Boating New Zealand — January 2018

84 Boating New Zealand

It pays to be vigilant with towing limits for trailer boats.

If something goes wrong and you have egregiously

exceeded the towing limit on your vehicle or trailer,

your insurance company may be less than sympathetic.

“In general, we rely on the manufacturer’s towing

limits, as the manufacturer will know the capabilities

of the vehicle,” says Mortimer. “But some vehicles have

after-market tow-bars fitted, and you do get some

situations where you have a back-yard tow-bar fitted

that can’t handle a load.”

To be safe, check the sticker on the tow-bar (for

factory tow-bars) or the handbook of the car to check

the recommended towing weight for a braked or

unbraked trailer.

While there is no legal requirement to not exceed

towing weights, the New Zealand Transport Agency

recommends following these limits. By law, every

light vehicle and trailer combination must be capable

of stopping within a distance of 7m from a speed of

30km/h, which means that the maximum allowable

weight of an unbraked trailer is limited by the weight

and braking ability of the vehicle being used to tow it.

The NZTA also records that on average, seven people a

year are killed and 45 seriously injured in crashes involving

a light vehicle towing a trailer, including boat trailers.

TOWING HICCUPS

curtailed by the neighbour’s garage door, which got

stoved in, damaging the car inside.

“It’s the kind of thing that would take a great

deal of organising if you were staging it, but these

things do happen,” Mortimer says.

Fortunately, though it took a bit of juggling, this

is a situation which insurance could sort out: the

owner’s insurance covered the damage to the actual

boat and engine (the trailer survived unharmed).

The neighbour’s insurers fixed their client’s garage

and the car. (The guy who caused the whole

shebang, fortunately for him, got off scot-free.)

“On the face of it, our responsibility was to fix

his boat, but if he had been found legally liable –

through his ownership of the boat – for causing

the damage because his boat hadn’t been secured

properly on the driveway, for example, the third-

party aspect of his marine insurance would have

paid out for that other damage.”

Mortimer says boat owners might be surprised

to find what their policy covers. An infestation of

rats have made a nest in your forward cabin? Your

ABOVE Check that your boat

and trailer weight comply with

the rating on the tow-bar.

RIGHT Rudolph the

Rat and his mates can

make a mess of your

boat’s interior.