Hit and Run in St Maarten

[YachtSplinter]

HIt and Run. Yacht "Marifa" Bavaria 47

On 31 March yacht "Marifa" dragged her anchor and caused damage to my boat. The owner Gerard Sirot seemed honourable and was going to sort the damage, a value was not yet aggreeded on, we were waiting for some local quotes.

On Monday 4 April in the morning he checked out of St Maarten.
I'm hoping he is still on the island as he wanted to see friends here. so we can sort this problem out, if you see "Marifa" or Gerard please let me know.

[YachtSplinter]

Here is a photo of Gerard

I hate to post a thread like this, but my boat is the only thing I own, it's 21 feet long and took me 3 years of my spare time to build. I am very upset this man thinks he can damage my boat and then just leave without sorting the damage out.

Please help me find him, this is not how the sailing community should treat each other.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Splinter.

Good luck!

[Lizzy Belle]

I am not a big fan of a public "name and shame".

It took me about 2 minutes to find his skype and email address (which I won't post on a public forum for obvious reasons), and I assume you already have his contact information anyway.

Have you tried contacting him directly?
Did you guys exchange contact and insurance information after the incident?

You said you were waiting on local quotes -- did you agree you'd both stay put while you waited and did you stay in touch?

[YachtSplinter]

Yes, I have his details but I don't have his insurance details. I have tried to contact him and we agreed to stay put. I know his details are on the internet, I also found them very easily.

Thank you for your input but I am just looking for local boaters to help me locate this guy.

As a public name and shame...? That's not my intention, how else can I get the message across for local boaters on the island of St Martin to help me look for the guy. I don't have access to a fast rib to search the island to look for him.

[Sailor647]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

I am not a big fan of a public "name and shame".

This is how justice systems work - public record.

Sint Maarten is part of the Netherlands and their newly adopted constitution of 2010 (which took only a minute on Google to find), Article 10 states:

"All persons have the right, without prior permission, to publish thoughts or opinions or to pass on information through the press, subject to all persons’ responsibilities as laid down by national ordinance."

Why shouldn't the "public" know? If a persons knows that their actions can be held to public scrutiny, doesn't this also serve as a future deterrent?

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by YachtSplinter

how else can I get the message across for local boaters on the island of St Martin to help me look for the guy.

By asking around locally? What local steps have you taken?
You said he checked out and left but you're looking for him on the island - to me, that's a little confusing.

If he left (which doesn't necessarily mean he's doing a runner!), he left on April 4th, very recently. Depending on his destination, he may not be able to check his messages just yet.

This is a world wide forum, and you posted in "News and Events", not the destinations forum for your area.

I don't know what happened here, we only have (part of) your side of the story. Maybe he's leaving you to deal with the mess, maybe he's not. We can't tell, and from your posts it seems you're not sure either.

I hope you are very sure his intentions are bad, cos his (boat) name will now for ever turn up in google linked to this thread calling him out as a runner.

Originally Posted by Sailor647

Sint Maarten is part of the Netherlands and their newly adopted constitution of 2010

Part of Sint Maarten is Dutch. Unless I missed something recently, there's also a French part. The OP doesn't say where the incident occurred.

I also wasn't aware the post was a legal issue ... But if you want to go there, and you're going for the Dutch law (which doesn't seem to apply anyway) you may also want to check the difference between an opinion and an accusation. It's way off-topic, but if I were to post an accusation here (or anywhere else) and it turns out I was wrong, I could be prosecuted for slander. Ask me how I know ...

But again - I hardly think this is even close to on-topic, especially since the OP isn't Dutch as far as I'm aware, so Dutch law doesn't apply. No clue why you think it did.

And I'm not saying the OP is wrong or untruthful - but there's two sides to every story, and I personally think wording does matter. You can ask for help without calling it a hit and run when it's unclear what's going on.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Sailor647

Why shouldn't the "public" know? If a persons knows that their actions can be held to public scrutiny, doesn't this also serve as a future deterrent?

Do you know that he's skipped out? Or has he just left?

You tried to contact him. How long did you wait, before you assumed he wasn't responding? It's not at all unusual for cruisers to be out of contact for a couple of weeks at a time.

[ricktara]

fyi there is a sint maarten cruisers & boaters facebook page

[mottseng]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

By asking around locally? What local steps have you taken?
You said he checked out and left but you're looking for him on the island - to me, that's a little confusing.

If he left (which doesn't necessarily mean he's doing a runner!), he left on April 4th, very recently. Depending on his destination, he may not be able to check his messages just yet.

This is a world wide forum, and you posted in "News and Events", not the destinations forum for your area.

I don't know what happened here, we only have (part of) your side of the story. Maybe he's leaving you to deal with the mess, maybe he's not. We can't tell, and from your posts it seems you're not sure either.

I hope you are very sure his intentions are bad, cos his (boat) name will now for ever turn up in google linked to this thread calling him out as a runner.



Part of Sint Maarten is Dutch. Unless I missed something recently, there's also a French part. The OP doesn't say where the incident occurred.

I also wasn't aware the post was a legal issue ... But if you want to go there, and you're going for the Dutch law (which doesn't seem to apply anyway) you may also want to check the difference between an opinion and an accusation. It's way off-topic, but if I were to post an accusation here (or anywhere else) and it turns out I was wrong, I could be prosecuted for slander. Ask me how I know ...

But again - I hardly think this is even close to on-topic, especially since the OP isn't Dutch as far as I'm aware, so Dutch law doesn't apply. No clue why you think it did.

And I'm not saying the OP is wrong or untruthful - but there's two sides to every story, and I personally think wording does matter. You can ask for help without calling it a hit and run when it's unclear what's going on.

The OP is asking if anybody has seen or knows of the persons whereabouts. unless you have that information you post really doesn't help.

[Lizzy Belle]

But reposting my post to point out it isn't helpful is helpful?

[Cadence]

To the OP. The first post was great. The second with the pic was iffy. Best of luck I hope you get it sorted out.

[sailorboy1]

are there no police in St Maarten?

[SaltyMetals]

YachSplinter, I presume you already tried AIS or MarineTraffic to see if he shows up. I just had a quick look but found nothing.

[sigmasailor]

I think this an effective way to try and find someone. The photo is the same as on his own website; no harm in reposting that?
I really hope this is all mis-communication and he will contact the OP soon.