I didn't realize I was going to open up such a hornet's nest with my original posting. I greatly appreciate all your support in the public replies and many private email that I have received. I was frustrated over the weekend with the many delays in getting my sailboat in the water. Having read the many positive posts for the past several months in these forums, I never doubted that Hunter would fix it or do whatever was right. What made me decide on Monday to go public was the fact that Hunter's response (as I understood the dealer)was "send us some pictures to prove that the work needs to be done and we will authorize repair." In my mind, there was no interest on Hunter's part to understand how this most serious of defects for a boat builder could have happened and how it can be prevented from happening in the future. I believe Hunter has a sincere commitment to both excellence in design and quality service of the highest calibre. However, I don't believe they really seek excellence in production even if they themselves believe that they do. It would likely be a sure bet that they have a very detailed database of customer satisfaction surveys that they frequently trend and analyze to continually improve. I would be very surprised if they have a similar database of boat defects found by dealers and customers after delivery along with information about what each repair cost. If they have such a database why does MagicTilt continue to provide trailers whose electrical connectors are too short for standard truck hitches after Dave Condon had brought it to their attention multiple times? In my humble opinion, Hunter needs to imbue their organization with an intolerance for defects in their product, no matter how trivial. This expectation must be well understood by all their employees. It must come from their leadership. I disagree with the opinion of a few expressed here that quality is costly and you need to pay the price of an Island Packet to obtain it. My company is a self-regulator in our industry. Our purpose is to promote excellence in the areas of safety and reliabilty. We evaluate the performance of each plant in these areas (excluding financial/cost data). After twenty years of doing this, about one third of the plants currently receive the highest rating of "excellence". What we have found though, is that there is a clear corrolation between excellence and lowest production costs, i.e., the best plants almost always produce their product for the least amount of money. As we analyze the most important factor in a company achieving excellence, the answer always comes down to leadership. To dispell any incorrect impressions, I have been very satisfied with my dealer. He has been very professional and helpful. I did not expect him to have to rebuild my boat after receiving it from the factory. I know that he will properly repair my boat and I hope we will launch it next Wednesday, May 31st. I expect that it will float satisfactorily this this time. I was and work with several former submarine officers who tell me that I probably inadvertently specified a submarine instead of a sailboat - submarines have a sail, ballast tanks, and don't have to float all the time - that's what I had on Saturday. I hope to post a picture of the first successful sail of my new surface vessel late next week. I hope Hunter takes this input from all of us to heart in the positive way that is intended, and works on improving the quality of their production lines. Eddie has already told me that they are planning on adding weights to the stern of their boats when they "pond test" them. He also stated that they are working on detailing their production procedures/instructions. Now if they will only develop that intolerance for defects throughout their organization, the value of our boats will skyrocket as their reputation for excellance expands to all areas. Thanks again for all your words of support. I am not going to sue; I'm comfortable that the existing boat can be properly fixed; and, I'm certain that Hunter will fix the boat out-of-warranty if any related problems arise.