Portland Boat marina/warehouse fire

[trayson]

So in Portland, we have a lot of Marinas on the Columbia River. One of them is on Hayden Island where they have a warehouse on the water where they rack boats 4 high and then drop them via a crane into the water for you.

One of my buddies stored his MB Sports B52 there over this winter. The thought was that on decent days they'd have access to get a run or two on the water. Like all of us, they had put a lot of work into their boat. Re-did the whole ballast system with wakemakers gear. They put in a full exile system.

Well, last night the facility burnt to the ground. Their boat is gone, destroyed.

Yeah, they have insurance, but that doesn't make all the hassle and loss go away.

Really sad.

http://koin.com/2016/02/29/4th-alarm-fire-consumes-ne-portland-marina/

http://kptv.images.worldnow.com/images/9991564_G.png

[5:00]

Wow that is crazy. That is a lot of combustibles to get under control. Sorry about your friends boat.

[sivs1]

That's rough, there's a number of places like that around here. I could only imagine.

[trayson]

Yeah, my wife's hairdresser lost their boat. And I know one guy that literally pulled his boat from there 2 weeks ago, so he got lucky.

[CFD3Captain]

That's terrible and one of my biggest fears of storage. I always think about storage facilities we use for winter etc.......I've seen a few warehouse fires in the general area lately and imagine that a few of them have someones' precious boat or RV in them. Very sad indeed.

[CFD3Captain]

I've also thought about how cool it would be to work somewhere that I could be on a fire boat, then I realize quickly that seeing all the bad boating/water accidents and scenes like above would probably push me to not wanting to boat and be on the water. I go to the lake to ESCAPE this place. That would be a horrible fire to fight, no way around it!

[kaneboats]

Terrible. Really feel for all the folks who lost boats. I hope they all had insurance up to date. Most of the time the facility will have coverage but it usually applies over and above the owners' insurance unless they pay a lot extra.

[DFTR Josh]

What a bummer for everybody involved!

[jmvotto]

sad.............

[bergermaister]

That is crazy. Surprised we didn't smell any smoke this morning.

[trayson]

Damage estimates are coming in at $24 Million...

[MJHSupra]

How does that work with insurance? I have not looked at my policy, but I assume you settle with the insurance company with your "coverage amount" (minus) your deductible. That should be for boat and equipment. I think my trailer has a separate amount of coverage.

Hope your buddy had the insurance up to date. I'm sure once your start adding stereos, wakemakers add-ons, items like tabs, 10K will come real quick. It would be easy to purchase something like 50K boat with 10K of upgrades.

[trayson]

How does that work with insurance? I have not looked at my policy, but I assume you settle with the insurance company with your "coverage amount" (minus) your deductible. That should be for boat and equipment. I think my trailer has a separate amount of coverage.

Hope your buddy had the insurance up to date. I'm sure once your start adding stereos, wakemakers add-ons, items like tabs, 10K will come real quick. It would be easy to purchase something like 50K boat with 10K of upgrades.

My policy is for an agreed upon value for the boat/trailer. Since I got a decent deal on my boat and have added mods, I have it insured for more of a "replacement cost" by choosing this value. There's also a personal effects coverage that I have of $3k.

I would think that the Marina's insurance would end up primary and the boat owners would be secondary. But then again, who knows what will happen as the insurance arm wrestling happens.

My last boat was basically insured for up to the purchase price, which was not good because I modded it quite a bit and ended up selling it for well over my purchase price. THat's why I wanted an agreed upon value for this boat that would protect me in the event of a total loss.

[crr1876]

That really sucks for all involved. Not to derail the thread however while on the topic, I came home about 2 weeks ago and my neighbor ran down the street to meet me in my driveway. He began to explain that he saw a bunch of smoke coming over my back fence, ran down the street and saw my next door neighbor and my backyards were both on fire! He immediately grabbed the water house and started spraying it, 2 other neighbors came to help as well. Long story short, my next door neighbor's cigarette butt caught his backyard on fire, spread under the fence and came within about 8-10 feet of my boat! My boat was not damaged, however a large portion of my grass was charred, surprisingly the wooden privacy fence didn't catch. Anyway that sure was a close call!

[kaneboats]

I would think that the Marina's insurance would end up primary and the boat owners would be secondary. But then again, who knows what will happen as the insurance arm wrestling happens.

Yes, that is what people think but generally that is not the reality. In some cases you will see direct primary coverage with a high end marina. But, in most cases a marina, garage facility or storage place will have only coverage that is excess. If they are not responsible for causing the fire you will usually see their coverage as excess over the boat owners' coverage.

[mmandley]

It's a sad situation.

I just hope everyone had really good insurance and or they didn't owe more then the boat is worth.

Lots of people are probably not only devastated their boat is gone but they now have a serious sent to pay.

I'm really glad my boat stays in my control all the time.

[kaneboats]

Mike's comment about good insurance raises a great point. The best day to find out about the marina's insurance is the day you decide you are going to store your boat there. Another good day to find out-- if you have not already-- is today. :)

Some good info here on bailment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailment

And here on bailee's insurance:

http://fastquote.me/baileeinsurance.aspx

It is a good idea to find out if your marina has direct/primary coverage or legal liability coverage only.

[MJHSupra]

My policy is for an agreed upon value for the boat/trailer. Since I got a decent deal on my boat and have added mods, I have it insured for more of a "replacement cost" by choosing this value. There's also a personal effects coverage that I have of $3k.

That is what I have. Last summer I reviewed the limits and upped the coverage after I put thousands of dollars into all the 'fun stuff' on the boat.

Reading this thread again, ouch. All the work we have into these boats for something like that to happen.

From a non-smoker. Cig butts getting thrown around > my pet peeve.

[bergermaister]

The kicker is "depreciation value" with any claim. You might have $XXX into your boat, but the supposed depreciation is what can kill you on a claim. Not a happy experience.