Largs yacht haven unhappy boaters

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Erm. Most bigger ribs have a shelf in the console above the flooded waterline so if you stuff, they're fine..... (Roll eyes)

Don't mean to be antagonistic. I thought most were like this, those I've seen are. Ribquest/ribcraft/Humber etc if 6m or more.

Re keys, fair point but I wouldn't leave keys with "staff" for exactly that reason.

And the tea some shouldn't "delaminate" at all.

They also did the same thing recently with an inboard powered boat
Try getting those electrics out of the flood area !!!

[Poly]

Originally Posted by biffer

I would say that liability should be with the company that did the damage, you wouldn't expect to sort out yourself if your car was parked in a car park and the attendant damaged it

But cars are usually insured on a "named driver" basis and boats are (usually) insured for anyone. But even if the car park valet did damage your car it might be easier to claim from your own comprehensive policy and let them cross claim from the idiot responsible.

Originally Posted by humberpaul

Re keys, fair point but I wouldn't leave keys with "staff" for exactly that reason.

so you can't use the service where the staff launch and recover your boat - so its pointless to comment on whether you think they are doing it right (or with the right steps to fix things when it goes wrong) if you think the concept is crazy.

[Dry Run]

As a dry stack owner, I'm obviously interested in this thread. If you business is moving boats around and launching/recovering them, the law of averages says that even with well trained staff and proper procedures,mistakes can be made. That's why we carry adequate and very expensive insurance. To me, if you damage a boat in the course of business, you "put your hands up", apologise, learn from it so it doesn't happen again, but most importantly put it right at your expense. I don,'t know the full details of this case, but it seems that whatever the legal liabilities, this hasn't been handled very well.
Regards
Steve

[Trimix]

The other issue businesses need to have in mind is their online reputation. Its easy to google a name and read threads like this.

So regardless of the ins and outs of insurance - they have created a poor reputation for themselves.

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by Dry Run

As a dry stack owner, I'm obviously interested in this thread. If you business is moving boats around and launching/recovering them, the law of averages says that even with well trained staff and proper procedures,mistakes can be made. That's why we carry adequate and very expensive insurance. To me, if you damage a boat in the course of business, you "put your hands up", apologise, learn from it so it doesn't happen again, but most importantly put it right at your expense. I don,'t know the full details of this case, but it seems that whatever the legal liabilities, this hasn't been handled very well.
Regards
Steve

Thanks for your input I totally agree with what you say & I'm glad all marina operators don't operate in the same manner
Part of the reason for the entire thread is to make sure I wouldn't be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire if I moved my boat
And also to see if anyone else had bad experience with largs which obviously they have
It's such a shame as it's an excellent spot to boat from
Thanks to every one else who have posted hopefully more people will come forward with experiences good or bad

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by beamishken

And also to see if anyone else had bad experience with largs which obviously they have
It's such a shame as it's an excellent spot to boat from

I Agree .. they are very complacent I think

I had a look at the terms and conditions of the berthing .. theres a clear paragraph about their resonsibility for security, so any lack of that is a breach of their own conditions. Sadly, negligence is a harder matter to prove, although it shouldnt be.

Its the small things though .. even recently I used DDZ for something, and my boat came back with a well bent jockey wheel on the trailer.. I never even mentioned it as I knew there would be no point

[Poly]

Originally Posted by beamishken

Thanks for your input I totally agree with what you say & I'm glad all marina operators don't operate in the same manner
Part of the reason for the entire thread is to make sure I wouldn't be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire if I moved my boat
And also to see if anyone else had bad experience with largs which obviously they have
It's such a shame as it's an excellent spot to boat from
Thanks to every one else who have posted hopefully more people will come forward with experiences good or bad

Sadly I think the limited competition in some parts of the country means that the service is not as good as you'll find in other places. I know of more than 1 boat storage place where I could drive in and remove any boat there with no keys/cards/pin numbers and if I had false plates on the car any CCTV would be pointless!

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by Poly

Sadly I think the limited competition in some parts of the country means that the service is not as good as you'll find in other places. I know of more than 1 boat storage place where I could drive in and remove any boat there with no keys/cards/pin numbers and if I had false plates on the car any CCTV would be pointless!

Hmm .. right I think action is needed .. and Ive got some ammo ... time to find out who owns these 'havens' and why is it that some companies have exclusive rights to sell hardware from the site ? I have in my posession a letter from largs about another company setting up opposite to DDZ called Prosser Marine .. Why didnt that ever happen ? I wonder .. turns our prosser are now out of business .. but this was 2007

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Hmm .. right I think action is needed .. and Ive got some ammo ... time to find out who owns these 'havens' and why is it that some companies have exclusive rights to sell hardware from the site ? I have in my posession a letter from largs about another company setting up opposite to DDZ called Prosser Marine .. Why didnt that ever happen ? I wonder .. turns our prosser are now out of business .. but this was 2007

When we first took our boat to largs (around 2005) prosser marine were renting a sales office from Ddz & selling boats I think the plan then was to build a dedicated shed for stan prosser to work from but something happened & he disappeared to kip then went bust a couple of years ago for the umpteenth time now he's a fair line agent at Cameron house on loch lomond

[wavelength]

Just back from Largs with the rib in the marina for a few days, with us self launching and retrieving at the beginning and end of the stay.
Friendly enough staff esp the guy on the tractor launch service which we did not need but was always up for a chat and lots of advice as to where to try and get to and what to see, security ok when we were there but Jeez I thought we had bought the pontoon when we paid the bill. Check price if you are going there! Nice for a few days cruising with no tidal restrictions.

[beamishken]

Staff are realy good & it's a lovely place to boat from but we pay £4k pa to keep our boat there & expect a reasonable level of security
And when things do go wrong you would expect a helpful approach to putting things right

[GordyP]

I agree that the guy who does most of the launching at the Largs boat park is very freindly and extremely helpful (sometimes tries to be too helpful), however this does not seem to be the case with some of the other staff and the owner in particular. Kip is infinetley freindlier with all the staff being helpful. Its unfortunate that they dont do a similar baot park, however they have now installed dedicated rib/speedboat pontoons.

[macattack101]

The ramp at Largs is great but I tend to go to kip as it's on the way to the ferry. Kip have really let their ramp go though as it was covered by beach and loads of seaweed the other week. Not an issue with a 4x4 but an estate car can struggle. There was also a couple of guys launching a trailer sailer and it was 45 mins before I finally went over and asked them to sort their boat out away from the slip. I was obviously in the wrong!!! My darling wife also came onto the trailer too fast hit the rollers all wrong panicked and went hard astern onto the rocks at the side of the slip.
Another problem with Kip is the chandlers as 3 times I have been let down with not supplying gear after ordering and giving me a bottle of 2 stroke oil with my 2 bottles of oil. I noticed as I was starting to pour it eek.

[Backwoodsman]

I am pretty sure if the staff sunk the boat they are responsible to the owner. It would be the yards insurance who should pay out to the boats owner i.e. the third party.

If the circumstances are as outlined then..........

The definition of theft in Scots law means depriving the owner of the property or appropriation of the property for your own use is theft!!! I would be calling the police. The crime of vandalism might also apply....

I think that this matter needs recorded as a crime investigated by the police and probably reported to the Procurator Fiscal......

If I had anything to do with this yard I think I would vote with my feet and move on.....

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by beamishken

Staff are realy good & it's a lovely place to boat from but we pay £4k pa to keep our boat there

Which is a hell of a lot of cash TBH for renting a couple of square yards .. sure you get the launch service, but that doesent always go to plan as Ive already said .. and ... if the pontoons are over subscribed, which they were years ago, you've no end of trouble with who has moved your boat and re tied it, not to your liking, and also , how many other muppets have had to run over it, with all their kit just to get to their own boat ... no .. its not satisfactory .

Originally Posted by Backwoodsman

I think that this matter needs recorded as a crime investigated by the police and probably reported to the Procurator Fiscal......

If I had anything to do with this yard I think I would vote with my feet and sue 'em.....

FTFY

And your tractor guy was 'Neil' last time I used the place .. very helpful lad indeed .. be that as it may, I dont know who is directly responsible for parking the kit up and making sure its stored properly .. I think therein lies the problem .. collective abdication

[boristhebold]

Originally Posted by beamishken

We berth our cruiser in Largs yacht haven & have several friends who also berth there & I assume probably a few ribnet members too
The marina offer a dry berth facility for boats up to around 30ft which is quite popular with ribs & smaller cruisers etc. Boats are launched by marina staff with a tractor.
Recently a member of staff was moving a 30ft motorcat towards its trailer when apparently one of the outboards stuck on wot the result was 3 damaged ribs & the motorcat perched across one of them. The marina staff decided to sink said rib to free the motorcat from it almost certainly writing the boat off

Yacht havens have told the boat owners to claim off there own insurers as they have to carry insurance as part of there berthing terms & have been totally unhelpfull towards the aggrieved owners
surely this cannot be correct the marina should be making good damage done by there own staff?*
Can anyone confirm the legal position?*
Whilst my boat wasn't damaged I'm obviously concerned that if it was then I'd be left claiming from my own insurers rather than the people who did the damage

On another note there was recently a sailing event taking place & the rear gate into the boat yard was left open from 8 am till 9 pm as the rear of the yard was used as a temporary camp site for the dinghy sailors. This meant unchecked access to the entire boat yard for all & sundry -result 7 outboards stolen in one week - Marina's reaction 'keep it quiet'*
How can they get away with it ?*
Anyone else had problems in a marina & is this typical?

I had an issue last year with damage done to my Rib while it was being put back into the dry stack, resulted in a bent A Frame, damaged GPS Anatane and some other damage. The marina identified why it happened and tightened up on their boat handling procedures, paid for all the damage to be put right and gave me a discount off this years dry stack fees which represented the amount of time I could not use my boat. Also included paying for the damage inspection by a marine surveyor. My insurance company were informed and were happy with me not claiming on the insurance as the marina was putting it right and paying so all was well. Several months later the marina is still using the improved handling procedures so I would say this is a good example of a marina that does do the right things. That being MDL Cobbs Quay Marina, highly recomended.

Incidently on the security side of things last year I arrived at around 5.50am one day to prep my boat for going to the round the island race the gates were locked across the marina and the marina has full cctv coverage etc. The marina complex also has some small industrial units so probably isnt that easy keeping the gates locked but they do manage it. Berth holders and others use a code for entry.