Our friends at Vessel Assist San Diego sent along the following:
Vessel Assist raises 56′ yacht after it was dropped off of a delivery ship
What should have been a basic delivery of a brand new yacht on Saturday turned into a wild experience and a wreck removal from the depths of San Diego Bay. Around 10:30 am on June 27, 2009 the “Vessel Assist Shelter Island” was on its way to the 10th Ave Terminal to pick up a crew from the pier and deliver them to a new yacht that was just shipped in. Robert Butler, President of Vessel Assist San Diego, received a call from the delivery crew saying that the yacht was adrift and that they needed to be brought directly to it. Robert immediately called Captain Eric Lamb and informed him that the boat was let loose before the delivery crew could get on board. The yacht, valued in excess of 1.5 million dollars, was adrift as the incoming tide was pushing it toward the Coronado Bridge.
6 comments:
Bummer. Hope the delivery vessel had good insurance and that the delivery was FOB destination.
It's well worth clicking through to read the whole story. A lot of skills and experience went into getting that boat out of the water.
The delivery vessel had no control over this..
As soon as a delivery vessel arrives in a US port the longshoremans union takes over the off-loading process.
In this case it was the fault of a US crane operator from the union.
Nordhavns Insurance took the very big hit on this stupid mistake by an incompetent operator, and it been reported that there is no recourse to go over the union for this huge loss...
$1.5 million-dollar vessel total loss, shipping from China and an owner that has lost the use of his vessel for a couple years til it can be replaced..
Typical union crappolla folks...!
Where was the union supervisor...perhaps texting or talking on a cell phone, like the crane operator
You can read more about this story, as related by Nordhavn VP Dan Streetch here:
http://oceanlines.biz/2009/07/pae-makes-good-for-customer-of-n56-motorsailer-accident-boat/
From my experience with maritime law the shipowner has primary responsibility for the safe offloading. The ILWU longshoremen are working for the shipowner, thru the PMA. the union has the sole jurisdiction, ie right, to operate the ships cranes, but the shipowner not the union I believe are ultimately responsible for the proper and safe operation of ship's cranes and delivery of cargo to end of ship's hook. This is one of the weird aspects of westcoast maritime practice that the PMA have allowed over the years to be the rule.
Yes...Nordhavn had a similar vessel in stock at Dana Point.
The owner of the totaled boat agreed to take position of that boat until a replacement is built for him...at which point he returns that the other vessel to Nordhavn....which would be a year and a half down the road.
Dan's insurance as much as said there was no way to go after the union or the shipping company to recover the loss....too many gray areas
In addition...the insurance company said that they would not allow the vessel to be sold for repair....as that puts a previously sunk Nordhavn back in the system that could create some huge negative publicity issues for PAE (Nordhavn)
You scatched my anchor!
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