Boatlopnik, ouch edition.

"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97) 07/31/2017 at 10:49 • Filed to: None

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We went to the lake yesterday to discover that the boat has taken some damage from recent thunderstorms. There was a severe storm on Wednesday afternoon that clocked 90mph winds at a nearby weather station at one point during the microburst. The stern of the boat is moored with two lines at each corner for redundancy. The wind and wave action snapped one of the lines at each corner and severely stretched the remaining lines, which let the boat beat up against the slip. Even the forged metal spring clips on the primary lines were bent, and a couple of bumpers were destroyed. The bow also took a small bit of damage from hitting the front of the slip. All the boats in our row of slips took some degree of damage.

This will be far more than enough damage to cover the $500 insurance deductible, so I’m sure we’ll spend some time with an insurance adjuster soon. Since the damage is well above the waterline and there is only one small spot that went all the way through the full thickness of the hull, we’ll have it fixed when we pull it out of the water for the winter in late October/early November.

While it was disappointing to find (and I got to spend some time making new lines for it), in the grand scheme of things this is the first time the boat has taken damage in six years of being kept wet in a slip. It also could’ve been worse. There was a severly listing houseboat washed up on the nearby beach, and a another guy’s boat at our marina broke free completely and was pushed into the other Marina behind us where it considerably damaged two docks and two other boats before winding up on the beach. His insurance company will be less happy than ours, as they’ll be on the hook for the damage caused by his boat in addition to the damage of to their insured’s boat itself.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 07/31/2017 at 11:16

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Ouuuuch...

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 07/31/2017 at 11:26

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Ouch indeed, but it doesn’t look too bad, nothing that a few layers of fiberglas can’t repair

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction 07/31/2017 at 11:38

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And some new rubrail and a couple of through-hull fittings. Overall, it could’ve been a lot worse.

Sovande > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 07/31/2017 at 13:40

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Good time to swap all those plastic fittings with bronze.

Sorry for the damage, not much you can do when the wind is blowing like that. I would say you (or your insurance) will be looking at a much bigger than anticipated repair bill. My wild ass guess would be $4000.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Sovande 07/31/2017 at 15:24

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We’ve had some fiberglass and gelcoat repair done before in the early 2000's on this boat; it is always more expensive than you think. My guess is around 2k, depending on how common that exact rub rail and metal retainer are now that the boat is 22 years old. I hadn’t thought about bronze fittings, simply because the original plastic ones held up for 22 years until this storm. I might look into them. I did upgrade the primary dock lines that stay attached to slip from 1/2" braided rope to 5/8" braid.