Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

Here's a photo of my neighbor's Contessa riding out the storm yesterday. The worst of it came straight up Belfast Harbor. Fortunately no boats were lost.

Yeesh...glad to hear all is OK, though!

You could probably hear the sigh of relief over in Whitefield.

I'm very much looking forward to the boat coming home this week. It was supposed to be here last week, but the hauler got behind because of the lousy weather over the past few weeks.

Sadly, as I was writing the post above yesterday, an Endeavor 32 broke her moorings and was destroyed on the rocks in Belfast harbor. Pieces of the boat are washing up all around the harbor. Apparently the mooring pendant chafed through. :-(

A30_John wrote:Sadly, as I was writing the post above yesterday, an Endeavor 30 broke her moorings and was destroyed on the rocks in Belfast harbor. Pieces of the boat are washing up all around the harbor. Apparently the mooring pendant chafed through. :-(

Every owner's nightmare. Very sad.

-- E

I spent the entire time, 3 days, dodging the gale in Gilkey Harbor off Islesboro. A 40'er chafed through and went adrift in Cradle Cove saturday night. It went through a small rocky opening at high tide and ended up on the south side of Warren Island.

I was in Ames Cove on the other side in the "lee" that night. Then it was my turn when it turned southwest. It was quite a ride with waves breaking over the boat on a mooring. At low tide a made a dash accross into the now protected Cradle Cove.

I couldn't leave on monday either, the wind was too fierce. I took some diesel at Dark Harbor and had to get off their docks fast, I was ripping the ramp out from the windage heeling me into it.

A boat broke off it's mooring in Rockport and took heavy damage. One or two went adrift in Camden as well. I got back this morning at 7 am on flat beautiful quiet calm water. I stripped my sails, booms and mizzen will get hauled tomorrow. I needed that gale, it was ugly and beautiful. I'm ready to call it a season.

a shot from the "lee" saturday night.

Tom Young wrote:I needed that gale, it was ugly and beautiful. I'm ready to call it a season.

I don't know exactly what it was about your report or your picture, but they certainly gave me a bit of a twist in the gut.
Very glad to hear you rode it out successfully.

Those fall days are tempting but these kinds of stories are why I pull out before October. Actually what did it for me was when I had to row out and sweep snow off my boat. The gales just make me feel better when I think of all the fall sailing days I am missing.

-Britton

Glad you made it through ok Tom. It must have been quite a ride on the mooring.

Today my baby was delivered home safe and sound. I'll sleep better when the next storm hits..

and I am glad we elected not to bring our 'new' boat home last weekend - this weekend is looking promising though.

Mark

[ nice shelter ]

Here's a link to a web page with photos of the boat that was lost in Belfast Harbor, Maine last weekend.

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government ... ryID=80978

That's sad. I would be very uncomfortable with my boat on a mooring in a storm. We don't use a lot of moorings on the south end of the Chesapeake Bay so my experience with them is from trips north. If it was my mooring & could dive on it & keep it up, I think it would be great as I could sail without firing up the engine. However, when I've tied up to them I've always worried about what condition its components are in.

In Belfast we have strict rules about the type, size, and condition of parts used in moorings, and owners are required to have their mooring pulled and inspected every two years. That's a good idea because we have electrolysis issues here. I'm a diver, so I check mine occasionally which gives me some added peace of mind. It's always a risk, however, if you pick up a stranger's mooring.

In the case of the boat lost in the recent storm, I understand the mooring pendant chafed through. If so, that would suggest the underwater mooring tackle itself was fine. We've had several gales this Fall, and that could be enough to saw through a pendant without adequate chafing gear. Frequent inspection is always a good idea.

I am glad we elected not to bring our 'new' boat home last weekend - this weekend is looking promising though.

Good luck this weekend Mark!

If the cause was chafe, that sounds like the boat owner's fault.

This post on a local sailing board I monitor

I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on what happened to me last week. On Oct 15th. I sailed my boat from my slip in Newport to XYZ Boat Yard in Jamestown. My boat has been hauled at XYZ since 1988 and although there are new owners, it made sense to keep bringing it there. Well, during last weeks windstorm, my boat broke off the mooring and washed ashore by the Jamestown bridge. When I found it, all the ground tackle was still attached. The mooring chain was in terrible condition and there was still 30 feet of chain attached to my boat. The folks at XYZ have been completely impossible to work with and I have decided to have another boat yard(ABC) come and transport my boat to their yard. There is probably about $20,000 worth of damage. I am working with my insurance company and meeting again with them on Monday. Should I go after XYZ for financial responsibility or just let the insurance run its course?

What's the opinion of this group ?

(Names changed to protect the innocent)

My opinion is that in the end, owners are ultimately responsible for the well-being of their boat, wherever it is stored or whoever's mooring she happens to be on. It's easy to look for someone to blame when a terrible incident like this occurs, but what about this owner's own responsibility to look after his vessel?

There is always a risk with putting your boat on an unknown mooring, or in an unfamiliar marina--or even on your own mooring, for that matter. I wouldn't do what this owner did, particularly in the fall season in the northeast, which is notorious for these sorts of storms.

Some possible factors as I see it:

1. Did the yard specifically indicate this mooring be used?

2. Was the yard supposed to have already hauled the boat for the season when this storm arose, or where they behind schedule?

3. Did the owner, in the face of that weekend's well publicized and even sensationalized forecast, do anything to protect his own interests and the well being of his boat?

Maybe there is a liability here--there are too many questions and not enough information at hand (plus I'm not a lawyer), but the owner still shares the responsibility. To me, there's a large separation between responsibility and whatever the legally-defined liability might be. The owner's responsible regardless of whether the yard has legal liability.

That's my opinion, based on some pathetic wish for some decent moral standards and personal responsibility in this country--as well as on the still-unique need for self-sufficiency afloat and caring for one's own vessel in all circumstances.

A boat did break free of it's mooring here in Rockport. It took some fairly heavy damage. The talk was on the mooring having failed below the ball, I'm assuming the swivel or shackle between top and bottom chain.

At any rate, the boat was under the full care of the marina and boatyard that does all it's work, storage, maintianence etc. The yards had doubled up pennants for the storm. I suspect there is a certain confidence the owner pays for in having his boat looked after in all situations. This is a hands off owner of a gold plater.

I don't know how responsibility plays out in that situation. The company the services the moorings(different than the boatyard but held to town rules and yearly inspections) has it's own liability insurance. The boatyard has it's liability insurance and of course the owner has his own. It seems liability may be attached at certain points on that mooring tackle.

That's alot of insurance for one company not to look at another for repairs. I'll let you guys know if I find anything out .

If I ever find myself on a mooring with a storm coming I'm going to drop my hook just in case. If the entity/organization that rents out the mooring isn't responsible for it why the heck would anybody use it? Man, I'm glad they haven't managed to cover the Bay with those damned things!

Tom Young wrote: I don't know how responsibility plays out in that situation. The company the services the moorings(different than the boatyard but held to town rules and yearly inspections) has it's own liability insurance. The boatyard has it's liability insurance and of course the owner has his own. It seems liability may be attached at certain points on that mooring tackle.

That's alot of insurance for one company not to look at another for repairs. I'll let you guys know if I find anything out .

I suspect if anyone pays it will be the boatowner's insurance that takes care of it since it will probably be deemed an "act of god." Good luck trying to pin liability on the marina or the mooring service for something that failed during a storm.

Tend to agree, the owner is probably looking at his insurance coughing up the $20k, he might have some luck in covering his deductible with the boat yard but I wouldn't pin my hopes on it.

I think the lesson here is as you've said -

- be responsible for your own boat, regardless.

- vote with your feet, if you think you were done a dis-service by that boat yard then take your business elsewhere.

You have to be clear as to who has what liability. When we just bought our boat we agreed to keep the boat in the water following the survey at our expense (pending departure), even though we had not formally closed on th deal and we put an insurance binder in place - ensuring that the insurance agent, the broker and the seller were all ok with this.

Tend to agree, the owner is probably looking at his insurance coughing up the $20k, he might have some luck in covering his deductible with the boat yard but I wouldn't pin my hopes on it.

My best case scenario would see the owners insurance company paying out, then it's up to them to decide whether to go after boatyard and/or its insurance company.

On the face of it if the mooring chain was indeed "in terrible condition" and it broke causing damage, and a reasonable boatyard would not use moorings in that condition, then the boatyard would bear some liability. And why shouldn't they? The notion of personal responsibility flows to the boatyard as well. I leave my boat in the custody of a boatyard twice a year, and it's not realistic to think that I could or would pull the boatyard's moorings to ensure they are safe.

I should note that the owner of my boatyard pulled my boat off a boatyard mooring and put it in a safe location before the storm. In addition, he was out during the worst of that storm fortifying mooring lines and tending to the boats in his custody. He saved one boat from sure destruction while I was there watching. No boats in the boatyard's custody were damaged during the storm.

In the tug world- w/ admiralty law & insurance the unwritten rule is don't talk to anyone but your own insurance company. If you go on your own to discuss w/ anyone who is involved in the case your own insurance company just loves to say: oh, your taking care of this? great- let your agent know how it turns out! WE'll let you settle this one yourself.

I think the insurance company might settle w/ the owner and then based on all the facts they would/would not go after some one else. Then the next year they start getting the cost back w/ raised premiums! BTW our deductable on the tugs is only $10,000 :(

JSmith wrote:In the tug world- w/ admiralty law & insurance the unwritten rule is don't talk to anyone but your own insurance company.

Good reminder..

KeelBolt : I would probably not drop the hook prior to that storm UNLESS...
I knew that the mooring were not held together by friggin great chains down there. Know of several mooring fields with interconnected chains. Also know that many chains are cut and abandoned when its too dificult to extract the fouled anchor.

I would rather ride out the storm on the hook in a "clean" area away from the other boats.

Of course - all this is just theory ???

But I will be back to cruising real soon.

kris

This old Herreshoff schooner took a terrible pounding. I'm not sure of the details but it was somehwere in our area and looks to have pounded on steep rocks or docks.

The estimate of 5,000 man hours for this restoration and a few other damaged boats will keep most of the work force at Rockport Marine busy for the winter. A few of us will remember this gale.