Remember - New Boat Caught Fire!

[RogerRat]

Hi Guys,
You may remember the news and previous posts about the new Meridian 340 that left Hamble Point on its initial delivery trip to Rye in Feb 2010. Well there had been continuing action being taken by my friend Paul who had just bought the boat.

That maiden voyage lasted about 10 minutes until things went wrong and the boat caught fire. Four minutes later they were diving into the life raft. The dealer and the boat and engine manufacturers all said they weren't responsible and legal action was taken.

The final outcome was reported in the Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...urst-flames-maiden-voyage-awarded-30-000.html

Apologies if someone has already posted this but I've not been around here much lately.

 

[gjgm]

Hello Roger
where are you now?

 

[RogerRat]

where are you now?

Hi Gavin,
When I saw that it reminded me to update my profile.( but I had) I left Hythe in April and went to Shamrock Quay.
This new forum is hard to update and doesn't have the space it used to. All info was truncated.

I'm down most weekends as per usual and still running 'Houston' under the Confederate Ensign.

 

[volvopaul]

Nice result and well deserved but wat aspens if MGM boats don't have the cash to pay up? Are they insured through there company insurance to cover ths amount or do they then have to counter claim against meridian the builder? . I can't imagine MGM having the "cash" to stump up this amount. One for jfm me thinks!

 

[sailorman]

Nice result and well deserved but wat aspens if MGM boats don't have the cash to pay up? Are they insured through there company insurance to cover ths amount or do they then have to counter claim against meridian the builder? . I can't imagine MGM having the "cash" to stump up this amount. One for jfm me thinks!

think, Rampart, Sadler Starlight

 

[mjf]

Nice result and well deserved but wat aspens if MGM boats don't have the cash to pay up? Are they insured through there company insurance to cover ths amount or do they then have to counter claim against meridian the builder? . I can't imagine MGM having the "cash" to stump up this amount. One for jfm me thinks!

Good point - I'm sure the claimant would have considered the question of security before spending serious money on legals.

I hope he is made good.

 

[jfm]

It's hard to know what's going on here, and Daily Mail are unlikely to report this sort of thing (or anything else ) with total precision

1. Boat owner might have been insured against fire, been paid out by insurance co yonks ago, and be happy and all done. But in the small print he will have subrogated his claim against dealer (under purchase contract) and builder (under warranty contract) to the insurers . Thus, the boat owner's insurers might have been pursuing this for the last couple of years (in the customer's name), not the boat owner personally

2. Dealer might well be unable to pay this sum. Pretty unlikely a small boat dealer would have ~£400k. But the builder will have been joined into the claim (using the warranty, which is a contract twixt builder usually and customer), and potentially the dealer's insurers (if there was a policy...) so that gives multiple routes to getting the money. Builder is non UK though, so you can expect there will be further hurdles to get actual payment

 

[RogerRat]

It's hard to know what's going on here, and Daily Mail are unlikely to report this sort of thing (or anything else ) with total precision

1. Boat owner might have been insured against fire, been paid out by insurance co yonks ago, and be happy and all done. But in the small print he will have subrogated his claim against dealer (under purchase contract) and builder (under warranty contract) to the insurers . Thus, the boat owner's insurers might have been pursuing this for the last couple of years (in the customer's name), not the boat owner personally

2. Dealer might well be unable to pay this sum. Pretty unlikely a small boat dealer would have ~£400k. But the builder will have been joined into the claim (using the warranty, which is a contract twixt builder usually and customer), and potentially the dealer's insurers (if there was a policy...) so that gives multiple routes to getting the money. Builder is non UK though, so you can expect there will be further hurdles to get actual payment

Hiya,
I think you may be spot on here. Originally, the dealer said they couldn't pay and that they weren't insured for this type of claim. A claim of this size would have made them fold. the insurers, S. A. not wanting to mention names didn't want to know either as they said the dealer or manufacturer was at fault. Meanwhile the builder calimed the engine manufacturer was to blame as the engine caused the fire. (not proven)

However, the insurance company did pay out for the loss of boat only.

So, I'm guessing the first thing was to get a judgement and now the fun may begin in actually getting paid. I'll let you know more when I hear outcome.

BTW. The first time Paul had beeen out on a boat since that day was when he came out with me in Aug/Sept this year. Surprisingly, he enjoyed it too as he doubted whether he would ever again.

He couldn't believe how quickly the fire took hold and consumed the boat to total loss. Had the life raft been on the flybridge, he would not have had time to get it down and launch it as the flames engulfed the back of the boat.