A feud has erupted over who is paying for the salvage of a boat that became beached in Mount Maunganui.
Bay of Plenty regional harbour master Carl Magazinovic says the salvage cost will range between $10,000 and $20,000.
The state of Paradise early Friday afternoon. Photos by Ann Carruthers.
Darryl Hodson's 53 foot launch, Paradise, was hauled from the water in pieces on Thursday afternoon.
He and Carl are disputing who will foot the bill for the salvage costs.
Darryl says he was told by the harbour master that the Bay of Plenty Regional Council would pick up the tab.
But Carl is denying he ever said that and says he will have to recoup the cost somehow.
'There's a whole lot of things that will go on now. The most important thing for me was to actually have it out of the water because if something had gone wrong the liability would have wound up with me.”
Darryl had no control over the salvage operation and describes the way it was handled as a 'fiasco”.
He wanted lift bags to float it out of the water and a travel lift used to transport the launch to the Bridge Marina.
Carls says that would never have worked because the water was too shallow.
'All these things were looked at. The last thing I wanted to do was pull a boat to pieces.”
'But it would have been nice if he hadn't fallen asleep and it was tied up in the marina now.”
7 comments
Fiasco or comedy of error?
Posted on 22-10-2010 17:49 | By Matt
This whole saga seems to have been doomed from the start. The facts seem to have changed several times, at first there were reports of damage resulting from avoiding a collision with a freighter, then we hear that the boat was on autopliot with the skipper asleep (while approaching a harbour??)and now it's all the salvage crews' fault. Who instructed the salvage operation? Regardless, the owner of a vessel has the final say on what happens and perhaps he could have taken a more active role in instructing the salvage crew. Would he have paid for his preferred option to use lift bags and tow into the harbour - would he have paid for repairs? Probably a moot point now, but the vessel was not insured, which in itself is a risk when you undertake ocean going journeys, or any journey for that matter. Sorry for your expensive mistake Darryl, but I think the vessel should have been named "Fiasco" when it was launched. Thankfully no lives were lost or other property was harmed.
FIASCO
Posted on 22-10-2010 22:55 | By porky
The owner of the boat had NO say in how the salvage took place. The harbour master ordered the salvage crew, the salvage crew had no idea of what they were doing. The poor owner was left watching his pride and joy getting destroyed when there was clearly a simplier solution as to how the salvage could of taken place. Its disgusting what has happened to the boat and i feel so sorry for Darryl.
....Send the Master the Bill...
Posted on 23-10-2010 17:58 | By Local
...This owner is foolish in more ways than one. 1) Go read up on maritime business and law.Once the vessel had been damaged and abandoned like it was the coast guard/local harbour authorities were will with in their rights to take over and salvage, as the public safety is priority. 2) No one with that sort of boat does not have insurance.Pure Stupidity 3) As he fell asleep and the Maritime Rules were compromised , there would be a good chance that his insurance would be "Null and Void" anyway... 4) He is damn lucky he is not up on manslaughter chargers, this whole scenario could have gone a whole lot worse..
Trev
Posted on 23-10-2010 19:38 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
no insurance? silly idea for a world type sea trip
Think again
Posted on 23-10-2010 21:06 | By Dene
Gutted for the owner, but I have to agree with Matt. As someone who has been handling this type of incident for insurance companies for over 20 years, I know how difficult it is to make decisions that sometimes could be done equally well by the toss of a coin. Once she hit the rocks, got holed, then ran up the surf beach, repair costs would have been huge, possibly uneconomic. So how much do you throw at the salvage? And after being pounded by the surf, what hidden damage was there to the hull? Sorry Darryl, but I think the options taken by the salvage team can be justified.
Not the first time
Posted on 23-10-2010 21:45 | By nightbeat
In 1982 a 40 foot steel ketch, travelling on autopilot from Whitianga and under full sail, hit the rocks on Rabbit Island. I paddled out on my surfboard and took down the sails, then called for help on Ch 16. The Mount Surf Club IRB, driven by Terry Dell, came out and we towed the boat off and I drove her back into the harbour and berthed at Salisbury Wharf. The elderly skipper lay dead in the cockpit and the boat, built of steel, was undamaged.
Attitude
Posted on 24-10-2010 19:55 | By dogsbody
my heart goes out to Darryl and family, this must be a gut wrenching experience for them all. let's hope all boaties take heed of the issues here. As a fellow launch owner we need to learn from unfortunate incidences such as this. At least no one was hurt, and there could easily have been a casualty or a collision with an innocent party which would be a real tragedy. Also, there are a lot of launch owners out there with a pretty gung ho attitude, an air of invincibility and I'm not saying this was necessarily the case with Paradise, but launchies need to remind themselves occasionally that the sea is unforgiving for those with the wrong attitude. a bit more respect for the ocean and fellow travellers upon it wouldnt go amiss. Darryl, move on from this, get out there again when you can and let's all take some serious lessons from this hard-learnt loss.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.