Anti fouling someone else's car by accident.

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jac

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Went to the boat today to slap a coat of internationals finest on to find a car parked right under my stern. Virtually deserted in the yard this morning so went on the hunt for the owner to no avail.

I decided to start painting at the other end/side and to just be careful near the car if the owner hadn't shown up.

The owner did eventually turn up having been down on a boat on the pontoons and asked if it was in the way -when I said I could work round he said don't worry about getting any AF splashes on it as it was cheap and nasty and of no real value.

However it set me thinking. If it had been a nice shiny pride and joy type car and the owner had not showed up, what to do?

Not Antifouling could put me a week behind, meaning my launch was delayed - more costs for me. Pressing on could have damaged the car.

Anyone know who would be liable in either situation and what would you do?
 
Putting a dust sheet or similar over the car would prevent the situation even arising.

True but I wasn't going to drive to B&Q to go and get a dust sheet for his car, I didn't have one and have never seen anyone else use one for rolling on AF.

Scraping off shedloads of old AF, yes but not to catch the occasional drip or roller splatter.
 
Went to the boat today to slap a coat of internationals finest on to find a car parked right under my stern. Virtually deserted in the yard this morning so went on the hunt for the owner to no avail.

I decided to start painting at the other end/side and to just be careful near the car if the owner hadn't shown up.

The owner did eventually turn up having been down on a boat on the pontoons and asked if it was in the way -when I said I could work round he said don't worry about getting any AF splashes on it as it was cheap and nasty and of no real value.

However it set me thinking. If it had been a nice shiny pride and joy type car and the owner had not showed up, what to do?

Not Antifouling could put me a week behind, meaning my launch was delayed - more costs for me. Pressing on could have damaged the car.

Anyone know who would be liable in either situation and what would you do?

The car owner wouldn't be liable that's for sure.
 
It was very windy in the yard yesterday. Well someone was antifouling with a roller, but considerately fixed a large sheet of polythene over the topside of the boat downwind.

Maybe we should all keep a protective sheet onboard - just in case it is needed.
 
Interesting question! Anyone know what effect No3 Thinners has on car paint? My guess is it wouldn't do any harm because car paint solvent is different, but stand ready to be corrected.
 
True but I wasn't going to drive to B&Q to go and get a dust sheet for his car, I didn't have one and have never seen anyone else use one for rolling on AF.

Scraping off shedloads of old AF, yes but not to catch the occasional drip or roller splatter.

Improvise? Black bin bags, carboard, newspaper, spare pair of overalls, bit of old carpet used to lay on when under the boat? I've got an old sheet in a locker I use for covering things when I'm working in the cabin, saves a lot of cleaning up.
 
Improvise? Black bin bags, carboard, newspaper, spare pair of overalls, bit of old carpet used to lay on when under the boat? I've got an old sheet in a locker I use for covering things when I'm working in the cabin, saves a lot of cleaning up.

Sure I could have pulled enough cardboard from the recycling bin to cover it. The issue then is keeping it in place so that drops don't get in.

What was interesting is that the yard do ask people to put special permits in the car with boat names on so you can work out who to go and bother. Nothing in this one.
 
Sure I could have pulled enough cardboard from the recycling bin to cover it. The issue then is keeping it in place so that drops don't get in.

What was interesting is that the yard do ask people to put special permits in the car with boat names on so you can work out who to go and bother. Nothing in this one.
Problem solving is a bit of an acquired skill...
 
If it had been a nice shiny pride and joy type car and the owner had not showed up, what to do?

If it had been a "pride and joy" car he probably wouldn't have parked it under your transom :)

On the rare occasions that he went anywhere near a supermarket, my dad would always park in the further corner of the car park so that nobody would want to park alongside :)

Pete
 
I had exactly the same problem when I was there: People would park right under the boat. Maybe because it was shadier than the actual car park (hmm...but not exactly summer at the mo is it)? It's not just worrying about getting splashes on it: they'd park right alongside where I'd want to put a ladder.
 
Problem solving is a bit of an acquired skill...

Which suggests it's my problem to solve.

The car was not in the car park, the yard says you may be towed if you park in the way.

I would certainly have felt no moral obligation to cover the car or abandon my work. Protecting neighbouring boats if they were at risk would have been one thing.
 
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