Paid for Electronic Repairs

Yesterday morning I visited Electronica Naval S.A. to pay Carlos for the repair of the autopilot and radar units.

I was charged for 12 hours of labor which was very reasonable  considering that the autopilot display and computer as well as the radome and C120 were all taken to their premises where boards were cleaned up and repaired.   After that there was the re-installation of the equipment which in the case of the radar proved to be very difficult, with two men spending 3 hours on board locating the cable break and repairing the two broken wires on site. 

So the charge in USD was $480 for labor and $245 for parts.  Mercifully, as a transient boat I was exempt from the 21% tax.  That translated to 3262.50 Argentine pesos.  Fortunately I had over 2500 pesos on hand from the period when I had hoarded pesos in case my new Visa card did not arrive.  I walked over to the bank and withdrew my daily limit of 1000 pesos then returned and settled the account.

I've already expressed my admiration for the company and its ethos.  I can't think of anywhere else where I could have had the units repaired and up running again in one week, and at that price.

After returning to the boat I climbed up to the radar unit and saw that it was the section of cable where it exited the mast that had been repaired.  Even though I spent a lot of money having the mast taken off so that a conduit could be installed for the radar cable, it looks like the hole through the mast remained as an Achilles Heel. 

The radome was initially sited higher up the mast so that the cable would have exited from the mast and gone up the the radome.  However, the rigger insisted that the radar should be further down the mast to avoid the worst of any pumping action of the mast.  I wasn't too happy about the last minute change (and I had to sacrifice the baby stay) and was concerned about having to stretch the cable to reach the new position.   Sure enough, the cable failed before I got to Hawaii and it was replaced under warranty, but I still have a cable that goes up inside of the mast then does a U-turn and heads down to the radome.  I have never seen that heavy mast pumping.  The upper mounting holes are still in place and if I ever drop the mast again (to, say, paint it) I'll see about raising the radome to its original position and reinstating the baby stay because all of the required fittings are still in place.

On the way back to the boat I visited Moscuzza to see if Alejandro had the quotation for the galvanized rigging.  It would have been just past noon but the place was shut.  Maybe they have split business hours.  Maybe they don't open on Mondays.   The proposal has become  moot because I hope to have the boat re-rigged in all stainless steel with the help Pato Salas, so I may let this one slide and quietly die.  It would serve them right for dragging their feet for what must be 4 weeks now.