I have had 4 Volvos. Two I 'inherited' and two I was stupid enough to buy. There will never be a number 5 now that I have got rid of the last one.

Not just a case of poor design and build quality, but as much a reflection of how I view Volvo's operation in NZ. In my view, too much rape and pillage involved with too little concern about their customers. I can relate some pretty ugly examples, some involving ex forum members as well as other unfortunates. In fact one of Volvo's representatives once threatened to sue me for posting too much dirty laundry on this forum. Waved a bunch of printed out posts at me whilst voicing his threats, so I just asked him to point out which particular posts he felt were untrue or defamatory. Unfortunately for him they were all 100% factual, and all that they were really upset about was that someone had dared to air their dirty laundry in public. I like to think that I have cost them plenty of sales over the years, and saved plenty of other boaties from the pain of dealing with them. I stopped buying parts locally a few years back and everytime a parcel of parts arrived from offshore (at half the local cost) I had a wee moment of pleasure thinking about how much there bad attitude to their customers was costing them.

Anyway, I love what you are doing with the boat, so hopefully I might be in the area when that green thing lets you down and be able to offer a tow home