Advice needed

[operator6]

Hi guys, been having some wind-powered fun in the Bristol Channel (based at Cardiff Yacht Club, 21ft Coromandel). I was hoping to have more windy fun with a new boat, but this has now gone pear-shaped, and I need to tap into the group's experience for advice.

Some history - I was modifying my Coromandel to a standard I thought necessary for my little jaunts, and costing it, when a Jester Challenger came on the market. This is a Kingfisher 20+ JR (junk rig, natch), and had just completed the JAC08 challenge (Jester Azores Challenge 2008). It had everything done which I considered necessary on Pi Pi, and so I decided to buy it. Everything great, went to Scarborough to have a look, lovely, went back the next week to pick her up and bring her to Cardiff. This is when it went wrong...

I used a flatbed trailer, thinking it being all steel would not present a problem, pulled by a transit van - all within loading tolerances. Well, it did. Ten minutes into my return journey, and the trailer floor failed (the boat cradle went through the floor at four points). Having dropped about 4 inches, all my secure lines went loose, the trailer snaked then jack-knifed, and spun me around on the A64 in Yorkshire. It threw my new boat up the road, causing some nasty damage to her port side. Police involved, but no prosecution nor fines. Recovered by police powers, and went back the next week (cutting short my holiday trip to Ireland) to bring it down again (a very nervy trip, but incident free, on a steel transporter trailer).

It was around a crazy time for me, with far too much going on, and in my haste to get her down, neglected to insure her for the trip. It simply never dawned on me.

Anyway, the crux is this: do I have a case against the trailer hire company, to claim for the damage repair, recovery, maybe even trauma? I'm not one of these people who blame everyone else for events and quite happy to take responsibility for my actions, *if* I am responsible. However, in this case, I believe I did everything right, and if the trailer floor had not failed, I'd be sailing Goldie in Cardiff now.

The trailer hire company maintain the loading is my responsibility, and they are not liable for the trailer floor failure, and also want to charge me for the recovery/repair of their trailer.

I'm organising a solicitor to get legal advice on my position, but thought you guys might have some experience that you could share.

Sorry for the long post; this looks like it could be expensive and protracted, and, worst of all, land-based! Any yottie solicitors here?

cheers, Paschall

 

[Alcyone]

Good luck with this Paschall - just thinking, you may get a better response in the main forum?

 

[europe172]

I am not a lawyer, but what I think is that the load was within the limit for the trailer but the point loadings exceeded the floor strength.
Were you advised of maximum point loadings for the trailer bed?
Was the trailer bed in good condition? that is when new would the trailer been able to withstand the point loadings?
I would expect that the hire company will argue that wou should have loaded with load spreader plates.
Did you tell them what you intended to use the trailer for?

 

[graham]

Really sorry to hear of your problems. Someone on here may be qualified to help ,if not I second the idea to try the Scuttlebutt forum.

Hope it all works out OK. Good Luck

 

[PCUK]

Can you contact the trailer manufacturers for specs' etc. That may be useful.

 

[Sailing_Matt]

First thing would be to contact the hire company and ask for details of their insurers and then correspond with them.

Did the hire company know what the trailer was being used for and the weight of it? If they did have the opportuntity to object to loading the boat onto the trailer then you may have a case I recon.

This would be a difficult one to prove liability. I deal with motor accident claims so this is not really my field but getting in contact with the insurers of the hire company would be my first suggestion.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[snowleopard]

I think it mostly comes down to 'fit for purpose'. Did you tell them what you wanted to load on the trailer? Did they say what the trailer was suitable for?

Were you able to see rust on the trailer and have you kept evidence of it? If the trailer was defective and you haven't kept evidence before they took it back I think you're stuffed.

 

[duppamiller]

I'm not a lawyer, but I think you're fighting a foul tide . . .

If the trailer snaked then jack-knifed (ignoring the load shift) then that would've been your fault, so you need to prove conclusively that the load shift caused (not resulted from) the snaking and all that happened thereafter. I'd suggest that you've got two problems in doing this:

1) unless someone was sat in the backseat watching I'd suggest that a 4 inch load shift would be difficult to spot using your mirrors (if the secure lines went loose for another reason then again that would be your fault)

2) worse still you'd need to prove that snaking wouldn't have happened without the 4 inch load shift - if you think about it, a blow out on a single axle trailer results in more than 4 inch drop, but shouldn't lead to an accident

I'm not doubting you, just playing devils advocate to illustrate that an insurance company might not see it the same way as you do. Fighting this sort of claim will be very expensive and time consuming . . .