Bolo
Contributing Partner
This story has nothing directly to do with Ericsons but it is something that may have happened or could happen to any one of us. A client of mine told me that he got a call from his marina (Bowley's Marina off Middle River of the Chesapeake Bay) telling him that his CAL 9.2 sailboat fell over on the hard! 
They sent him photos of the boat after it fell (because we were in Hershey, PA) and it showed the boat sitting on it's bottom with the mast almost straight up in the air. However, the keel had snapped off cleanly at the bolts and the spade rudder was bent out of alignment by about 18 inches. It finally fell off after the boat was lifted up again. The yard said it was because of the big nor' easter that blew through here a few days ago. But you can clearly see that the stands on the starboard side, although they were fallen over (the boat fell towards it's starboard side) had sunk into the mud. The port side stands were on the gravel side of the parking lot.
I think it was a combination of the wind, rain (making dirt into mud) and the fact that the yard placed the boat with the stands on the starboard side on the grass without any sort of plywood squares down to prevent them from sinking into the ground that had turned into mud after all the rain we received.
Now it's time for the Boat US guy to come down to look for himself and make a decision as to why it happened and who's fault it is, God's (because of the storm), the yard's because of their stupidity or maybe a combination. If the damage is more than 50% of the insured value then Boat US will total my client's boat. The hull value is around $30K. I told him that I bet it will cost over that to do all the repairs and it's still unknown as to how much more damage there is on the boat. But it seems to me that snapping off the keel will be a big thing ($$$) to fix not counting the rest of the damage that is unknown.
The other rub is that if Boat US finds the yard negligent then the yards insurance will cover the cost and for some reason they will only give my client about $21K for the boat. Why? I don't know but this is what he is telling me. So, has anyone else had something like this happen? We've all heard about someone making a claim on a sunken vessel but one that falls over in the parking lot???
They sent him photos of the boat after it fell (because we were in Hershey, PA) and it showed the boat sitting on it's bottom with the mast almost straight up in the air. However, the keel had snapped off cleanly at the bolts and the spade rudder was bent out of alignment by about 18 inches. It finally fell off after the boat was lifted up again. The yard said it was because of the big nor' easter that blew through here a few days ago. But you can clearly see that the stands on the starboard side, although they were fallen over (the boat fell towards it's starboard side) had sunk into the mud. The port side stands were on the gravel side of the parking lot.
I think it was a combination of the wind, rain (making dirt into mud) and the fact that the yard placed the boat with the stands on the starboard side on the grass without any sort of plywood squares down to prevent them from sinking into the ground that had turned into mud after all the rain we received.
Now it's time for the Boat US guy to come down to look for himself and make a decision as to why it happened and who's fault it is, God's (because of the storm), the yard's because of their stupidity or maybe a combination. If the damage is more than 50% of the insured value then Boat US will total my client's boat. The hull value is around $30K. I told him that I bet it will cost over that to do all the repairs and it's still unknown as to how much more damage there is on the boat. But it seems to me that snapping off the keel will be a big thing ($$$) to fix not counting the rest of the damage that is unknown.
The other rub is that if Boat US finds the yard negligent then the yards insurance will cover the cost and for some reason they will only give my client about $21K for the boat. Why? I don't know but this is what he is telling me. So, has anyone else had something like this happen? We've all heard about someone making a claim on a sunken vessel but one that falls over in the parking lot???
