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Who pays when you damage the pontoon?
Short answer
Much of the damage happens in the last twenty metres, not at sea. The marina repairs the berth and sends the bill to the berth holder, and whether a liability wording follows you there turns on one clause.
Ask any harbour master where the money goes and the answer is the same everywhere from Chichester to Zeeland: not offshore, but in the last twenty metres. A gust on the quarter while you are already committed, a gear lever that goes in too far, an engine that picks the wrong moment to hesitate, and a bay of pontoon, a finger, a cleat or a fuel berth has taken the hit. The marina does not negotiate about it. It repairs the structure and sends the invoice to the berth holder, because the berthing agreement you signed in March almost certainly puts damage to the marina's property on you.
The insurance point sits one level below that, and it is easy to miss. Third party liability wordings distinguish between property that simply belongs to somebody else and property that is in your care, custody or control, or that you have hired. The first is the ordinary third party claim. The second is usually carved out and treated separately, and a berth you rent for the season sits squarely in that second group. So the clause to find is the one that deals with hired property and damage to berths, pontoons, cradles and hardstanding, together with any sub limit that applies to it. Two wordings can look identical on the front page and part company entirely on that line.
Then there is the same accident in the other direction, which owners forget to document. A cleat that pulls out of a tired pontoon, a walkway that drops a boat onto its own fender, a shore power post that has been loose all season: a marina owes a duty of care for the structures it charges for, and a claim against it lives or dies on evidence gathered before anything is tidied away. Photograph in both directions, wide enough to show the state of the whole structure and not just the break. Report it to the harbour master the same day and ask for that report in writing. Then read the berthing agreement again, properly, including the clause about loss or damage however caused.
Worth remembering
One misjudged gust
can take out three bays of pontoon
One clause
decides who pays to rebuild them
Hired property is the line on which two liability wordings that look alike stop being alike.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Is the pontoon not simply third party property?
Not in the eyes of many liability wordings. Property you have hired, or that is in your care, custody or control, is normally dealt with in a separate clause, and a rented berth belongs in that clause rather than in the general third party section.
The pontoon was already rotten. Do I still pay?
Not necessarily. A marina owes a duty of care for the structures it charges for, so photographs of the general condition of the pontoon matter as much as photographs of the break itself, and they have to be taken before repairs start.
What about the boat moored next to me?
That is the ordinary third party claim and is usually far less complicated. The question there is whether the limit of indemnity is high enough, not whether the property was in your custody at the time.
Does a household liability policy help here?
Rarely. Household wordings tend to exclude or very tightly restrict anything connected with a vessel, which is the reason a separate craft liability wording exists at all. Read the vessel exclusion before you rely on it.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Who pays when you damage the pontoon?” or another question: send us your residence and the flag your boat flies. You will get a straight answer in one email; including a no, if that is the answer.
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