Deck Joint Split

M

marlinmikea

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exMember
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Jul 14, 2009
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31533
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116
Calling Ghost------

On another post you said:
quote:
You sure know how to hurt a guy.

I'm still hauled out down in Seattle and my season has not yet begun. A little over a month ago, the Port of Everett used some really novice hauling skills and wound up splitting about 25 feet of hull deck joint on my boat, crushed the spray rail and generally just made a massive mess of things. As of yesterday, most of the repairs have been made and a new rub rail is going on. If things go well the rest of the week, its looking to me like maybe as soon as Friday or Monday, we might actually get to think about splashing her again.

When the Port of Everett tried to get me to cheat my insurance company by offering to pay my deductible (and nothing more), I moved out of the marina after 15 years there. No sense dealing with dishonest crooks. I'll be moving my boat permanently to Anacortes. I'm rather excited to get up there and this will take 4 hours off of my typical "Day 1" cruise up to the San Juan's.

So, with any luck, I'll still be able to salvage some of this summer. Sad thing is, for the first (and maybe only) time in my career I decided to take a 6 month sabatical away from work. This is not something one gets to do all the time. Thanks to the Port of Everett, I'm getting to do WEEKS of this on the hard, instead of in the water. Water time I may never get back. So far I've missed my first Memorial day in about 18 years on the water, missed one of our Tollyclub events and yes I'm sulking, crying, wailing and sniffling to anyone who will listen right now.

My plan now is to getting back in the water just as summer finally arrives in ernest. I still plan to spend the rest of June and July on the water.

Click to expand...


So as to not steal the tread I've decided to start anew. How did this happen? Was there some sort of bracing they were supposed to use between the straps above the deck or something? Just misplace the sling straps or ???

Marlin

BTW: Don't blame you for moving - that's just not right. Your insurance company would probably investigate and subrogate to the Port of Everett and you'd be standing there with mud on your face.
 
There were a lot of mistakes, but the one most pertinent to those of you reading would be to really watch the size of the lift itself. This was the #1 thing the Port could/should have done differently. They used a 35 ton lift to haul my boat. My boat is about 45K pounds, so like most people I talk to after the fact, it did not occur to me that a lift that had lifting capacity left over was not suitable for use on my boat. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

A 35 ton travelift has a usable strap width of around 17 feet. My boat has a max beam at the forward lifting point of 15'4". If you think about it that means that even when the boat is raised to its highest point, that the straps are still nearly vertical. When the boat is lower on the lift, those straps are very much vertical. Think about lifting a cup of soda with a lid by your finger tips. I bet your little fingers are lifting that cup on that lid alone, and that's exactly what happened. Those vertical lift straps just pull the top half of the boat straight off the bottom and trust me with 40 thousand pounds of boat, those #10 or #12 screws are not going to hold it together. You can also use the analogy of the cup and just pinch the sides of the cup and watch it push the lid off. It's a little of both scenario's. You really want to lift from the bottom, but with vertial pinching lift straps you end up pulling on the rub rail before the straps ever have the full weight from the bottom.

The really really stupid part about the port of Everett is that they HAVE a 75 ton lift and chose not to use it. You don't need the lifting capacity, what you need is the extra width of the larger lift. I have a spray rail near the waterline. The 35 ton Everett lift crushed it. It's a hollow appendage and without blocking below the spray rail, its pretty easy math as to what is going to happen. When we pulled the boat back out of the water in Seattle to get repaired, we used a 55 ton lift. Not as big as a 75 ton, but even on the wider 55 ton lift the straps have enough of a V to them, that they did not even put pressure on the spray rail. That V shape to the straps is what keeps the pull on the bottom of your boat where it belongs. I never thought before about evaluating the width of the lift as compared to the beam of a boat, but that's really what folks should be doing. Especially if you have a larger boat. Don't trust the lift operators. I did and look what it got me. The worst part was after the fact the guy Brian who operated the lift apparently told everyone that I told him to not use any blocking. What I told him was that I was not an expert on lifting boats, and that he should do whatever he needed to do to lift the boat properly. Apparently that meant a free ride to taking every shortcut possible. I could not figure out why he would not even look at me after the mishap, and I mean for days. Never said he was sorry and would not look me in the eye for anything. I found out later from the Marina Director what his account was. But in any case, that would have only saved the spray rail, they still would have ripped the hull deck joint apart from using the 35 ton lift, even when the 75 ton was available and ready to go.

Lastly, I called my insurance adjuster and told him exactly what the Port of Everett had offered about 3 minutes after they attempted the cheat. He just laughed and could not believe what they had done. Neither could I. In fact I got in my truck just after I hung up with the adjuster and immediately drove to Anacortes. Not 60 minutes after they tried to get me to cheat my insurance company, I had actually found moorage. All in all, it took me less than 90 minutes from the moment of the cheat job to having secured my exit from the marina.

I don't blame the Port Director, he was just passing on an offer. I understand why they have lost so many marina directors in such a short time. It was obvious that the Director did not have the capability of doing what he thought was right. You could see it in his eyes. I actually felt worse for him than even me. I'll make the prediction that the last good guy at that place will soon be gone too. Nobody can operate without the authority to do your job right while being asked to tiptoe what is obviously some pretty despicable actions. I need to write some letters to the Port Commissioners. The port has a real problem with its executive director John Mohr. I've found out after the fact that the kind of treatment I got was not entirely unusual and it was suggested to me that the real blockage to doing the right thing would have come from the executive office, but of course this guy works through his underlings to try to keep his hand clean. In the scheme of things, is 15K worth of damage really worth cheating your integrity over? It's a big number to me, but really its pretty small potatoes. It was that thought that got me into my car so quick. If they cheat over such a small number, you know its only the tip of the iceberg. That whole org just stinks to high heaven. Too bad, years ago they ran a great org. Not sure what changed, but glad to be rid of them.
 
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