Sail Lifevideo
Sail Life - Companionway hatch & don't buy Fischer Panda! 🤬
19 November 2023 · 21 min · 68K views · Trinidad
What this video covers
Mads, owner of a 1987 Warrior 38 named Athena, performs maintenance on the boat’s companionway hatch and details a five-month warranty dispute with Fischer Panda. To restore the underside of the companionway hatch, he removes old hardware, sands the fiberglass, fills imperfections with polyester putty, and applies Epiphanis multi marine primer and mono urethane topcoat.4:28 He also replaces the backing pad on a Bosch 150 Turbo sander, noting that using pad savers significantly extends the life of the $50 backing pads.2:24 The primary technical grievance involves a faulty actuator on a Fischer Panda 5000i PMS 230V genset.9:24 After experiencing low voltage alarms and black smoke, Mads spent five months navigating poor communication and shipping delays to secure a replacement part.10:00 He identifies the actuator as a $52 component available on Amazon.com, advising owners to bypass the manufacturer’s warranty process for such repairs.18:28 Additionally, he commissions a local machine shop to fabricate a replacement bow roller part for approximately $100.19:14
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