A lawsuit in Maine prompts questions about what boaters should look for when evaluating any boatyard for repair work.
A LAWSUIT IN MAINE PROMPTS QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT BOATERS SHOULD LOOK FOR
A$15 million lawsuit against a boatyard in Maine raises questions for all boat owners about how to make sure a vessel is in good hands when it’s taken to any shipyard for work. The lawsuit, filed at the end of January, involves a 95-foot sailing yacht that appeared to need work done on its steering gear. According to the claim, the yacht was put on stands and then fell over, landing on its port side and causing “catastrophic structural damage.” An attorney for the shipyard told
Soundings Trade Only, a sister publication of Soundings, that the yard had “coordinated a complicated effort to stabilize and secure the damaged vessel.”
With the lawsuit pending, more details are still to come in that particular case, but the incident raises the immediate, bigger-picture question of what boat owners should look for in evaluating any shipyard’s quality before leaving a boat behind for paint work or repairs.
Ed Sherman, vice president of education for the American Boat & Yacht Council, says the first thing any boater should do is simply use his own eyes. There’s no expertise required to look around a boatyard and figure out whether the machinery is in good shape or falling apart.
“I look at the overall condition of the equipment,” Sherman says. “How well maintained is it? I look for things like rust, fraying—one cloth, one material, you don’t even want to get near it. It’s a powerful visual. If something is beat up and worn out, you’re going to see it, and it should raise a red flag.”
Sherman says he also looks around at the general terrain. Again, there’s no expertise needed, but what you see can mean a lot, especially in areas where boats are being put up on jack stands that need a stable base beneath them. “Are there mud puddles all over the place? How soft is the ground?” he says. “Soft ground is not good.”
Bruce Kuryla, general manager at Bruce & Johnson’s Marina in Branford, Connecticut, agrees that general upkeep and cleanliness say a lot about a shipyard’s level of professionalism.
“You just look around,” Kuryla says. “If you walk into my yard, you’re going to see that it’s pristine—the grounds, the docks, the sheds, we take care of everything, and we take care of the customer’s boat that way. You’ll see peripheral protection, like blankets and buffers to protect the boat.