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Composite Research, Inc.

Composite Research, Inc.
Makers of Sundance, Sea Born, and Spyder Boats

Author: admin

How can I prevent fabric or fiberglass damage with fixed upholstery snaps?

Marine-grade snaps are commonly used on many cushion and upholstery styles within our family of boats. The purpose of these snaps are to help secure your boat’s cushions while underway or during transport. To work as intended, your boat’s snaps must be fully engaged or “locked” in place. To correctly lock a snap, place the snap-receiver (female) over a snap-bottom (male) and push down, vertically and firmly. When done correctly you’ll hear and audible click and feel the snap’s lock engage.

Safe Removal / Avoiding Damage
In some cases we’ve learned of snap-receivers being ripped away from cushions or snap-bottoms pulled from a fiberglass mount due to excessive force and/or vertical tensions during cushion removal. As such, the following diagram is intended to demonstrate the correct and incorrect manner to remove upholstery  and “unlock” a snap. As you can see, pulling upward and vertically with force is incorrect and may cause the “lock” to tear away from a cushion’s bottom, or rip out mounting screws or both. To help avoid this problem, when removing boat cushions the best practice is to slowly and without force to “roll” a vessel’s cushions away from their locked positions at an angle.

Other Recommendations & Best Practices

  1. Regardless of the ability to lock cushions in place, we strongly advise that you stow your vessel’s upholstery within your boat’s console during transport. The reason for this is during transport, your boat may exceed 65+ MPH which can unlock snaps and also damaged snap-receivers and snap-bottoms.
  2. As a routine maintenance task, we also strongly advise the use of a marine-grade, snap and zipper lubricant on all of your boat’s snap-receivers and snap-bottoms.

My fuel gauge doesn’t seem to read my fuel level properly. What can I do?

One detail that may not be understood and contrary to popular belief, the factory does not ship boats with fuel. When a boat arrives at a dealership, part of the check-in process also referred to as Post/Pre Delivery Inspection (PDI) includes the installation of batteries, fuel, and general setup of electronic systems which include multi-function display(s).

One critical step in the setup process is to ensure that the settings within the MFD are properly calibrated to the fuel tank. Without this calibration step, it is almost impossible to provide accurate fuel levels and usages. Equally important, failure to set up the vessel’s fuel-systems properly within the MFD can potentially void the manufacturer’s warranty for all fuel-related issues.

Should your MFD be properly calibrated and you are still experiencing fuel gauge or inaccurate burn rates, we suggest the following steps:

  1. Contact your dealer and verify that your boat’s MFD was in fact properly calibrated.
  2. Review the following document on EPA regulations and safety “features” installed on your fuel tank which may cause inaccurate reading.
  3. Conduct a test of your fuel sending unit.

How do I remove “mold” from caulk on my boat?

The darkened areas often seen in a boat’s caulking isn’t actually molding, it’s a hydro-carbon build-up. To remedy, apply mineral spirits generously to the needed areas to break down these deposits. Following that, be sure to thoroughly wash the area with soap and water after the use of spirits.

I was told my boat would take 8-10 weeks to build by my dealer. Why is the delivery time longer?

While most of our models do have an average build time of 8-10 weeks, it is equally important to understand that these approximate production times, DO NOT ACCOUNT for build start or “lay-up” dates.

Clarifying this point a bit further, when CRI dealer places an order for a new boat on behalf of a retail buyer, that boat will be placed into production at the earliest possible opportunity. 

For example, a boat ordered from a CRI dealer by a retail customer on June 21st may not be received and confirmed by the factory until June 25th. Once reviewed and confirmed, the “sold unit” will be placed into the earliest available start date, in this case, July 10th.  Understanding this, our 8-10 week build estimate would bring the boat out of production around the first week of September.  

Can I receive photos of my new boat from the factory while under construction?

To preserve the efficiency of our production process and in fairness to all of our customers, we do not provide photos of individual boats while in production to retail buyers.

CRI dealers may from time-to-time request production photos to address special needs and circumstances. In such cases, the sharing of such photos would be from the CRI dealer to the retail buyer.

How do I receive tech and/or warranty support for Simrad products?

SIMRAD OWNERS TECH AND WARRANTY SUPPORT :

Any request for Warranty assistance must go through the Simrad Tech Support Department.

The normal warranty process for ANY defective product replacement (such as NSS evo3 or GO series units, sonic hubs, radar units…):

THE OWNER CARE SUPPORT LINE IS # 800-628-4487 / ns-support@navico.com

• Owner provides tech details of defective issue, defective product serial number, etc. to the Simrad agent for decision. Tech will troubleshoot issue with Owner.

• If found defective, Simrad agent provides RMA# to the Owner to return the defective product.

• Owner ships the defective product to the RMA address

• Simrad receives defective product, verifies it is defective, and ships replacement product to the Owner.

ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT NOTES:

• If the Owner wants the Simrad agent to ship the replacement unit to them BEFORE they remove and ship out the defective unit….this is called ADVANCED REPLACEMENT.

• If the Owner wants the ADVANCED REPLACEMENT they MUST provide a credit card for this transaction.

• The Owner credit card is charged for the replacement unit amount and the new unit is shipped immediately.

• When the ADVANCED REPLACEMENT unit is received by the Owner and they remove the defective unit, they must ship the defective unit back to Simrad.

• Once Simrad receives the defective unit back from the Owner, they verify it is defective and they credit back the charge to the Owner’s credit card.

How do I restore my deck if it has turned a yellowish color?

Waxes, sunscreen oils, and other surface contaminates can start showing yellowish tint over time especially in warm, sunny climates.

To remedy this issue many boat owners have found success using Xylene which can be purchased at most hardware stores.
Next, using gloves and eye protection soak a rag with a generous amount of Xylene and then lay the rag on the discolored area for a few minutes. Next, scrub the yellow spots using a handheld deck brush (soft to medium bristles) on the affected area.

If the discoloration remains, repeat the previous steps.

Finally, rinse the deck thoroughly with soap and water.