Skipper crashes boat......any comeback?

ribman · 09 February 2009, 13:27

Supposing you ran a charter RIB, and paid a qualified skipper to drive the boat for the day, as a self employed contractor. The skipper hits something in the water and creates several £ks worth of damage which has to be professionally repaired, resulting in the boat being out of operation for several weeks. Assuming the insurance pays out but you are left paying a hefty excess, would you have any comeback with the skipper, or is it just a simple case of bighting your tongue and moving on. I know a lot of skippers and instructors take out their own insurance to cover their backs in the event of something going wrong - would this have any bearing on this sort of situation? If not, what is the point of this sort of insurance policy.
Any thoughts much appreciated.

PeterM · 09 February 2009, 14:07

I'd suggest that as self emplyoed skipper thier own liability cover may pick up the excess & the insurer of the vessel may look to the liability insueres ( of the skipper ) for full recovery.

Thats what I'd expect to happen, assuming everyone had the right cover in the first place, and the skipper can clearly be deemed responsible - which may not be easy if its an underwater collison ( ie not hitting rocks, but a floating tree trunk etc ).

For the potential loss of earnings while the boat is fixed you need to really be consdiering if there is Business interuption cover in place - a whole subject in itself in the ways it can be set up ( gross profit , increased cost of working , additonal increased cost of working etc )

karlT · 09 February 2009, 18:25

Does most personal insurance only cover the person should they be negligent. IE it is down to you to insure craft with qualified skipper. Should the skipper be negligent and your insurance refuses to pay, then you could seek damages from the negligent skipper and his insurance??

Bigmuz7 · 09 February 2009, 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by ribman

Supposing you ran a charter RIB, and paid a qualified skipper to drive the boat for the day, as a self employed contractor. The skipper hits something in the water and creates several £ks worth of damage which has to be professionally repaired, resulting in the boat being out of operation for several weeks. Assuming the insurance pays out but you are left paying a hefty excess, would you have any comeback with the skipper, or is it just a simple case of bighting your tongue and moving on. I know a lot of skippers and instructors take out their own insurance to cover their backs in the event of something going wrong - would this have any bearing on this sort of situation? If not, what is the point of this sort of insurance policy.
Any thoughts much appreciated.

If it was me and I'd hired in a certificated operator from someone i'd known, to operate one of my diggers (on hire to my client), and the operator damaged the machine, I would pay to repair it, because hes, deemed under my supervision, That said if he struck a street lighting cable that the client hadn't advised him about and it blew the bucket off the machine, then my client is liable. I know the scenarios are different but I'm trying to show where liabilites are clear, and less clear, now, I guess you know that ! , but the way to solve it is by getting a hire contract signed before hand, that makes the responsibilities of the parties clear at the outset.

Even so sometimes in the hire game stuff happens, and there aint a lot you can do about it, unless you can place some proof of negligence on the operator, then you have to be a bit phorensic and gather the data to make your case, all this while the asset is out of commission ofcourse, but if a proper hire agreement is in place, you can claim for lost revenue aswell etc.. Hope that is of some help

*edit* but I'm sure no Skip would sign up to being liable to any damage caused but hitting unknown submerged obstructions, that is what is known as an unquantifiable risk.

Rogue Wave · 10 February 2009, 21:55

Wasn't there was an incident in the Solent where a coule of guys were delivering a Fairline for a backhander and they crashed into a bouy (I think) and sunk the boat (about 200k) the insurance company sued them for liability and won.

Rasher · 11 February 2009, 12:29

John,

I was involved in an incident last year where something that sound similar happened - I am a freelancer and was actually working for a RibNet forum member. At the time, we came to the conclusion that many factors including an existing build quality issue contributed to the damage - we obviously discussed it a lot. Relevant to the insurance question, I was pleased with how we handled things, everything was discussed, we both knew it was an accident that could have happened to anybody (I never saw what I hit), and I gave up a lot of my time to help the owner/manager effect temporary repairs. As the owner of the company, he had basically assumed responsibility for the insurance excess in such a situation, and was aware it was all part of the ups and downs of running a company.

Unless the skipper in question has actually done anything wrong, and or against company policy, I think you just have to bite the bullet and cover the excess yourself - after all, mistakes do happen, and the reason you have insurance is so that you are only hit for the excess!