Haparanda - Auckland Yacht Charters

30th April 2012
Thanks for your feedback Georgia, However as I explained on the day at no stage did we empty the holding tank. I am the builder/engineer and owner of Haparanda and have spent 15 years making Haparanda as comfortable as possible, and It was a failed odour filter on the breather pipe from the holding tank which I apologized for and thanked you for bringing to my attention and explained that I could help eliminate the smell by bypassing the holding tank and flushing the head straight overboard, (this has nothing to do with discharging the holding tank). Not understanding the situation and complaining about the music,other people and life jackets I am sorry you did not enjoy yourself. People are free to sit where they choose and usually move about the boat. It is law to indicate where the life jackets are stowed. We make them available to anyone who wishes to wear one. It is not compulsory to wear one. We respond to positive criticism and work hard to offer a special afternoon on the water.

18th April 2012
We went on a trip a few weeks ago. The weather was great and we were pretty excited. There were 4 of us (2x 30's and 2x 60's) and was a birthday present for my Dad. When we got on the boat there were not a lot of places for us to sit. My Dad has sailed all his life but has had 2 hip operations so needed somewhere to perch but was tricky (not that we expected seating etc but a place to lean would have been good). The boat seemed to have a lot of the skippers non paying friends on it - all taking the good seating which was not ideal. We were tucked up at the front with "fenders" to sit on which my Dad said he could manage (although were at floor level so seemed a bit uncomfy for him?! hey ho!). We got some wine and were told the front was the best place to sit so we were happy. We got going out of Auckland Harbour and all looked good. Then they decided to empty the hold tank. The smell was disgusting, we were wretching...NO exageration! We asked if they could not empty the tanks (it is actually illegal until you are 3 miles from harbour which we were not). The skipper got a bit grumpy and said it was to do with filters which he had not changed....anyway it carried on and we decided to not ruin the trip by asking for the third time. Other guests were unhappy about the smell too. We were told there were life jackets down below if anyone wanted them...which seemmed crazy and pretty careless.... The views were great and we loved being on the boat with sun and some wine - perfect! We all came to the conclusion that it was great fun but needed to be run way better. Having too many pals on board taking the paying guests seats is not ideal and also smelling toilet smells the whole way round is gross..and the skippers attitude was not the best. Overall great trip, needs to be run way more professionally and could be a lot better given a bit of care and consideration.