Hey, thanks guys, don’t mind us, you
have a great night.
Our thoughts then turned to what
damage we had sustained, it was one
hell of a bang! An initial inspection
with the torch revealed a badly bent
bow roller, with no holes that we could
see. Luckily we have a traditional sliced
back bow, so it appeared the bow fitting
had taken the brunt of the impact and
fortunately she is a strongly built NZ
boat. We would do a further inspection
in the morning to be sure.
Our other plan was to sneak over
first thing in the morning, to make
sure they had some damage of their
own. We did not want them denying
all knowledge the next day without us
having any proof of the collision.
At first light next morning we rowed
ever so quietly over to and around their
boat, we were fairly confident they
would not be up early. And there it was,
in all its glory, a beautiful punctured
hole in the port side hull. At a rough
guess, we would say about the same
height as our bow fitting.
With a small grin on our faces, we
rowed back to our boat for a cuppa and
a closer inspection of our own damage.
It did appear that there were only scuff
marks on the hull, but the bow fitting
was nicely bent to one side. Although
the damage did not look too bad, our
primary concern was whether the bow
fitting that also supported our forestay
attachment had been weakened with
thoughts of a trip back to NZ in mind
the following month and the conditions
that can often be encountered.
At a more respectable hour in the
morning we called up the charter
company on VHF to report the
incident. Our other concern was
whether the cat had any existing
damage when it left the charter
base for this outing. We are in the
insurance business, so were thinking
of all the possible ways they might
be able to 'weasel out' of admitting
liability. So we enquired of the charter
company: “by the way, was there any
existing damage on that boat?”
“No”, was the emphatic reply,
“that’s a brand new boat and is
the first time it’s been taken out”.
Oh, there is a god after all!
Then about half an hour later
we notice someone stirring in the
cockpit and having a look around
and over the side of the boat.
Another half hour passed, still no
approach from them so we decided to
pay a visit. “Good morning, we’ve been
waiting for you to come over and see
us about hitting our boat last night.”
“I didn’t think we’d hit you” was the
skipper’s remarkable reply!Geez mate, you must have had a few,
“have you seen the hole in the side of
your boat” we enquired. He had not,
but was now about to. “We think there
was a fair amount of alcohol involved.”
we said, to which he replied “no, I don’t
think so.” Mmmmm, strange as we
were looking straight at their cockpit
table with the remnants of the previous
evening clearly in view, a large punch
bowl, a dozen empty bottles of wine, an
empty bottle of tequila and a variety of
shot glasses.
His explanation was that they had
dragged anchor and had only noticed at
the last minute, so hadn’t had a chance
to get the engine started in time and
manoeuvre safely around us.
When speaking to another boat later
that day who was anchored nearby, he
made the comment that he had seen the
cat anchoring and had thought to himself
“they haven’t let out near enough chain.”
To cut a long story short, the skipper
came and looked at our damage and
did admit liability. We got him to sign
something to that effect, there’s our
insurance brains working again.To their credit, the charter company
itself was very cooperative and one
of their representatives also came out
to look at our boat and offered their
assistance in any way possible. A boat
builder friend also cruising around
Tonga had a look at the fitting for us and
declared it to be safe for our trip back to
NZ, which turned out to be the case. As
luck would have it, we had nothing over
25 knots and all reaching conditions on
our way back to NZ.
What can we learn from such an event?
As some wise mariner once told us:
anchor chain in the locker does nothing
so get it all out. The anchor is just a
means of finding the end of the chain!
it’s the chain that really does the work.
When assessing your anchorage for
the night, check other boat positions
around you also. If you have a large
vessel to windward or alongside of you,
especially a power driven vessel and it
is blowing, perhaps it’s wise to move to
reduce potential risk.
Everyone enjoys a drink on their boat,
but drinking to excess whilst on board
is very dangerous, in many ways.Februar y 2015 39high seas
Neil Bailey“To their credit, the
charter company itself
was very cooperative.”Luckily, the only
damage appeared
to be this bent
anchor fairlead.Neil and Barbara Bailey have
been keen sailors all their
lives, and live in Belmont, on
the north shore of Auckland,
NZ. They enjoy both cruising and racing
and have many blue water passages
under their belt. They own a successful
insurance broking company in Auckland
and naturally enough are specialists in
marine insurance. This will be their 6th
keelboat and most definitely the last!