T&T: A nagging question

[Ricky L Carroll]

I don't post to this list very often or a simple reason (long story), but I
feel compelled to give a response this time.
 
First, the observation that many boat owners are clueless, that their boats
are simply disposable toys and that, quite often, that they use storms as a
way of getting rid of that "hole in the water" are sometime true, but
certainly not true enough, often enough, to be a safe generalization.
 
I don't own a trawler, but belong to this list by virture of my interest in
one day owning one. I do own a sailboat, albeit a small one, that I store on
the hard on Galveston Bay.
 
In my own case, I was able to save my boat by driving down to the bay two days
prior to the storm and towing the boat (trailerable) back to my home north of
Houston. While I was down there, I visited with a friend who is a yacht broker
and resides on the bay. At that time, the hurricane was predicted to miss the
area some miles to the south and max high tides for the bay were predicted to
be in the 6' range. For the dry lot I used, 8' was considered safe, but my
company's private weather service had concerns the storm track would migrate
north and, as luck would have it, I had a half day free.
 
I stopped to speak a bit to my broker friend. By that time, he had the boats
(new) at his brokerage moved to a floating dock location and safely secured.
Like me, he had a "bad feeling". His used brokerage boats were also well
secured, but to fixed docks, since these were the only slips he had available.
Some of the boats still had roller furlers up, mainsails flaked on the booms
and other item improperly secured. When I questioned this, he commented that
his entire staff was working furiously to fix this, even though the storm was
predicted to be of minor impact. He said, "we have hundreds of boats here and
only a few folks to work on them". Most of the owners, he said, "lived far
away or were unexpectedly out of town or were unable to come down due to work
commitments." Houston has the 4th largest concentration of boats in the
nation, but many of these boat owners use the boats only as weekend or summer
homes.
 
By the next day, he said, all of his brokerage boats would be properly
secured, and his crews would start working on whatever other boats they could
get to and had access to, but to do them all was 'highly improbable" before
the storm impact.
 
As it happened to turn out, the waters began rising nearly 24hrs in advance of
predictions and even some of the planned work was not done. There simply
wasn't the time or opportunity for many of these owners to properly prepare
their boats or for them to arrange to have it done.
 
In my own case, I was the only owner to remove their boat from the dry
lot that first day. I understand several other came that next morning, but by
that afternoon, the water was too high. I sitll haven't confirmed it, but I
believe most of those remaining boats were destroyed.
 
Many of the photos you saw of damaged boats were of the HYC. A dear friend of
mine is Rear Commodore of the HYC. I still don't know how she faired, but do
know the club was heavily damaged and most of the boats in that marine were
destroyed. Many were well prepared by knowledgeable owners. Her own parents
owned a lovely Gypsy and I can only hope it survived.
 
Insurance companies can and do challenge claims based on policy holders who
don't take "reasonable and proper" precautions to protect vehicles, homes and
boats covered by their policies (my wife is from New Orleans. She could spend
hours talking about how hard the insurance companies fought to avoid paying
her family's claims....a family that lost everything.). I would not for a
moment think that insurers pay "on demand" for poorly prepared anything.
 
My boat is fine. I was lucky. If I had been out of town or unable to take off
the half day it took to go down there, I would have been filing a claim
myself. I can only imagine that a photo of my boat, flipped over while
strapped to it's unsecured trailer, would be used as fodder for the impression
that I was one of many who were cavalier in taking measures to protect their
property.
 
Ricky in Conroe/Kemah, Texas
Aeolia
Catalina 22 Sport
 

 
..............:23 PM

" Why should an insurance company pay for any salvage or damage suffered as
a
result of manifest lack of storm preparation?"

Somewhere (too long ago) I heard that insurance is to protect us from the
idiots - including the one in the mirror...

Rip Tyler

m/v Severn Exposure
Pearson True North 38
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