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Vandalism at the berth: what to do first
Short answer
Paint on the topside, a slashed sprayhood, fittings levered off. Small on their own, a yard invoice together. What happens in the first hour on the pontoon matters more than any clause read afterwards.
Malicious damage to a boat on its berth happens more often than any statistic suggests, because a great deal of it is never reported at all. Paint on a freshly finished topside, a cockpit tent or sprayhood slashed along a seam, fittings levered off, a winch handle or a fender thrown into the water, a chartplotter smashed in its bracket. None of it is spectacular on its own. Added together it is a yard invoice, and it usually turns up on a Monday morning after a weekend when nobody was aboard.
The first hour decides more than the wording does. Photograph widely and then in detail before anything is cleaned or tidied, because paint removed is evidence removed. Report it to the police and keep the reference number: that report is the ordinary way of showing that a third party acted, and without it the file is hard to separate from damage caused by the owner. Ask the marina for camera footage the same day, since many systems overwrite within a week. Speak to the neighbouring berths while people still remember which night was quiet and which was not.
Then read the wording, and read it in the right order. Named perils sections list what they reach, and malicious damage by a stranger is often not on that list, since those sections tend to be built around storm, fire, lightning and the theft of the whole boat. All risks sections start from the other end and ask instead what has been excluded. With us, malicious damage by strangers is covered from Basis Plus; Basis does not include it. Theft of individual items is a separate heading again and is frequently confused with malicious damage, so check both. And notify the insurer even while the decision to claim is still open, because notification periods run from the discovery of the damage, not from the decision about it.
Worth remembering
One night
is all it takes on an empty pontoon
One hour
is roughly how long the evidence lasts
Photographs before the bucket, a police reference before the repair, a notification before the decision.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Is a police report really necessary?
In almost every case, yes. It is the standard evidence that someone else acted, and an insurer that cannot separate malicious damage from an owner's own mistake will ask for it before anything else.
Does stolen equipment fall under the same heading?
Usually not. Theft of individual items sits under its own heading in most wordings, with its own conditions about locked stowage. Check the two headings separately, they are often confused.
Should the damage be cleaned up before it is assessed?
Not until it has been photographed from a distance and close up. Paint scrubbed off a topside is evidence scrubbed off a topside, and a surveyor arriving afterwards can only work from the photographs.
What if the decision to claim has not been made yet?
Notify anyway. Notification periods generally start when the damage is discovered, not when the owner decides what to do, and a late report weakens an otherwise straightforward file.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Vandalism at the berth: what to do first” 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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