The Salty Barrister

I was out and about on the Bay this past weekend. At a local marina, I saw a boat laden with blurry eyes and ruddy cheeks. I could tell from the pitch and cackle that there’d been some festive making and good for them, I say. That is, as long as they stay parked at the dock and off the road.

This isn’t some public service announcement, so don’t read these words like I’m preaching to you, because I’m not. Instead think of this blog entry as nothing more than a lowly sign spivened with rust and tacked poorly and lopsided to a piling.

Operating a boat while intoxicated is a crime and it’s a crime because while liquor may give you muscles and goggles, it doesn’t give you judgment. It’ll have you throttling up in darkened waters and throwing a wake in calm. Moreover, my sense is that more of us are using these common waters and low-lying kayaks, zippy jet skis and those odd-looking paddle boards are all over the place. Liquor doesn’t make navigating much less threading your way through good water any easier.

While each state’s laws will vary, Rhode Island’s boating while intoxicated law appears somewhat similar to what you find on its highways. Get nicked with a blood alcohol content that exceeds .08% and you’ve got a big problem. Or put it this way, get nicked with something over .08% and your friendly admiralty attorney will be joining you for the weekend’s festivities!

You know I’m not a fan of boating laws. I don’t want to be told to wear a PFD or get a license or affix a sticker, but with 400 miles of coastline and its share of yahoos, these liquor laws make sense. I mean, even the most hardened of you would have to agree that a liquored-up yahoo with a wide open throttle is a lot different than a liquored-up yahoo without a lifejacket.

Underway and making way, and a belated Happy Fourth of July.

--- JKF

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Buying a policy of marine insurance is about hedging against risk. You're paying some money up front to limit the possibility of a downstream event that may or may not occur. The boat might never sink, a guest might never fall overboard and you might never strike another vessel, but that burble of potential risk is enough of a concern to justify obtaining insurance. And that's a good bet until your insurer declines a claim.

I'd venture that most boaters navigate a lifetime of waters without having to make a claim or having to rely on an insurance policy to protect them from exposure to a big loss. As a result, when a boater does face this kind of situation there's a certain amount of disbelief. When we pay for something, the thinking usually goes, we sort of expect the contracted-for performance. However, a policy of insurance is a contract and an insurer can sometimes decline coverage. For instance, risks that fall outside the agreed-upon policy language or misrepresentations by the boater at the time of procuring the insurance may be grounds for declining coverage.

What'll usually happen in these circumstances is that sometime after making a claim, you'll get a letter from the insurer or its attorney likely quoting large excerpts from your insurance policy and including a statement as to why the insurer is declining (or reserving its right to decline coverage). When this happens, a prudent mariner promptly calls his maritime attorney and seeks legal advice. These can be tough waters to navigate without a knowledgeable pilot, and you want to make sure that what you do following receipt of such a letter doesn't worsen the situation.

Finally, don't abandon ship should you ever receive a declination letter. There can be alternative arguments as to why coverage exists and, in the case of a reservation letter, an insurer is sometimes simply protecting itself until additional facts can be uncovered.

In the meantime, a Happy Thanksgiving to each of you.

Underway and making way.

--- JKF

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Every business has its own workings. The convenience store owner knows his trade, but he wouldn't know jack about being a literary agent. While this is an admittedly obvious observation, it's helpful to acknowledge the obvious as a means to a better understanding of what we don't know. Marine insurance, for example, is a topic many folks think they have a handle of when, in reality, its many messy contours are often poorly understood.

Of course, a boat owner doesn't need to understand marine insurance chapter and verse, but knowing some things to watch for can really help protect your interests. (It's analogous to the prudent mariner keeping a watchful eye on the weather while still making lively small talk with his guests.)

One gray cloud that requires a boat owner's utmost attention is when a marine insurer declines coverage or reserves its right to subsequently decline coverage. In plain language, this means that your vessel insurer believes it isn't obligated to cover your claim. This could leave you facing the highly unpleasant situation of defending against an uninsured loss. When you receive such a notice from your insurer, it's probably a good idea to promptly retain maritime legal counsel to review the insurance company's position. Remember, insurance policies are simply contracts and while the insurer may have one interpretation, it may not be a particularly strong position. That is, you don't have to accept your insurer's position and you may have traction to argue that coverage, in fact, does exist under the policy language.

Nothing will put you to sleep faster than a dose of marine insurance on a soggy Fall day, but this is one of those topics that's worth having heard something about.

Underway and making way.

--- JKF

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What with Hurricane Earl failing to arrive at the party (no regrets there), it occurred to me that I ought to say a few words about the National Weather Service's new hurricane scale which is in use for the first time this season.

This new scale is called the “Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale," and as I understand things, with this scale the five hurricane wind categories remain, but they're no longer related to storm surge and flooding effects. That is, NOAA has uncoupled the storm surge predictions from the Saffir-Simpson scale. This apparently makes sense because storm surges don't correlate nicely with the size of the hurricane meaning a low category storm can have a surge larger than a storm with a higher category.

Don't fear, storm surge values will still be included in hurricane advisories and statements leaving me this morning with the distinct sense that while there's been a divorce, wind scale and storm surge are still seeing each other socially.

Underway and making way.

--- JKF

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Now we’re into things, huh? You’ve had some Summer happenings, a couple of picnics, a burn and a peel, and that long pull from an iced-down bottle of beer. Good memories, indeed.

The thing is, and I know you’ve shied away from conceding this, but the lawn is burnt and the Bay is starting to have that Fall'ish look around its edges... all of which means that winter storage is around the corner. And that means winter storage contracts. Even though you might have a child tugging at your pant leg, find time to read through the darn thing. No doubt you’ve got a great relationship with your marina, but when the ship hits the fan, things can rise and fall on contract language, so it’s important to understand what you’re reading. Whether it’s a word or a paragraph, if what you’re signing isn’t clear, speak to your admiralty attorney. And another good resource to keep in mind is your insurance broker. It’s a good idea to make sure that what you’re agreeing to is consistent with your insurance coverage.

That’s all I’ve got today. Work is crowding in like a subway car at rush hour and I’ve got to find a way to get some more time on the water. Underway and making way, or, as I used to say, “Standing by, Channel 16.”

--- JKF

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I remember nudging throttles forward with my knuckle-back, tapping each into some kind of synchronicity, and now I'm about to up the revolutions on this blog. Let me play provocateur . . . didn't this Country sell out the Gulf's beauty years ago? I mean we've got thousands of rigs shouldering up to environments described as "pristine" and "irreplaceable". Me? I call that something's gonna happen, we're just not sure when.

I'm leveling collective criticism. I'm not singling out the oil and gas industry's hardhats, it's as honest a work as anything else anyone does. Look, you don't need to be wearing thick wool socks and sandals to appreciate that the American majority hasn't done squat to conserve. And this so-called alternative energy the media and marketers tout reminds me of some high-end science fair projects. A car that'll get you to the next county on batteries? A windmill here and there? Bio-fuel? Come on, let's be honest, we haven't given a hoot about anything but cheap goods and cheaper fuel, and, in my opinion, we ante-upped the Gulf Coast for cheap fuel everything else be damned.

So now we've gone and punctured Hades. ("The devil went down to Georgia the Gulf Coast, he was looking for a soul to steal."). A nether world pierced and spewing the fermented richness of a million eons ago. If you make a pact with Devil, well maybe you shouldn't be wincing and whining come pay day. To my mind, we curse our trade-off, we try hard to collect money damages, and we get on with realizing that we should bloody well start paying attention to our future decisions. They seem to have consequences, huh?

I'm not underway and I'm not making way. I'm just angry.

--- JKF

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I don’t like change. Let’s get that right out in front. So maybe it’s for that reason I spend a lot of time looking around in search of the kind of marine vendors I remember from years ago. You know what I mean, the couple that designs and installs boat canvas themselves, or that fellow who can weld like nobody’s business, or the marine electronics repair store that rummages up an adapter where no one else could.

You see, in my book, boating is not about the exercise of making way across the water. It’s about the preparations and individual effort associated with getting out there. Any idiot can sit behind a schooner wheel; it takes a true waterman to assemble all the pieces necessary to getting underway.

I remember in Rhode Island past there was a boat supply shop floored in creaking broad pine, organized with old shelving crooked with inventory, and staffed by eclectically knowledgeable folks. There were no uniforms and the staff wasn’t necessarily friendly. They knew their business though, and they took a kind of methamphetamine-charged interest in solving whatever riddle you might push across the counter. A mere twisted portion of rusted bolt lacking any semblance to the original casting was quickly associated with a particular brand, a size, style and – voila – a replacement was produced. You see, for those folks, what I remember is a pride in what they did and how they were perceived. I don’t see that much anymore. Nowadays I troll along vast aisles trying to find replacement bolts myself, I speak to employees who might as well be selling me a cup of coffee, and for sweet’s sake, some places make me check my purchases out myself!

So you go on and buy from the big box stores with the clean lines and overhead lighting. Me? I’ll stick to rummaging around, dusting off and cobbling together. I never did like change.

Underway and making way.

--- JKF

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