Michael Hofmann 6 year ago
Our recent 1 week charter experience with the Greenline33 motoryacht “Tawny” of FeelDouro was somewhat bipolar:
On the one hand: the boat was well equipped and comfortable, the journey on the Douro up to Foz do Sabor and back was marvelous, the suggested itinerary worked well and the FeelDouro personnel was overall very friendly.
On the other hand:
- When one morning we had a technical emergency (the engine didn’t start) none of the emergency numbers given responded. We solved the issue in the end by calling fellow travelers that we had exchanged numbers with, who handed their phone over to a FeelDouro skipper that was nearby
- When we returned the “Tawny” on the last Friday evening, FeelDouro staff filled up the tank of the boat with a total of 224l and declared this to be our total consumption for the rental. I directly expressed my astonishment at such a high consumption for the 33 machine hours we had had (way higher than the 4l/hr. that we had expected based on FeelDouro’s information material), but trusted their word that this was - albeit unusually high - possible and paid the fuel bill of 348€ to the Marina. When I returned to the boat, however, the issue kept nagging at me and I started to investigate it thoroughly, coming quickly to the conclusion that a consumption of approx. 7l for the 33 machine hrs. and roughly 350 river km on our trip was impossible, basically for 2 reasons:
1) When we were handed over the boat, the fuel meter showed roughly 3/4. We were told that this was normal and that the meter never showed full despite the tank being fully replenished. When I switched the engine on after having paid the fuel bill, however, the fuel gauge showed almost full – so the tank could not have really been full when we were handed over the boat
2) Following FeelDouro’s briefing advice regarding the most efficient speed for the engine, we always kept a cruising speed of between 2.000 and 2.500 rpm, gaining max. speeds of around 7 knts @ 2.500 and never going at higher speeds that would justify a significantly higher consumption than the 4l per machine hr. that FeelDouro states in their information material (and that are fully ratified by the manufacturer, who proudly attributes this efficient consumption to the special hull design). Times and distances of our schedule indicate an average speed that corroborates that.
When we complained, FeelDouro basically played deaf to our arguments and insisted that the published 4ltrs/hr were only achievable under unrealistic optimal conditions. In the end, after some unpleasant back and forth, they gave us a refund of 70€, leaving us with a final fuel bill of 278€ for the week – still 78€ higher than what we had to expect.
So, clear advice to potential customers: make sure the tank is really full when you take over the boat and take a picture of both the fuel gauge and of the machine hours counter!
