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H:\!DOCS\MSOFFICE\WINWORD\TEMPLATE\NORMAL.DOT Marine Notes Charles V. Balch Charles V. Balch Boat Ting Charles Balch St. Croix Marine News Thursday, September 28, 1995, Volume 2 --- Hello --- For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Charles Balch. If your a member of the Marine Community, you probably know my Freedom 40 Cat Ketch, Ubi Libertas. We are often sighted at marine events; usually with a photogenic crew and the stereo a bit too loud. As my boat survived, my current focus is on helping the marine community by gathering and distributing information of interest. Contact me at my temporary home number 773-9437, of leave messages at Voice 773-9227, fax 773-9228. (Special thanks to PC Paradise for acting as a news center and providing equipment loans that make this newsletter possible). In better times, I hope we can all get together on deck for a cold one. My cocktail flag always flies. It flew through Marilyn and, while a bit ragged is still there saying come on over. If I can clear up the rules and find some ice, I’ll be on Buck this Sunday. I encourage copying or transcribing of all or part the material here. Just include the author’s name. ---- Trading Post --- It makes sense to deal directly with local buyer and seller. Why sell to some off-island middleman who will then resell to us with added profit and shipping. Working locally, the buyer should pay less and the seller make more. But we need to figure what items are worth. I’d love to get some sort of rule of thumb but am told that there is no such thing. Sellers need to understand that what they paid for item means far less than the desirability of the item to the buyer. I’m going to throw out a starting figure of 20% original value as the worth of desirable salvaged items in good working order. Please comment and I will revise. I’m working on a community storage space and a flea market. Give me your ideas. Your author would like to upgrade his boat with a very strong hydraulic system steering (including autopilot) and I lost a couple of anchor rollers. I have tools and will help with removal from YOUR boat. Moose (George Silver) said he’s ready to buy salvage in bulk. Reach him at the SCYC 773-9531. --- We heard --- About 200 people died on St. Martin. I spoke with Don Strong who went to St. Martin and found about 800 boats in Simpson, 70-80 in Oyster pond and another 100 or so down around the island. If your lucky, he’ll show you the pictures he took. Many of these boats are huge with helicopter pads and such. Preliminary insurance reports are that 300 boats were lost on STT, 30 on STX and 30-40 on STJ. CNN reports that the cops are giving boats on the STT streets tickets. Now that’s helpful. Don’t know the numbers but the BVIs are doing OK . Please pass any FACTS along and I’ll publish them. As you know, most of the deaths from Marilyn have been suffered by the marine community. We think the marine vultures are going to focus on the better pickings on STT and St. Martin. This gives STX a bit of time to think and have a united front. Our immediate concerns are boats on the hard and boats in navigable waters. There are rumors about barges coming very soon (perhaps today). Some crew members of the fishing vessels Misty Dawn and the Triple Challenge were pulled from the water after their boats sank off STT during the storm. Others were not recovered. We hope they made it to land. Contact us with any information about crew of these boats. Mark and Robin at the Wreck bar offer an emergency bulletin board. Post info on persons you want to hear from, to let people know you’re OK, to find a place to live, to offer a pace to live, etc. The St. Croix Yacht club also offers bulletin board space. Let me know about others. Carlos Farchette of DPNR suggest that sunken boats focus on patching holes so they will be ready when a crane comes by. He does not know when a crane is coming. Carlos says he really like the idea of naval chain and is working to make it happen. Go for it Carlos! There are some issues that need to be brought up here. Are we finally going to have an overall mooring plan. What a great time to do it while we are all rebuilding our moorings. Issues of scope, additional anchors attaching to the naval chain, and such can all be worked out. Thanks for your efforts. Don’t forget any of the major anchorages. Carlos also mentioned his concerns for local fisherman who are often overlooked. Mr. Rodriguez, an EPA rep working with FEMA voiced his concerns about the high fecal count in one of our local marinas. He noted that the count appears to be dropping. He also worries about fuel and oil hazard of boats that have sunk. He notes that the EPA would prefer boats be disposed of on land. I could not reach anyone from the Army Corps of Engineers but I’ll keep trying. I’ve heard that Buck Island is closed. That just the beach is open. That just the Trail is open. I could not get a hold of anyone at the National Park Service to confirm or deny these rumors. VITEMA reports that they only coordinate and have nobody focusing on marine interests. I could not get hold of the Port Authority to hear if they had anything to say. --- Getting off the Hard --- Essentially you can either pull of lift. Pulling requires that your boat be reasonably intact, on soft ground (sand) and near deep water. You will need lots of long lines and serious ground tackle. Both lines and tackle will be worse for the job. Experience, windlasses, powerful boats, come-a-longs, jacks, rollers, cars, jeeps, foul language, trash pumps, friends, attention and time are essential to this process. Sometimes the boat gets only a little more damage. Don Strong (SEVIC Inc. 778-9617 or 690-8117) has been the local crane operator to call for boat services on STX for many years. (I’ve heard nothing but good about Don). He tells me that historically he has charged about $50 a foot for a simple one shot lift and drop into the water. If the boat requires trailoring to storage, it’s $100 a foot. Then another $50 a foot when the boat to get back in the water after it “graduates” from the yard. His experience has been that 50% graduate. Prices do not include storage. It’s more expensive for tricky stuff. Don has some ideas that would reduce the rates for boaters on all islands and leave lift capacity in the islands. He wants about 15 minutes of the Governor’s phone time. I think he should get it. A current issue is where the boats go. The yards are full. We need a staging area where boats can be taken once they leave the beach. While your waiting, get the stuff off your boat. Looting has been very low but that can’t last forever. Take external stuff first. Winches are easier if you just take the drum and guts. --- Buying a Wreck --- I spoke with Bill Chandler (a local marine surveyor, 773-5167) and others about those “great” deals that we will soon all be seeing. The consensus is don’t. Certainly don’t unless you really know what your doing and the boat has been surveyed by someone competent. Even doing the work yourself, you’ll lose your shirt trying to put a wrecked boat back together. It usually ends up costing more than buying a new boat whole. The authors experience is in agreement. I’d like to add that it can make sense to combine two boats. Take a boat with a great hull and not much else and transfer the equipment from a boat with ruined hull. The really tricky part is deciding what a good hull is. Personally, I would not want to take a boat that’s lost more than about 10% of hull deck or any bulkhead into blue water. The hull will never be the same. --- Reef Plans --- People are talking about where we can sink the total losses. It appears that there is a local ordinance that states boats must be sunk in over 60 feet of water (Someone should have told Marilyn). There is a designated spot but many feel it is to deep and inaccessible. How about someplace in Cane Bay or off Buck. I’m told that the folks at Fish and Wildlife make this decision but have been unable to get a hold of them. --- Current Weather --- As of 5 AM Noel was located at 14.3 N and 42.1W or 1,250 east of the lesser Antilles. Moving NW at 8 MPH. Max winds are 60 MPH. Noel is expected to strengthen and stay on the NW track. This keeps it over open water. Locally we can expect rain today. This is the second ever storm with an N in the name. I would much rather skip a bid for the record books. --- Insurance --- What a nice complication to have when you need it. Read your survey. Read it again. Have someone explain it to you. Camp out till you get your money. Basically the insurance company sends their surveyor who takes an inventory of damage - you want to be there to make sure nothing gets overlooked. If you don’t like what their surveyor says, you can argue. You will need to be persistent. As noted above, it is extremely expensive to repair a damaged boat. The insurance company often opts to call boats totaled. When a boat is declared “totaled” the insurance company owns it and all the hardware. You get to keep your personal affects. Often the insurance company will bargain to sell the boat back to the insured. Should they do this you own the boat and are responsible for it. Policies usually cover getting the boat off the beach and such over and above any other claims. --- Talk About de Money --- You can dial teleregistration from a land line if you first dial ATT at 102880. Ask for the FEMA teleregistration desk at (800) 462-9029. Their hours are 7 to 7 Central standard time. Here’s what happened when I registered. It took about 1/2 an hour. They want to know your: Name, SSN, disaster time (Friday, Sept. 15, evening), physical and mailing address w/ zip, damages to auto, roof, electrical power, Heating/AC, plumbing, home access, foundation, windows/doors, floor/ceiling, clothing, furniture, if you own, is it livable, money spent on repairs, if you’re in immediate danger (includes medical - eye glasses, dentures etc.), insurance status, who was living there, source(s) and amount of income, and whether you own an affected business (a yes probably starts another set of similar questions including number of employees, loss of income, damage to inventory, rent etc). Ask for your control number right away (before they start with all the questions). You may get cut off and you will need the number to complete or follow your application. Ask the name/number of the person you are working with. Be friendly - they are. You will be informed of what other applicable programs. Later you will need to provide physical proof of home ownership, pictures, receipts and such. We are not sure how we are going to get the physical forms. --- What’s the Law --- We are all grateful to Andrew Simpson, all around good guy and maritime lawyer, who provided the following information: CAVEAT: This legal information is presented for background purposes only. The actual facts of your particular case may cause a different result. Additionally, I have not been able to update the law on these issues. If you are involved in any of the situations described below, you should consult a lawyer and obtain a formal opinion. Andrew C. Simpson, Esq. 773-2785 (office) 773-5427 (fax). Salvage In order to salvage property under maritime law, the property must be subject to a marine peril placing it at risk to loss or deterioration (a salvor can argue that a recently sunken boat is subject to deterioration or risk of loss due to shifting, etc.); the act of salvage must be voluntary rather than the result of a contractual or other duty (a professional salvor is still considered a volunteer); and the act of salvage must be at least partially successful. Salvage requires the express or implied consent of the owner. However, an abandoned vessel may be salvaged without consent. It is for this reason that it is important that owners of sunken vessels mark their vessels and leave some evidence affixed to the boat indicating an intent to claim the vessel. Salvors cannot keep the vessel in their possession. They are required to return possession of the vessel to the owner. If they cannot find the owner, they must file an action of salvage in a U.S. District Court (or appropriate foreign admiralty court) and “surrender” the vessel to the court. The court then determines the amount of the salvage award the salvor will receive. A salvor who loots a vessel or is grossly negligent in the recovery of property will forfeit the right to a salvage award. “Ordinary” negligence of a salvor will reduce the amount of the award. Salvage awards are determined by, among other factors, the effort expended by the salvor, the skill of the service rendered, the value of the property and the amount of risk to which the property was exposed. The award cannot exceed the value of the vessel. In the case of the recovery of a recently sunken sail or power boat, I would not expect the award to exceed 25% of the value unless some extraordinary effort was made by the salvor or the vessel was in true, imminent, peril. The Wreck Act The owner of a vessel sunk (or aground) in navigable waters of the United States is required by Federal law to mark the wreck as soon as possible. (Marking for both day and night are required). The owner of a missing vessel must use diligent efforts to locate the vessel and mark it. The owner must also continue to check the markings to make sure that they are in working order and accurately reflect the current position of the vessel. The owner also must “immediately” commence the removal of the wreck. The courts have interpreted “immediately” with reference to a “reasonable” time frame, so a boater who has been devastated by a hurricane where few maritime resources are available will not be help to the same time frame as a boater in a more “normal” sinking situation. The owner can be liable for damages sustained by anyone as a result of the wreck as well as the cost of removal of the wreck. If you want an expensive removal bill, let the government do it for. If another vessel collides with your sunken vessel (or if a fishing net gets torn on it) you could be liable for the resulting damages. If the owner of the vessel was not negligent, (s)he may abandon the vessel to the U.S. Coast Guard or Army Corps of Engineers. After abandonment, the non-negligent owner is no longer responsible for damages to third parties but may be liable for the cost of removal. If you do not intend to try to recover your vessel, you should consider abandoning as soon as possible. The government routinely takes the position that it will not accept the abandonment; however, your best protection (if you decide to abandon) is to formally abandon it and fight about whether the government must accept the abandonment at a later date. Many marine insurance policies have express provisions regarding abandonment and recovery of vessels -- take no action until you have reviewed your policy. P.S. Feel free to disseminate widely. 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