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http://www.mysailing.com.auINSURER RESPONSE
CLUB MARINE
“In terms of the number of boats damaged, claims lodged and the
sheer devastation on the ground, Cyclone Debbie is the largest
catastrophic weather event I’ve seen,” said Phil Johnson, Club
Marine’s national claims technical manager. He should know, he has
been with Club Marine for more than 38 years.
The company also flew members of its Catastrophe Response
Team into Townsville ahead of the storm to prepare contingency
plans, including arranging salvage and repair services. They
chartered a boat from Townsville, which arrived at Hamilton
Island Marina after a 20hr voyage to circumvent the problem of
accommodating and feeding the crew.
According to Dave Hughes, Club Marine’s national assessing
manager, while many boat owners went to great lengths to protect
their vessels, some could have avoided damage by taking more
effective preventative measures, “we saw a lot of examples where
owners could have been more proactive in their preparations,” he
said. “Simple things like stowing sails, removing clears, covers and
canopies and stowing tenders could have prevented a lot of damage.
And given the amount of notice we had with Debbie, owners in some
areas could have relocated their vessels to safer locations.”
Due to a shortage of repair facilities, many of the most damaged
vessels in the Whitsundays will have to be transported as far afield as
Cairns in the north and the Gold Coast in the south for specialist repairs.damage to some of the pontoons in the south marina
and the walkway on L Arm to the fuel dock was
destroyed. However, on the plus side the marina
village stood up well with minimal damage to
buildings, tenancies and infrastructure.
Lure, our new function venue came through
unscathed and pending power supply we will host a
wedding there as schedule (sic) this coming Saturday
(April 9/10, see sidebar box 'One week later').
Charter operators have resumed regular operations
and more and more are coming back online daily.
To my knowledge we had 507 vessels berthed
in the marina at the time of the cyclone and 5 are
recorded as lost or sunk. Two sunk in their berths
and three broke their lines and ended up on either
the rock wall of the marina or the nearby Shingley
Beach. Various vessels have cosmetic damage
with scratches, torn biminis or ripped sails, but
insurance assessors for all the major insurance
companies have arrived in town and are working
their way through the relevant claims.
Our main focus at the moment is getting the
marina prepared for the upcoming cruising
season. We would encourage all guests with
bookings for the upcoming season to continue with
their planned migration north as scheduled and be
assured that Abell Point Marina will very much be
open for business as usual.MACKAY
Little information was coming in about Mackay
which was on the bottom edge of Debbie but
the outlook seemed positive. It took a few days
to get through to Ben Anderson at the marina
but he finally had time to send me the following
information:
We sustained some damage to some outer fingers,
this actually occurred only on the back side of the
cyclone when the northerlies started, up until then
there was virtually no damage. Thankfully, there were
no injuries, we initiated our cyclone plan, part of which
is recommending boat owners leave their boats, which
most people did, we also isolated the power on the
marina to eliminate any risk of electrical injuries.
Through hard work and the assistance from boat
owners, I am proud to say that we did not lose a
single boat, damage has been limited to scratches,
scuffs, a couple of superficial holes, covers and
clears and a couple of sails.
The wall has been fantastic, the upgrades that
were performed a couple of years ago have certainly
proven their worth. What it has highlighted however
is the need for a nib break wall near the entrance to
dissipate the northerly wave energy. This is something
that we will be pursuing with North Queensland Bulk
Ports and the state government, who own the wall.“BY THE TIME THE CYCLONE HAS COME AND
GONE THESE PEOPLE ARE FOUR SHEETS TO THE
WIND AND MOVING THEIR VESSELS.”
IMAGE COURTESY OF KERRYANNE WILKIE