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Sharing the charter deposit: who pays when a crew member causes damage?
Short answer
Towards the charter company, the person who signed the agreement and put up the deposit is
normally the one who answers.
How any deduction is split among the crew is for the crew to decide,
and the time to agree it is before you leave the pontoon.
A charter crew shares almost everything: the hire fee, the diesel, the marina fees, the supermarket run. The deposit is usually shared too, but it sits on one card, normally the skipper's or that of whoever booked. When the base keeps part of it after a scrape on the topsides or a damaged tender, the awkward conversation starts: does everyone pay the same, or does the person who was helming when it happened pay more?
Towards the base the position is usually simple. Its contract is with the person who signed, and that is who it deals with. Within the crew, what counts is what was agreed. Without an agreement it gets difficult: whether one friend is liable to another for a mistake depends on the facts, and between friends such claims are rarely pursued, it is the friendship that suffers. Whether a crew member's own liability cover would step in varies a great deal, and damage to hired property or to other people's boats is often excluded from household policies.
So write down in two or three lines how the crew will split any deduction. Everyone paying an equal share, whoever was on the helm, is the rule that prevents most arguments, and a message in the crew chat that everyone agrees to is enough. Decide together whether deposit insurance should absorb a deduction, and be clear about who may helm and who may drive the tender. Claims by the base beyond the deposit land on the skipper personally, so the skipper needs liability arrangements of their own.
Worth remembering
Base
deals with whoever signed the agreement
Crew
splits according to what was agreed beforehand
Agree in writing before you leave how the crew splits a deduction.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Does the skipper have to pay the whole deduction alone?
Towards the base, the person who signed normally answers. Within the crew, whatever was agreed beforehand applies. Without an agreement it tends to stay with the skipper, which is why a short written rule before the trip helps.
Will a crew member's own insurance pay?
That varies a lot. Damage to hired property and to other people's boats is excluded from many household and personal liability policies. Anyone relying on it should ask their insurer before the trip.
What is the fairest way to split a deposit deduction?
Equal shares, regardless of who was helming, works best because it avoids a debate about blame on board. What matters is that everyone agreed before leaving the pontoon.
Related
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