Who's to blame?

[sailaboutvic]

I would have thought that the Marina would have had to be able to show that it had done everything reasonably possible to prevent damage occurring, or that you would have to show they hadn't, depending on who's bringing litigation. It's bound to get even more complicated if you were damaged as a result of another boat breaking free as there's now three parties involved.

I think there a good argument in this case because so many cleats broke plus there no doubt these wasn't big enough to take boat of the size moored to them that the marina has to take some of the blame.
But the other side of the argument is this marina is in its 7 year and as far as we know it's the first time so many cleats have given way so did slack mooring line add to the problem, personally I would say they did.
Althought the winds must had reach well into the 40s ( I didn't measure them) it was the waves that cause the problem at time breaching part of the harbour wall.

An email did come out yesterday advising everyone to make sure they had the right size lines/ fenders/ and the boat was moored in a way not to damage other boats, I guess the marina is taken Acton to limit their liabilities.
They also advise people to buy springs I bet the guy in the chandlers was rubbing his hands together.

Has Yngmar said the staff where out in full trying to sort out problem and they did do a good job , although with the weather we had it wasn't a easy job for them plus some of the owner where about to sort out their own boats other wise I guess there would had been a lot more damage to boats.
I guess in the end of the day people with little damage will sort it out at their cost and other with a lot more damage will let the insurance fight it out between them.