusavu. They did, in fact, complain to Customs about the fact that they obliged them to clear in on a Sunday and pay the additional fees. After few hours of argument they managed to get their money back from Customs, but no reimbursement from biosecurity or health.

Take care with yachting service providers. Yacht Help was unhelpful and incompetent over a range of jobs. Marshall Sails did poor work.