Story (or Nightmare) of Lemon-Aid

By Dave Cook

This is about a 2018 R27 Ranger Tug, fittingly named “Lemon-Aid.”

https://youtu.be/EIo_KsPfkqQ NEW VIDEO ! NOV.2023 DEBUT !

The Purchase

Life for Lemon-Aid began at the Fluid Motion manufacturing factory in Washington State. The company specializes in the manufacturing of Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats. When Lemon-Aid was completed, she was shipped by an unknown freight company. (Click here for email)

Lemon-Aid arrived at Lefroy Harbour Yacht Sales (currently known as Bayshore Yacht Sales located in Lefroy, Ontario, Canada). In my personal opinion, sometime before the original owner took possession of the new 2018 R27 (now known as “Lemon-Aid”), the bottom of the hull was damaged.

No one seems to know what happened… What is known is this new boat was delivered by water to the original owner in Midland, Ontario. The salesman, Paul Cornwall ran the boat up to the original owner’s home on the water.

The original owner, in preparation for the new Ranger Tug had a new, top-of-the-line marine railroad system installed. The original owner did not put many hours on the Ranger, out for a 2-3 hour ride, then back on the marine railroad and into the boathouse.

In the fall of 2019, Dave and Donna Cook dropped off their 2013 R27 Ranger Tug to be sold with the Lefroy Yacht Sales (now Bayshore Yacht Sales). In the winter, the original owners of Lemon-Aid decided to sell their boat. They concluded since they did not use the boat often enough they would list it for sale with the dealership that sold it new to them, Lefroy/Bayshore Yacht Sales.

Dave and Donna Cook were looking for a newer Ranger R27 (particularly for a different hull design than the 2013 model). They searched the market for what was available and found one advertised as, “LIKE NEW CONDITION, BOW TO STERN WITH APPROX 25HRS, AT BAYSHORE YACHT SALES” (Click here for the advertisement). They thought this was too good to be true.

In June 2020, things started to progress quickly. A buyer was interested in purchasing Dave and Donna’s 2013 R27 immediately to take advantage of what was left of the short Covid-19 summer. Dave and Donna found themselves in a dilemma, either, there would be no boating for the remainder of the hectic 2020 summer or, there was the possibility of purchasing the 2018 R27 Ranger Tug that Paul Cornwall had listed. The couple knew Paul and the dealership from the Ranger Tug Rendezvous that they had attended in the past. The people there always said, “You’re part of the family.” So they thought, ‘why not?’, after all, ‘we are “Family.”’

The 2018 R27 Ranger still had that new boat smell. Again, it only had approximately 25 hours on it.

The Cook’s decided that it was time to take advantage of this opportunity and purchase the 2018 R27 Ranger that was for sale. The boat would go back into the dealership’s inventory, be brought out of the boathouse by the water, and prepped by the techs. This deal would offer Dave and Donna some tax savings as they had their trade-in boat (which the dealership was selling).

The Problem

This is where it gets exciting! (Hope you are still following along with our story…)

On Wednesday, June 24th, 2020 Dave and Donna left home at 5:30 a.m. to be in Midland for a sea trial. They met Paul at 9 a.m. and had a quick sea trial (about 1.5hrs total). The boat had come over by water from the original owners house to the Bay Port Marina a few days earlier. The boathouse was only a mile away from the Bay Port Yacht center (which has the same owners as Lefroy Harbor). On the sea trial Paul the salesman, said to us (Donna and myself) that the generator and water system could not be run yet, as the techs had not had the chance to look at it. The trial was rushed and we could not inspect many aspects of the boat. Paul assured me the techs would go over the boat with a fine tooth comb. After all… the boat was advertised “LIKE NEW, BOW TO STERN WITH APPROX 25HRS, AT BAYSHORE YACHT SALES” (Click here for the advertisement) and "We are family” so we had no reason to doubt Paul and his team.

Right after the sea trial at 10:30 a.m. we left Bay Port to head over to Lefroy Harbor (Bayshore Yacht Sales) on Lake Simcoe to help out with the sea trial of the soon to be new owners of our 2013 R27. We needed to be there for noon that day so we were hustling. Paul asked us to help launch the 2013 by trailer and explain some of the custom modifications to the buyers. We finalized the 2013 Ranger sale and the 2018 Ranger purchase at 6:30 p.m. that day.

The next few days were spent arranging insurance and booking the hydraulic trailer transportation, as the 2018 R27 deal did not include a trailer. The original owner never had any use for one. They always moved the boat by water. At 9 a.m. July 9th, 2020, a 2 man crew and hydraulic trailer arrived at the Bay Port boat ramp. Paul the salesman was to be at the dock to load the 2018 R27, as I was unable to be there. After some time had passed the crew went in search of Paul and the boat. They did finally find Paul and the boat I purchased, with a mop and pail, mopping out water from the V birth floor area. The crew asked about this… and Paul said, “It’s just from the air conditioning that was left on.” Having been caught in the act he decided he best call me about the issue and he did so in front of the crew to make it known I would be made aware of this. I responded, “The air conditioning should not do that,” and then told him to, “Get a tech on that boat now to look into this problem before you ship it.” (Click here for the email from the Boat hauler crew describing the situation)

Paul texted me shortly after, that he tried to get a Bay Port tech (same parent company) to check it, but, “They got mad at him.” I texted him back, “Get them over there or give me the number to call them!” Paul then texts “It’s just a drain!”.

The crew also notified me that before loading the boat, Paul had went on a, “High speed boat ride out on the lake and back for 5-10 minutes to remove algae off the boat bottom.” In my opinion this was done to get rid of the excess water that had leaked into the hull of the boat. About 20-30 minutes went by and I received a picture of my boat on the trailer from the crew with the words, “We are loaded and heading to you.” When I got the text, I called Paul right away and had a conversation. He told me, “The dealership will pay for a tech to fix the problem in Sarnia.”

We met the boat hauler crew in Sarnia at the ramp later that day. I took pictures of the boat on the trailer, the equipment, and the trailer looked good. I looked quickly at the boat before it went into the water. I did not crawl under the boat on the wet ramp to check for issues as I was too focused on the air conditioning problem, as Paul Cornwall had explained was the true cause for the leak.

With the boat in my marina slip now, I decided to talk to Stan, the service manager at Lefroy Harbor (which has always been helpful and available by phone/email) and the techs at Ranger Tugs. Under the direction of Stan and the manufacturing plant techs I spent many days isolating the issue:

• Turning off all water sources for 12 hours.

• Visual inspection by pulling off all interior panels.

• Access to areas by pulling out refrigerator and microwave.

• Retightening all hose clamps at connections.

• Colored food dye in fresh water system to rule it out.

• Air conditioning and drainage system checked over.

• Bilge water in boat and Marina water tested, resulting in proof that the water was from an outside source.

I even had a portable bilge pump and was taking out 6-7 gallons of water twice a day. Totaling 12-14 gallons from the V birth removable step area. The transducer had also floated off its sealant attachment. There were other things that were also overlooked. My wife had found a bunch of fuses and a cover in the drawer. I could not figure out what they were for as the boat’s manuals were nowhere to be found. It had seemed that Paul did not verify that the manuals were on the boat. This resulted in me having to take time out of my day to track down the missing manuals. I ended up having to drive to Guelph to retrieve them.

After many extensive hours of research I came to the conclusion that the “live” 24-7 fuse panel was hidden well in the cave. After locating the panel I noticed that there were no fuses inside. These fuses control the radio, carbon dioxide (CO2) alarm, and bilge pump float switches. After reaching out to many resources I discovered that the winterizing techs had pulled them out to prevent the batteries from going flat, however, they never ended up putting them back in, in the spring. Without the fuses in, the bilge pumps would only work manually by switch. Not by the float switch in the bilge. This was the “SMOKING GUN” as to why the boat was flooded. The boat sat in the marina dock from June 24th to July 9th and was taking on a lot of water from the cracks since the bilge pumps were not working.

I am surprised the boat DIDN’T SINK! It takes a lot of water in the bilge to rise above the boat’s V birth floor. With all the possibilities ruled out (after 13 days!) I arranged another hydraulic trailer to pull the boat out (July 21st) for a better look. Upon closer inspection we found two large cracks on the port side, close to the center of the keel, about 1/3rd of the way from the bow. The first thing I did was call Paul to address the issue and he immediately blamed the hauler crew. I told Paul that could not be possible because I had inspected the load. Paul then said we needed a professional opinion, which I agreed.

The Aftermath

I hired the best surveyor I could find, Swift Sure Vessel Solutions. They have inspected and surveyed a lot of hurricane damaged boats and yachts all over North America and the islands. Their findings were astonishing. 40” forward & 60” aft of the cracks had 60-100% moisture readings and delamination in areas. I was also surprised by the number of ABYC standard infractions, but still had a NMMA certification, which contradicted the infractions. After contacting Lefroy Harbour (now Bayshore Yacht Sales) and the plant about the issue, my concerns were basically ignored.

(Note: If I was to call my insurance company and made up a fictitious story to make a claim, I would be charged with fraud).

From my experience, I believe, this was handled very poorly by Bayshore Yacht Sales as they ignored the whole situation completely. The Fluid Motion plant is a small company that has ramped up for mass production. That said, they overlooked some severe growing pains which lead to bad quality control. Therefore, both companies have not taken the responsibility of insuring customer satisfaction. The plants need to choose better quality dealerships to represent their product. To me it seems that the plant is all about the money now. They are not concerned about the bad press because they cannot keep up with the new “first time” Ranger Tug followers and buyers. They do not need us repeat customers. Look at the connected family history to the “Bayliner Boats.” I hope Ranger Tugs does not follow the same path.

I sincerely apologize to all our friends we have made at the many Rendezvous since 2014. We were told we were “family” by the plant and dealers. I hope we can still be friends, as this problem is not with any of the Ranger Tug owners. I did not want it to reach this point. I just want “a boat that floats.” Unfortunately, the dealership and plant has forced me to do this, which makes no business sense at all on their part.