Diana & Martin Rosansky
It all started almost 10 years ago when we decided that the perfect boat for our cruising lifestyle should be a raised pilothouse design, in the 50-55′ range. We spend our time in the winter cruising the gulf coast of Florida (we have a home in Sarasota), and the summers in the northeastern part of the US and Canada…with the base being our mid-coast Maine residence. We were introduced to Kerry Alexander, one of Galati’s top salesmen, when he showed us a Grand Banks Aleutian 53RP…exactly the style boat we had been searching for. It took us about a year to make up our minds to place an order for the 53RP…Kerry’s continued support (prior to placing an order), and Galati’s outstanding service reputation were key in our decision making process.
Several months after agreeing to buy a 53 Aleutian, we were informed that Grand Banks was essentially replacing that model with a 55 RP. This permitted us to upgrade our purchase to the improved 55′ Aleutian with it’s many new features including a redesigned more modern interior. One of the highlights of our purchase was being able to see our boat under construction at the Grand Banks Plant in Johar Bahru, Malaysia. Of course we were joined by Kerry and were welcomed by the Grand Banks staff including their sales and production managers. The staff and workers could not have been more gracious, welcoming and knowledgeable. We were able to make suggestions and were pleased to find that many requests (the worthwhile ones!) were beautifully incorporated into our boat. Prior to our boat leaving the Grand Banks plant, Kerry paid yet another visit to the plant to insure that everything agreed to was incorporated into the build. We found that Kerry’s attention to detail is outstanding and he’s certainly the type of person that one wants on his team. To put it simply, the boat has exceeded our expectations…It’s interesting that Galati’s motto is “Consistently Exceeding the Expectations of our Customers.”
We took delivery on December 10, 2014 and have found Mike Galati to be super responsive with regard to service. Send Mike an e-mail on Saturday and don’t be surprised if you get a answer by Sunday evening. We have been boat owners for more than 30 years and find that the three most important factors in purchasing a boat are service, service, service!
In honor of our trip to see the boat being built in Malaysia, and in honor of the boat builders of Southeast Asia, we named our boat, “Dragon”. Aside from dragons having major spiritual significance in many Asian culture and various religions, they are often associated with wisdom, longevity, strength, power and good luck.
