Hit and run, hard impact

[StuM]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

Most sailboats aren't steel hulled; however I beleive whoever made the hard impact was in a steel hulled powerboat on a full plane.

If a steel hulled powerboat on a full plane hit you, it would leave a lot more than a 9" hole above the waterline!

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by StuM

If a steel hulled powerboat on a full plane hit you, it would leave a lot more than a 9" hole above the waterline!

Its a Columbia. They are built like tanks. The glass is 3/4" thick.

[Djarraluda]

Can not comment on the situation in Canada, but I had someone hit my boat whilst I was on the mooring, I was not on board. Toe rail and stanchion damage primarily, but he left a note.
My insurance paid for the repair and charged me the excess - because I was not on-board at the time of the incident. Finally paid the excess to me as well after they recovered the cost from the offender's insurance.
So yes, I can sympathise with you for the damage and general disruption you experienced even though I had minimal internal damage, it took a few months and certainly interfered with sailing plans.
I hope you get things suitably patched and all back into shape soon, so you can move on with enjoyment.
Roger

[Lihuedooley77]

Yep, sailor, it is time to move to more friendly territory...new mooring or slip.

New bar, new restaurant, fresh new friendly attitudes.

There also could have been damage to the vessel that impacted yours, so you could start your own investigation, but from the sounds of the attitude toward your boat and possibly you, might be good just to cut your losses and get out before things get totally out of hand.

One of the main things that we check out for our international sailing or local coast wise marinas, is what are the people like. We stay clear of unrest, rampant crime, or even arrogance and self importance beyond tolerable.

Actually, we have had zero problems with sailing or land trips world wide. Or even moving to new states ....like Lihue , Kauai, Hawaii.....melded right in, and not a problem one....same 10 yrs later when we left kauai, and moved to Dana Point, Ca. a small beach community..... easy and fun people and places, beaches, marina, happy hours, hiking, etc.

As to a new marina for your boat....

We would . as mentioned, bring our aloha, and respect, and friendliness, keep our vessel ship shape and squared away, and have a grand ol time meeting new people .
It would be fun !

Probably a good plan, would be not mention any past problems that you have experienced at your previous marina. Stay positive and not let any negatives into your life.

Just FYI, many moons past, we were sitting at our fave local pub , and one of the patrons was getting transferred to Atlanta. Ga. . He asked the bartender what the people in Atlanta were like.

The bartender asked him " What are the people like were you are from, now ?

The answer was " The are great ! "

" Well, that is what the people will be like where you are going . "

Point being, bring respect, openness, kindness, smiles, friendship, etc, and you will generally get that all back in kind.

When we lived on Kauai Island, and were on the kauai trip advisor board, Before flying over some visitors would ask about the people of kauai, and how to handle interacting with them..

I kept it simple " Bring your Aloha with you, and you will find it being returned. "

As to your present mooring and marina.....

"Drop off, sail away to a new mooring and marina, and start anew. "

And, if need be, have a pro match the patch work color on you hull repair.

You will be all set, everything will be great ! No stress, no hassels, no authorities, no nonsense.

[Steve 3]

I would install a camera on the mast.
Just may help bring order to the problem.

[coastalexplorer]

For the informational benefit of those sailors in other parts of the world. Howe Sound is basically a triangle shaped Fjord, approximately 16 miles wide at the mouth and 26 miles long: within it are many islands. There are also several marina's most of them provide services to the more affluent wealthy boat owner. At places such as Squamish yacht club, Sewells marina, Sunset marina, Thunderbird marina, Lion's bay Marina. or Gibsons Harbour. Just to Name a few.


We have not been told where this vessel was 'moored' when it was damaged? So I am left to assume; Hazarding a guess. That it was possibly outside of the Harbour of Snug Cove on Bowen Island? There is a bay near that location that is on shown on the charts as Deep Bay...Which is also known by the locals as Hotel Bay. (there was once a hotel there)



This is a place where some vessel's have been moored swinging off the hook for Decades. Many had become very derelict looking, (citing the case of the vessel 'Black Eyes') even attracting the attention of the 'Receiver of wrecks' (A Canadian government department. Since removed. the proliferation of other vessels continues.



Mean while on shore the waterfront properties currently selling for well over a million dollars. Have Home owners who do not like to look at this 'view' So should this be the facts? that this hit and run crime? took place at this location?. The potential number of culprits could be far to great to enumerate. Might have been a large hammer swung from a dinghy. Wouldn't it be nice to get on with the neighbors?

[mr-canada]

I always get along with the neighbors. I find more that they just want this picture perfect view without any boats, but don't understand that if I had a briefcase stuffed with cash I still wouldn't be able to find a slip to moor. I had a conversation with a lady once, it started out quite prickly (I was just looking for a place to dispose of my small bag of garbage), and she said she had called the district, the police, the coast guard to try to get boats removed from the area.

I managed to slow her down and explained the other side of the coin, that all the marinas in the area were full with wait lists up to 10 years, and politely suggested that if she wanted the boats gone, it might be more productive to lobby her MP and MLA to allow more water leases. By the end she and I parted, she said thank you for helping her see the other side of the equation.

While it's possible someone smoked my boat with a hammer from a dinghy, it's not really probable. I could whack my hull with a regular hammer and it wouldn't even get anything more than a scratch. Someone would have to be pretty dedicated to cause that amount of damage even with a sledge from a dinghy; compound that it broke a mooring ball right off it's chain and the boat was moved to a nearby dock and tied up, I honestly think it was a case of someone drunk not paying attention at night who smoked it. A hammer wouldn't cause all the drawers to fly all over the place.

It was not moored by Snug or even near Bowen Island.

The above poster is largely correct regarding the high value of the properties in the area, especially on the islands. There are a lot of vacation properties in use only 2-3 months a year valued at well over a million dollars. Someone with over a million bucks to spend on a vacation property that they rarely even use is likely to be a bit snooty; I wouldn't even call them a "neighbor" that I could get on with, because they are almost never there. If they lived there I would have asked them if they could keep an eye on the boat.

A side note, there are private docks all around that area on the islands, which is tragic considering they are mostly not being used meanwhile there are boaters all over the place desperate for moorage. I have tried to get ahold of these landowners, even offering them money and to periodically inspect their property during winter, but they are quite elusive. Knocking on the door is hopeless, as they are never there.

Where I am/was moored during the hit and run, there are no beachfront houses. So I would doubt it was a landowner. I just think it was someone drunk on the boat having a bit of fun and not paying attention.

[rbk]

Chances are it was some idiot from Van out for a booze cruise and didn’t want to get in trouble so they took off before anyone noticed. Best of luck with the repairs, some good advice here.

[Panope]

I was very nearly collided with while anchored at Valdes Island about (20 miles south of Howe Sound).

The culprit was a commercial crab fishing vessel that was in the process of setting a long string of crab traps. The lone fisherman's attention was completely consumed by gear handling, leaving the course of his vessel mostly to itself.

I was scrambling for my air horn when at the last possible moment the fisherman looked up and changed course.

The fishing vessel was about 30 feet in length and made of unpainted aluminum. Very crusty and seemingly impervious to impacts with "yachts".

The fisherman seemed indifferent as he passed by, about 15 feet away. I'd guess that his perspective was that I should not have been anchored in "his" fishing grounds.

Steve

[mr-canada]

Yeah, I've met guys like that on the water. Mostly tug operators during the winter. Seems like they make all their money in the summer season and blow it all, then during the winter they are desperate for a tow or to ensure a ship can be declared "abandoned and derelict" so they can sell it, ships condition be damned. They'll move it, break it, whatever they can do to make a buck.

Had one tow operator that I actually hired to drop a mooring barrel and was ready to pay, then when the time came for the drop, he told me to just moor less than 50ft from the government harbour, which of course would have incurred a tow and a lien. I didn't take his advice, and the dude called me 2 days later, I parked 4 miles away, when I called him back he asked me where my boat ended up. Crap, I would have shot him $200 for a quick barrel drop, guess he wanted to make more or take the whole boat.

I grew up on the SC. Never knew it to be so shady like it is these days.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

I managed to fix the hole for about $50. Still more work to do, money to spend to repair the inner hull, plus paint and color matching. If I paid someone to fix it it probably wouldn't clock in above 5 grand, but it might be close.

Mostly wondering if anyone knows maritime laws regarding hit and runs. Normally with a car you take a picture and call the police right away; which I did. But boating laws are different, and there are no license plates, especially since I wasn't there and the boat was on a mooring ball at the time.

The value for the police report would typically be what it would cost to professionally repair....I would be shocked if what you describe could be fully and completely repaired for under $5k, so yes, you could likely get them to fill out a report.

Of course, the theory of a steel boat on plane is total bunk. Even heavily built, you would have a lot more than a 9" hole if a 30'+ steel boat hit you at 20kts.

But I wouldn't count on the police doing anything more than filling out a report. A $5k property damage only is just not high on their radar (most car fender benders get into that range).

Realistically, you chose to self insure, so the odds of you getting someone else to pay for the repairs is next to zero. Even if you find out who did it, you would likely have to take them to court, win and then you still have to collect...odds are they won't have the cash to pay for the repairs.

At this point, make an assessment if you would continue to self insure or not and then go pay to repair the damage.

[mr-canada]

You are correct.

Uninsured, I have to just bite the bullet and repair it myself, which I have mostly completed, albeit there is more work to be done.

I dont think that they smoked my boat at 20kts, they probably werent paying attention and hit it at a slower speed, albeit at a good clip seeing as the drawers in the cabin were all over the place despite the cabin lock remaining intact and the mooring ball being destroyed. There was no damage other than the 9" hole, and they'd have to be a leprachaun to climb through that hole and wreak havoc around the cabin.

Without a complete survey, POI costs $425 a year here; not sure what it costs you at your location, whether its comparable, less or more. So it's cheaper to just fix it myself and pay for the materials than to get POI. POI is usually third-party liability at that rate, so it wouldn't have covered damage anyway. Through my boat license I can get much better insurance coverage at more reasonable rates, but I have to get a surveyor, something I haven't gotten around to as its (a) expensive, and (b) boat surveyors are hard to find outside of the city, and the gas to get to the city is expensive and it's a bit complicated getting through the narrows so the timing has to be done on a slack tide.

However your logic is sound. I was curious about maritime laws govering hit-and-runs.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

However your logic is sound. I was curious about maritime laws govering hit-and-runs.

It's illegal...

But if no one was injured and they weren't caught in the act by the police...not much is likely to come of it.

[mickt243]

Hmmm, a number of mrcanada’s posts are about people tampering with his boat whilst unattended.... what is the common factor? Are you (knowingly or unknowingly) upsetting certain people who are trying to get rid of you? Or is it a genuinely horrid place for boating?

It may well pay to remove your boat from the area - ie not in Howe sound, find a marina that is held in decent regard somewhere else (you say there are none in your area, but I guarantee there is one somewhere... for instance, you cannot get a mooring anywhere in Sydney harbour at any price, you go on waiting lists,, and wait for someone to die, or you pay an absurd amount to dock in a large commercial marina - but a 2 hour drive north is port Stephens, no waiting, local mooring dude who can fit you in tomorrow, or much cheaper marinas.... or a 16 hour drive West is Adelaide, where they don’t seem to know what a mooring is, but marinas are about a tenth of the price, or you can buy your own dock quite cheaply....

[mr-canada]

Im not upsetting anyone. So forget about that. I'm quite an amicable fellow.

I know nothing about moorage in Australia, so I can't comment on that.

In this area there is a dire shortage of water leases. Even a six hour drive from the city, the nearest marina with space is over $300 a month plus extra charges.

The solution to the problem is for the government to allow more water leases. They have immigration cranked to the maximum, and Canadian residents from all across Canada who are retiring are flocking here in droves (with retirement many people buy boats) due to our temperate climate.

Obviously I have no direct control over the issuance of water leases. I don't have the capital to just snap my fingers and go through the process of obtaining a water lease and building a marina. If I did, it would be filled in minutes, not hours.

More competition and more space in this area is needed. I know this is off topic, but it is related. Residents with these million dollar plus homes get tired of abandoned vessels (re-read above, about people buying boats to get the slip then abandoning them) and I'm just caught up in the sweep. My boat is well maintained, I check on it every few weeks at minimum, even trudging through a foot of snow in the dead of winter. It's regularly washed, brushed, covered, and repaired. The motor is working perfectly and I take it out often when the weather is nice.

So lets please just drop this "maybe you are POing off the neighbors" line of questioning. Sounds like there's not much I can do about the hit and run other than just fix it or get a more expensive insurance package that covers damage and/or replacement.