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It may seem a little off the straight and narrow but this article has a fair bit of reasoning behind it. As a practising surveyor it has been a bit of an eye opener over the last few years to realise that unwittingly or not, dear old Oz seems to be picking up a few habits from our American cousins (probably by the osmotic effect of American TV shows) and litigation, or the practise of taking your fellow citizens to court with the intention of extracting money from them is seeping inexorably but definitely, over to the world of boating.
As my writing is generally assigned to maintenance you may well be asking how the two tie up, I can assure you, they quite definitely do.
Take split pins, for example! These innocent little creatures that secure collects and pins your deck gear can become public enemy number one in a messy court case. This could happen, easy peasy, if an unsuspecting guest neatly slices a six inch gash in their leg or arm whilst enjoying your hospitality on board. A spoilt holiday, trip to hospital, all the trimmings. (Ouch, for owner and guest alike). A good preventative maintenance suggestion here would be to trim them up and tape ‘em over.
We all know winches bite, don’t we? Where, ask yourself, would you stand legally if your deck winch crushed a crewman’s finger on a Whitsunday race weekend because you assumed he could be trusted to use it? We go on. Wooden steps down to the snug, wet and slippery as a result of a sloppy wave or a spilt cuppa…one broken ankle. If a guest or crewmember decided there was a quid or two of compensation floating on the breeze, insurance policy, look out! Non slip pads cost 3 to 4 bucks a piece… a lost court case, an open cheque book!… down to you.
Did I say crewmember? I did. A recent American case in which a crewmember sued the owner after an onboard sailing accident resulted in the Yacht being seized and $150,000 later the case was settled. Paranoia? …or common sense? Look around your pride and joy with suspicious eyes. What hazards can you find lurking there? Burns galore are potentially hidden in every coil of rope. Slack safety lines don’t bear thinking about. No fiddles on the stove, Hells Bells! Flying loose blocks, cluttered deck gear all represent potential hefty claims (not to mention downright bad seamanship).
So you see, bad maintenance and litigation do tie up. An untidy boat represents a hazardous area, we’ve known that for years. In the past a seaman couldn’t take the owner to court for damages, watch out buddy, today they can and as outlined above, sometimes bloody well do!
I know it doesn’t seem like the Aussie thing to do on the face of it. You invite a guest on board, an accident happens and your friendship evaporates in a cloud of lawyer’s whispers. You’ve seen the ads.. “Been hurt? No win, no fee!” These ads seduce an accident victim into a different world these days. Boats are traditionally accident prone areas, always have been, sharp knives, rolling decks, water everywhere, alcohol flowing, fish hooks and steep stairs… a lawyer’s dream and they know it. Rich folks own boats…don’t they? And each year’s end produces more lawyers fresh from University hungry for business and cash…your cash!
All this doom and gloom needs a positive approach. First rule. Don’t get caught in the trap. Get your ship tidy, knock off those sharp corners, bind up frayed wires and secure all loose heavy articles. Make it clear to guests and strangers alike that if they are the kind of people who can’t go through life without running to the courts and suing the bejesus out of everyone, they are not welcome on board. How is this done? Nicely, I say, with gallons of subtlety. A few disclaimers perhaps? Small notices here and there. ‘Life jackets stowed here’ for example, ‘Mind your head’ is another. Insist deck shoes and gloves are worn on deck for the rope haulers and winch workers. Moreover, give some instructions for gear use. A quick run down on the fire extinguishers is an exercise packed with good sense and shipboard safety. Hatches can chop fingers to the bone, so ensure you tell everyone if a hatch is opened and keep them away. Post a bloody guard if you have to, until it is shut.
One of the things that is a bee in my particular (sea) bonnet is sloppy electrical installations on board. There is no excuse for dangerous installations with either AC or DC systems. It is amazing that boaties live happily with terribly dangerous electrics on their beloved boats whereas they’d go ape if the same thing happened at home! One thing high on my maintenance list would be an earth leakage discharge unit. They are so cheap and to my mind no craft should be without one…what price safety?
One boat I saw had jammed into its 110 volt Taiwanese sockets, a 220 volt feed…how on earth had it lasted so long without burning up? Where the heck would the owner have stood if he’d been responsible for an onboard death? The damages would have been endless, to say the least.
I surveyed a natty little trailer sailer the other day. The sky and water were blue and I was thinking what a lucky chap I was to be going sailing. I jumped on board, grabbed the pulpit rail and received a whacking live electric shock. God knows how I kept hold of my grip, phone and suitcase as I scrambled aboard. “What the hell was that?” I thundered. “Oh, it always does that when the engine’s running, charging’s a bit funny!” Now I am not the sort of chap who sues anyone lightly, in fact I never have, but for the rest of the afternoon I mentally conjured up a picture of the same incident happening but with different results. A lost phone, a drowned briefcase or even a nasty fall. If I was a different type of chap I could have faked up something and probably earned myself a couple of grand out of that little incident.
So, don’t be complacent about those idiosyncrasies of your vessel that you hold so dear! They could be a legal time bomb just waiting to go off. I suggest that it would be a good idea to, at least once a week, find something on board that could be a potential hazard and do something positive about it, while you can. Over the top? Maybe, but so what? If safety is the end result, so be it.
Be warned people, there’s a sea lawyer lurking in your lazarette…It could be your next weekend guest. Let me assure you, nothing keeps solicitors in gold plated Cadillacs more than a dangerous boat and a sloppy owner…nuff said!
If you liked what you read and would like Terry to write an article for your mag or would like to read more articles in the same vein, go to www.ezinearticles.com or www.dolphinboatplans.com
Terry Buddell is a freelance journalist and a Marine surveyor, boat designer and shipwright,
He lives on board his yacht “The Nicky J Miller’ that he built himself in The Gold Coast Australia and
has sailed his yacht up the East Coast to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. He is currently resident in Gladstone Queensland where he is building another boat for his collection! Terry can be contacted on arcus1@bigpond.com or http://www.dolphinboatplans.com