Yacht shipping contract advice

[RJJ]

Hello, wondering if anyone has experience of being delayed on a yacht transporter and/or legal expertise? Please feel free to PM. Thanks.

I am reluctant to say more at this time, except that I am at risk of having our yacht unattended and uninsured during the hurricane season, and obviously that's a big worry which we had planned to avoid.

Hopefully the matter may be resolved in the coming days.

 

[KeelsonGraham]

It’s all down to the wording of the contract between you and the shipping company. If you don’t have one then there is no legal recourse. If you do have one, check the wording to find out precisely what obligations it places on both parties. Also check the clause setting out the state of jurisdiction.

Law should absolutely, positively, definitely be your last resort - if at all.

 

[RJJ]

Hello, so I would really welcome any thoughts / experience from folks in marine or consumer law, or merchant shipping. Thanks in advance.

we were sold a shipping from Caribbean on a certain date window. The contract wording states they must make "endeavours" to deliver the shipping, then reels off a whole host of exclusions, then says it's not their fault anyway, then says they have no obligation to me for costs-of-delay even if they are negligent.

They are giving us a delay of three weeks, which leaves me with a big marina bill, having a pay a loading crew, and also having the yacht inappropriately insured during hurricane season.

I strongly believe (1) that they have failed to make endeavours that should reasonably have resulted in delivery in the stated window. I think they have over-sold and made insufficient provision, such that they are scrabbling for capacity at the last minute (2) that the contract as worded is unenforceable under UK and Dutch consumer law.

 

[Bilgediver]

I expect the expression" Best Endeavours" appears here and there. The shipping company will have made every effort to maintain schedule but that can be difficult when things do not go as planned.

Is it just your boat on a liner service, or a number of boats on a charter vessel?

 

[ashtead]

You don’t say whether the shipping was on the counter party own ship or if they were acting as a broker and had procured space on a third parties ship. If contracting with a third party supplier your shipper is only going to contract on matching terms so if the carrying vessel is delayed by storms,breaks down blocked in say by closure of a canal there are numerous situations outside their control and I doubt they are able to lay off your costs to the end party. Certain routes are clearly more popular than others and have a better supplier of carriers -you might recall Maiden ended up stranded in a remote location and incurred some issues in being shipped back. So in summary I would expect any well drafted carriage contract to have a number of clauses allowing for timing slippage. I guess it depends on costs as to whether it’s worth taking legal advice but Maybe a search of the web reveals like cases? Cannot be first time this has happened I guess and at least you haven’t lost your vessel overboard like some reported cases.