Insurance claims

[Dougie_the_Mate]

Almost a year ago I posted about an incident in the Solent when we collected our boat from the Hamble. At the time I said that it was an open and shut case of an overtaking boat failing to keep clear and ramming us (twice).

At the time some older salts suggested that I should not count on a quick solution.

I was astonished around about December to find that a counter claim had been made against our insurance on the basis that we were motoring and they were sailing.

This morning after Sterling work by Bishop-Skinner and Amicus Legal we received a cheque for the excess and un-insured losses, but the months of angst and the huge list of calls and letters which this involved was a salutory lesson to a newcomer to cruising.

 

[Guest]

Good for you .....

So an overtaking boat hits you TWICE .... and then claims that you are at fault cause you are motoring ................ HAH HAH ... well not really for you - but that excuse is ludicrous .... as motoring or not overtakers must stay clear of those they overtake regardless .... well within reason of course .... you can't block limited channel to a larger vessel when you can navigate outside the channel safely ... etc.

Very well done and I hope that you can soon forget the anguish and get back to boating.

 

[Talbot]

Be very glad that they made their counter claim based on a lack of knowledge of the rules, thus providing you with the ammunition that they were in the wrong. This is one rule that is poorly understood and needs more exposure.

Just consider the difficulty there would have been if their counterclaim had "shown" that they were obeying the rules . So important to get witnesses, but not always possible.

 

[Dougie_the_Mate]

At the time the Colregs were explained to them and it seemed that they accepted responsibility to the point of willingness to pay for the repairs. When my insurer instructed me to make a claim there was a change of attitude.

The only witnesses to the actual collision(s) were the crews of both vessels. After months of to-ing and fro-ing, including me sending in details of our respective courses and charts, my own insurer made it clear that we were not going to let this go by default on a knock for knock basis, and, as I said, through Amicus legal impressed upon the other vessels insurers that they were flying a kite, which was about the only piece of cloth they did not have up at the time which was part of the reason for them broaching.

 

[Talbot]

I wish my own experience of this had been similar to yours.