Rotted floor/stringers on 1999 370. Help!

SkiPharmer said:
They will pay for all the repairs and he has State Farm Insurance
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Holy smokes, that's great news! I'm relieved for your friend. Are they going to be able to get it done this season? Big kudos to State Farm Insurance. I might switch over based on this story alone!
 
Funny, I have State Farm for auto and home and just received a quote for the boat. It's 20% less than my current premium but this story really helps my decision
 
Strecker25 said:
Funny, I have State Farm for auto and home and just received a quote for the boat. It's 20% less than my current premium but this story really helps my decision
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I had State Farm but they don't offer freeze coverage of any kind, and I store outside in freezing weather.
 
mobocracy said:
I had State Farm but they don't offer freeze coverage of any kind, and I store outside in freezing weather.
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that's true, but I just had a thread going about the same thing - BoatUS no longer offers it unless done by a commercial yard (which I would expect to be covered by the yard doing the work)
 
Strecker25 said:
that's true, but I just had a thread going about the same thing - BoatUS no longer offers it unless done by a commercial yard (which I would expect to be covered by the yard doing the work)
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Yeah, I know, I have mine done by the yard commercially, but this covers me because now the yard can fight with Geico, and not me.
 
I am very happy for your friend, but I don't understand why State Farm would cover cover an preexisting issue. Makes me want to look into State Farm
 
mobocracy said:
There is a story there. Maybe there's no pre-existing damage exclusion so long as the boat is covered by a recent survey?
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Maybe State Farm will pursue the surveyors E&O insurance. If the repair cost is substantial they may be motivated to do just that.
 
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hmmm. I have State Farm and have a rotten core in my swim platform. swimplatforms.com has an exact replacement shipped to my door for about $2100. Might be worth a call to State Farm just to see what they say. It's a bolt on platform and I already have the old one off. I had it surveyed in August 2018 when I bought it.
 
I know now I’m taking a look at State Farm!

Funny how this works in business eh? Do right by your customers, word gets out, you win more customers.
 
Glad for your friend that insurance is stepping in - I am really surprised, but glad.

As far as the surveyor having any liability, I think there is pretty much a zero chance that would happen. If you read the agreement that was signed when the survey was done, it should clearly state that the survey is really just the surveyors observation and opinion at the time of the survey and is in no way, shape or form a guarantee that no problems were missed. If it doesn't then I guess the surveyor deserves to get sued over it. No different than a home inspection - if a home inspector misses something that's just the way it is, you have no recourse against the inspector.

Keep us updated, interested in how the repairs go.
 
BillK2632 said:
Glad for your friend that insurance is stepping in - I am really surprised, but glad.

As far as the surveyor having any liability, I think there is pretty much a zero chance that would happen. If you read the agreement that was signed when the survey was done, it should clearly state that the survey is really just the surveyors observation and opinion at the time of the survey and is in no way, shape or form a guarantee that no problems were missed. If it doesn't then I guess the surveyor deserves to get sued over it. No different than a home inspection - if a home inspector misses something that's just the way it is, you have no recourse against the inspector.
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Maybe it's one of those deals where the boat owner's insurance company just decides to go after the surveyor anyway, with the idea that the surveyor would rather make their own insurance claim vs. fighting an insurance company over their contract terms and dropping $20k in legal fees and risking their business reputation.

I'd also wager that "exculpatory language" in contracts is a tricky business and always subject to litigation. Just because you put language in your contract that says you're not responsible doesn't mean the language holds. From what I've read, it has to be conspicuous and expressly agreed to by both parties to be enforceable. I would wager marine surveyors do not like to expressly call out their exculpatory language and gain an additional signature for it -- "And this parts says if I miss important stuff, it's not my fault" isn't a great look in front of customers.

I feel like the solution here is somehow mandating surveyors provide an insurance policy for repairs required due to omissions in the survey of each boat. They can pass on the cost of the policy to their customer, but their cost of insurance will be tied to how many claims their surveys present. This gives them an incentive to be thorough and gain a pricing advantage over surveyors who endure more claims. Truly bad surveyors will get pushed out since they will be unable to obtain insurance.
 
Just an update on mine...called State Farm and told them about the swim platform being cracked and rotted. They asked where the cracks were at. They told me the adjuster would call in a day or 2 to schedule a time to come look at it. After 4 days I called them and they said they thought the adjuster had called me. He was supposed to tell me it was wear and tear and not accident damage so they would not cover it. Not sure how they could determine that without seeing it (they didn't even see pics of it). No biggie. By the time I paid my $500 deductible and I would probably have to pay the $300 shipping out of pocket not sure it would have been worth a claim to get about $1200 from them.
 
I am about to embark on a similar repair, although I believe from initial inspection that this is more localized to one section of flooring. As stated a few pages back, a leaking fitting on the cockpit ice maker (perhaps for years) made quite a mess of unprotected wood in the coaming lockers (thank you Sea Ray), but more importantly, made it's way between the hull and liner into the cavity beneath the mid cabin floor. A barnacle or worm in the air conditioning raw water feed line under the mid cabin drawers leaked just enough to saturate the mid cabin floor without showing itself until I stepped on that floor and found it spongy. None of this is structural to the vessel. It's structural to the human. I'd appreciate any photos taken of the damage and the repair, so I know where to look beyond my obvious spots. I will likewise try to document what I do for future 370 owners. There are definite patterns of failure on these models of similar vintage, as you would expect on a production line vessel.
 
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Reading this thread reminds me of an article I read in the WSJ about 11 years ago when I was just retiring. It discussed the top 10 things to do to help insure a worry free retirement. Number one was "Do not buy a boat." I ignored that advice and went on to enjoy years of boating. However, it is an expensive hobby to say the least.
 
sbw1 said:
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Reading this thread reminds me of an article I read in the WSJ about 11 years ago when I was just retiring. It discussed the top 10 things to do to help insure a worry free retirement. Number one was "Do not buy a boat." I ignored that advice and went on to enjoy years of boating. However, it is an expensive hobby to say the least.
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That is for sure. I am in the pre-retirement planning stage of life and you really do have to explicitly factor in the cost. And I intend to spend winters in Florida so will have two cost streams to factor in. The other factor is how long you will want to boat post retirement. At some point it won’t be practical. I figure maybe 20 years max to budget for.
 
Creekwood said:
That is for sure. I am in the pre-retirement planning stage of life and you really do have to explicitly factor in the cost. And I intend to spend winters in Florida so will have two cost streams to factor in. The other factor is how long you will want to boat post retirement. At some point it won’t be practical. I figure maybe 20 years max to budget for.
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One other caution mentioned was "Don't buy an expensive sports car."
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