The Stellar saga ends... Lessons in communication.

A few weeks ago I did some Stellar bashing related to a custom S18s I purchased. The bulkheads were not where they were supposed to be and the bailer wasn't working well at all. After dealing with Stellar for quite a while and having a third party try and fix the issue ( unsuccessfully) I felt like stellar had dropped the ball getting things worked out with me.

A few days after venting here on this forum I contacted Stellar with an angry letter and Dave responded surprised that I was not happy and was not to happy I was bashing Stellar here.

After some better communication between Stellar and myself about my S18s and the bulkhead mess, we have come to a happy settlement. It appeared that most of our issues came about threw bad communication on both our parts. I was under the assumption that there was nothing else they could do about the bulkheads and that was it, end of story. David was under the assumption that I was satisfied with the outcome of what was done and that I was happy.... I was not.

After some better communication on both out parts, I'm getting a new S18s and I upgraded to an Excel layup. He credited me with the original advantage layup price and I'm paying the rest. The new twin venture bailers should take care of the bailing issues. It should be here in early April.

I would like to point out two things. The only issues I had with Stellar were the placement of the bulkheads I requested and the placement of the Venturi bullet. As usual the ski itself was very nicely made, even the misplaced bulkheads were nicely done :'/ Very solid and flawless layup and this is even more apparent as I can see the whole inside of the ski as it has hatches.

The other thing and I think important, Stellar in no way asked me to write anything. Dave expressed his frustration with me about bashing stellar here without telling him about my frustrations first. At the time I though I had expressed myself and thought justified in my comments. After talking to him again it's clear that we both came away with different feelings about what had transpired before. In the end we came to an agreement that I'm satisfied with and I hope he is. I feel it's only fair after the griping I gave here about Stellar that I correct or more amend what went on. He never asked oh me anything other than the price difference between model years and the up charge for a lighter layup... There was no quid pro quo.

There are things I wish Stellar would have done differently that would have made this all smoother and I think Dave feels the same about me.. In the end I'm happy and Stellar held up there end of the deal with me. If the ski comes as nicely built as the last one and with the bulkheads in the right place :') ..... I will be more than happy, it's such a great ski.

Bill

Interesting comments Bill. I have an S18S in the Advantage layup and an SEI in the Excel layup. Have had a fair bit of water come into the bucket on the S18S from time to time. Being a high volume boat I do not and did not expect the single venturi as installed to rapidly drain the boat. Comparing the drainage against the second gen V10S with the new bailer that I used to have was literally chalk and cheese.

Personally, I don't worry too much as these are surf skis after all and whether it drains in one minute or four is relatively immaterial to me. Then again the current sea temp is 22 to 23C so that may have a bit to do with it as opposed to Seattle in the Winter!!!

My SEI with the single venturi drains much more rapidly, being lower volume and faster, which is a given and was expected.

However, each to their own. Glad you sorted this out with Stellar and having had a twin venturi SR, you will notice the drain time to be much quicker.

Regards,

Mick

Bill,
Glad you got it straightened out. I have had nothing but good dealings with the folks at Stellar and thought that your issues might be a result of a miscommunication. Good luck with your new boat.
Cheers,
Ken

TaffyMick... I also have an SR and a V10 with the new type of bailer. The bullet on the S18s was missed placed making the boat bail extremely slowly, much slower bailing than the SR which has a larger cockpit and the same bailer, something like three times slower. If it had bailed at the same speed as the SR and having a smaller cockpit I probably wouldn't have complained at all. There are areas around where I paddle where the water is very confused and its very easy to swap your cockpit. Once that's done in the S18s it then becomes an endless cycle with it never draining with 60 pounds of water in the cockpit and never getting up to speed again and being washed over and over. There is no comparison in either of the boats to the epic bailer, that bailer bailes several orders of magnitude faster and bails my full V10 bucket in 15 seconds, the SR takes 1:30 and the S18s several times that . I'm guessing it sould be closer to one minute if the bullet was placed correctly being that the cockpit in the S18s is a fair bit smaller than the SR. With two bailers maybe 30 seconds? Anyways, it should be a blast, it's such a fun little boat.

I'm curious does your SEI have twin bailers?

Afraid not. Probably got the last of the single bailer/venturi SEI in Australia. My SR had the twin though.

Love my S18S in the rough stuff, but I also use it for ultra marathon events which are mainly rivers so the bailer is not an issue but long distance paddling comfort is.

Great news Bill, those Stellar guys are Stellar!