Mooring Tales

Mr Denning was the owner a Fairline Targa 33 of 1990 vintage.  It was moored on a swinging mooring on the East Coast.  One dark night and during severe weather conditions, the mooring failed and the boat drifted onto rocks, damaging the hull. His poor boat partially capsized and flooded  The repair estimates were high but his insurer authorised them and the boat was restored to its former glory. Mr Denning was very pleased but still considerably out of pocket in respect of his insurance deductable and personal possessions. He had also now lost the use of his boat for the best part of the season and had incurred other personal expenses.  

His mooring was relatively new and leased to him for a twelve month period. He had leased the same mooring the previous year and had a copy invoice and terms of mooring.

A good surveyor was instructed by his insurer to report.  He advised on the repairs but also observed that the shackle for the pick-up buoy chain was now missing. He concluded that it had failed. He arrived at this conclusion because the pick-up buoy chain and rope pennants were found still attached to the boat and all were in good condition.

Although the boatyard laid the mooring, their terms provided that it was Mr Denning's responsibility to inspect the mooring from the boat to the mooring buoy. Mr Denning confirmed that he had done so and that they were in good condition.

The Legal Requirements

In order to recover his uninsured losses it would be necessary to show that the boatyard had a duty of care to maintain the mooring and that they had been negligent in some way. In this case, the allegation was failure to properly maintain the mooring.  

Mr Denning may have been responsible for checking the mooring warps but it was not this part of the mooring that had failed. Since it was not stated in his contract that he was responsible for checking this part of the mooring, in his view (reinforced by his survey report) the boatyard was responsible for carrying out such checks. The surveyor was of the opinion that they should have carried out these at least on a yearly basis

There was one further possible legal defence - that of an "Act of God" by reason of the very high winds at the time the mooring failed. This would be a defence if the winds had been so high that it was not reasonably foreseeable that the shackle would fail or such conditions could not be reasonably foreseen. For more on this I would recommend reading about the "Tay Bridge" disaster of 1879.

The outcome

Because Mr Denning had seen the insurance report he could say with confidence that the shackle had failed.

Surprisingly the boatyard initially denied his claim stating that they had advised Mr Denning to have the mooring serviced prior to the new season but that he had declined to do so.  Mr Denning was unable to recall such advice and said so.

It was also a fact that the mooring was being used by third parties when not in use by Mr Denning.  The terms of his lease provided for this.

In addition, the separate general Terms and Conditions of the boatyard stated that it would annually service swinging moorings.  This alone supported the claim and such maintenance costs should have been  covered in the annual mooring fee.

As for the "Act of God" defence, it was possible to show with reasonable certainty that the conditions were not so extreme as to not be foreseen and more importantly, no other vessels had suffered damage.

As for other factors there was no evidence of collision or vandalism so these could also be ruled out.  

When all this was pointed out, and after some fairly detailed correspondence and threats of litigation, the boatyard conceded and a settlement was agreed.

Lessons learned

Don’t just assume that your mooring is safe. Establish who is responsible for maintenance of it and who may be entitled to use it. Carry out routine checks, particularly if other vessels are allowed to use it when you are away. Also, find out when your mooring was last serviced.  You probably pay for this so insist that it is done.  Finally, become involved with your insurance claim and try to obtain a copy of the survey report. If you do so, come armed with the correct questions and life may be far less litigious.

For further information, please contact Brian Taylor on +44 (0)1752 526032 or b.taylor@ashfords.co.uk, who specialises in marine work including contracts, collisions and VAT advice.

First published in 'Motor Boat & Yachting – Europe's best motor boat magazine'. 

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