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View Full Version : riddle me this...



zelatore
03-07-2008, 10:09 AM
So let's suppose you were buying a new boat (your first boat at that). It's a 47' motor yacht, well north of $600K. While it's being commissioned and before you take delivery, an old trawler at the boat yard backs into the bow and bends up the bow rail, the spotlight, and the anchor (surprisingly, no fiberglass damage).

What would be your response?

I've seen two versions of this so far, ranging from 'OK, nothing to shout about. It's not a hard fix and can easily be put back to new with no cost to the buyer'

and

'the boat is ruined and I won't accept it!'

My trip to Portland was not without it's excitement, as you can see...:doh:

BlownCrewCab
03-07-2008, 10:15 AM
As Long as it's fixed to where it isn't noticable AT ALL would be okay, I'd recomend that the Boat manufacturer is the one to fix it, since they have all original equipment, and gelcoat colors and knowlege of the boat. no matter whos paying.

BUIZILLA
03-07-2008, 11:46 AM
what liability has the trawler Captain / owner accepted??

zelatore
03-07-2008, 05:57 PM
The trawler owner's insurance is taking care of things so far with no problems. We're actually shipping out new rails from Carver even though we could easily enough have made repairs on-site. All OEM makes the buyer happy.

Now, getting the insurance co. to cover the loss of my time and expenses for flying back up to Portland and spending two days with the client doing his delivery and training AFTER the repairs...that's a little tougher. We should know more by Monday afternoon.

In reality, it was a minor event. The trawler was splashed and hand-walked out of the slings to the dock directly in front of us. The owner fired it up at the lower helm, but apparently the upper helm had one motor in gear and his neutral safety wasn't working. It idled back into us at maybe 2 knots. His davit buckled our bow rail port and starboard back to the second set of stanchions, and it stopped when he made contact with out anchor. Surprisingly, none of the rail stanchions even cracked the glass at their mountings; it just bent up the stainless, bent one fluke on the anchor, and popped the spotlight.

The buyer has calmed down now. He started in a complete panic. My opinion? Accidents happen. It wasn't my company's fault, nor the yard's. It was the owner of the trawler, and he immediately took measures to set things right. Again, accidents happen - it's what happens after that matters. This is pretty minor, less than 1% of the boat's value for full repairs, and it will be put back such that the buyer won't even be able to find the repairs when he comes to see the boat for the first time.

But since I work in the industry what I think is not what the average Joe might think. I thought he was being a huge drama queen when he started with 'the boat's ruined...I won't accept it...' etc. but I wondered what 'normal' people would think.