Caught the guy who smashed into our boat and fled

[rebel heart]

I put it all on our blog: Rebel Heart - The boat and her crew - Blog

But basically we were hit by a power boat (go figure) while we were tied up and off the boat. His boat, the Golden Rule (irony...), did this months ago, and we were all set to pay out the insurance money, and then a tip came through that saved our butts.

PLEASE! If you ever see anyone doing anything to someone else's boat, even if it looks like minor damage, make a note of whatever you can, and call it into the marina manager, or just go and talk to the guy who got hit to see if he needs any info.

[TaoJones]

. . . that the culprit's boat was named Golden Rule. I wouldn't be too surprised, though, if the owner actually subscribes to the modern interpretation; i.e. "He who has the gold, makes the rules!"

I hope it turns out alright for you, and that you are made whole.

TaoJones

[AnchorageGuy]

Eric, Guess I am a bit confused. The photo on your blog of the damaged boat sure doesn't look like a Hans Christian.

[rebel heart]

There's two boats in the picture. One is the the stern pulpit of my boat, which is one of those HC Mao Tao puts, and the big ugly power boat is the one who hit me.

[Benny]

Glad you got him - I've been stolen from 5 times between my business and my boats and I would just once like to catch the culprit - good luck with pursuing your case.

[hellosailor]

First, be friendly and just ask him to pay the damages. Cash the check, THEN turn in him for prosecution. Leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with more than a set dollar value in damages is illegal in most states, let him deal with the penalties for that to remind him, there's more gold and more rules than what he has.

[rebel heart]

I work for an insurance company myself, and if this plays out the way I see it happening a lot, his insurance company will settle with mine instantly. They don't want to get dragged into court, and once they're satisfied that it's his fault, and I'm not asking for anything crazy in damages, they'll settle.

But I do want to press charges against him. This thing screwed me up, made my boat unusable for a a couple of months, I had to transfer money out of my savings, and I'll end up paying for stuff not covered by my insurance.

I don't want him to have the same result as if he had been cool and honest from the begining. He screwed me over, and if it wasn't for luck I'd be even more screwed. I'll exhaust whatever legal action I can take.

[xnvyflyer]

Best of luck with that Eric. I agree, make that bastard squirm.

[Zeus]

put the screws to him rebel. I had a lady rearend me one morning after dropping off my little girl. Nothing major just put an indention of her license plate screws into my bumper. Was only about $600 worth of damage. The lady did not have her insurance card handy but I got her info. The lady lived in a nice neighborhood next to mine so i didn't think it was a big deal. To make a short story long, she told her insurance that I backed into her (one way street with a large curb on either side and me in a compact car, where the hell was I going to go, I was the next one to the stop sign) so they said they were not going to pay. I called the lady a couple of times and thought about sueing. Just wasn't worth the headache.

Rip him as big of a new one as you can rebel, people like that will never change.

My experience as an insurance guy also, is that we tend to see so much fraud, and taking advantage that we try very hard not to lower ourselves to that level. A little story, a few years back, when I was in my last day of training for the insurance company I work for, I was at a light in the rental car. A semi pulled up behind me, then forgot I wa there. He took off to move up to the light and hit me. Then, he moved up again, and hit me a second time before I could get out of the way. I pulled up so he could see me and got out to talk to him. Turns out he was one of our insureds. He hit hard enough I could have taken a long vacation on the settlement, but it would have gone against every principal I had. Even legitimately I could have gotten something out of it, but I just didn't feel it was right. It was an honest accident, and no real harm was done to me.
That said, Rebel Heart, I would guess you may be letting some of the insurance company experience allow you to give this guy a break. Make sure this guy pays what is owed, and fully indemnifies you. For leaving the scene, I would even think a stupidity tax is in order

[shadow]

I agree, when people are honest up front, it is usually settled easily and amicably. But, when they go out of their way to be stupid and cowards and never want to admit their stupidity. Then that is when you really enjoy showing them and everyone in their insurance company how big of a POS they really are!

Happy hunting and so happy to hear that someone came to assist you..

[Boracay]

Given the choice between legal action and cruising I choose cruising.

If your defendant is resouceful it could be a long and very stressful process.

My experience is that one should settle fast and settle early, even if totally in the right.

[Tellie]

I agree with Boracay. While I feel for Rebel and he should certainly be made whole for the damage to his boat, this I'll get you extra attitude in the last few posts is why in part I disdain insurance requirements. There is nothing moral or ethical at all about exacting extra pounds of flesh.

[cat man do]

I hate runners as well and am glad that you at least found him.

I had a boat drag anchor on me one night during a storm hitting me and putting a big 4 ft gouge down the side of my boat and creasing the gunale.

I had only launched her new 2 days previously.

He up anchored and dissapeared into the gloom never to be seen again.

Then I had the guy single handing into harbour who couldnt sail and his motor had died during a squall so ran into and tied off short to the nearest thing he could find.

My Boat

Then sat there pounding up and down on my Foam cored back steps doing damage.

The worst part was the owner of the boat beside me helped him out and even drove him around to get engine parts to fix his boat, but failed to get a name of owner or description of his vessel.

Tosser.

Dave