Boat fire seaport inlet marina

[hookset]

Anyone with your boat stored with rob may want to check in... Story developing of multiple boats on fire and black smoke billowing into the air.

Of course we hope everyone is safe and not injured

[hookset]

Update info 12 boats damaged no people injured and the first is under control

[CubasFinest12]

My friend was one of the firefighters on call, some of those boats got TOASTED

[jakesdad]

Just got a return text from Rob, the "Honeybee" is alive and well for another season Thought I was dead meat when I saw where the fire was in the yard, but they had moved me from the last time I was down.

Henry

[dales529]

Just got a return text from Rob, the "Honeybee" is alive and well for another season Thought I was dead meat when I saw where the fire was in the yard, but they had moved me from the last time I was down.

Henry

Great news. Sad to hear for anyone's boat that was damaged

[Darreng21]

Got lucky as well. No damage to the Silly Lili and it pretty close to the rack where the fire was. Sorry for the other boats.

Darren

[Fin Reaper]

Glad Honey is safe and sound !

[NoLimit]

Wow - Shark River just cant get any love recently.

[captnvinny]

Someone repairing shrink wrap from y-days wind supposedly sparked the fire.

I am not a fan of that shrink wrap. Fire, fiberglass, and gas...never a good combo..I'll take a boat cover any day!

[dakota560]

Someone repairing shrink wrap from y-days wind supposedly sparked the fire.

I am not a fan of that shrink wrap. Fire, fiberglass, and gas...never a good combo..I'll take a boat cover any day!

Was down at the marina and heard essentially the same, although I heard it was the canvas cover which actually caught fire. A boat on the first or second level had work performed. Sounds like they had to remove shrink wrap from around the motor to perform the service. In the process of replacing the section of shrink wrap removed, when they went to heat the wrap with a torch the canvas ignited and they lost control of the fire. As reported, I also heard 12 boats were either damaged or destroyed. Thanks to the response time of many emergency crews, a more significant catastrophe was averted. Many respondents to the accident commented if the fire happened during yesterday's high winds the entire marina and surrounding buildings would all have been at risk. Thank God no one was hurt or killed and the damage was limited to 12 boats, could have been significantly worse if not as mentioned for the quick response time of many. Many thanks for their efforts.

Captnvinny just curious from your post, what or who is y-days wind. Is that a company or type of shrink wrap?

[acabtp]

what or who is y-days wind
Yesterday's wind

[dakota560]

Acabtp...thanks I read captnvinny's post wrong, thought he was referring to something else. Long day yesterday, ours was one of the 12 boats involved. Unfortunately our 27 Grady was above the boat where the fire started and completely destroyed as the pictures and videos show. Might be a blessing in disguise with this season's pending fluke regulations but tough day nonetheless. Thank God as I said no one was hurt or killed, blaze got out of control pretty quickly, the fire department did an amazing job making sure it didn't spread avoiding significantly more property damage.

[shrimpman steve]

Sorry to hear about your boat Dakota! No one hurt and hopefully you have insurance!

[tolvo]

Sorry to hear of people losing their boats.

How does insurance work in this case, are you covered by your "boat" insurance? Are you indemnified under the marina's policy?

Curious.

[dakota560]

Will find out soon enough but my guess is my insurance will handle the claim and subrogate against Seaport's liability insurance for recovery. If there was a third party contractor involved in the accident, which is why I asked the question to captnvinny I initially did, my insurance company will go after them as well for reimbursement. Monmouth County Prosecutor's office has to finish their investigation to start the ball rolling and their findings involving cause, negligence etc. will influence I assume how the insurance company proceeds. That's my general understanding of how the claim process will work.

We have, which I believe is fortunate, what's called an "Agreed Upon Value (AUV)" policy. SO I believe in the case of a complete loss which this is, the insurance company will settle the claim for the stated agree upon value of the boat in the policy, less possibly a stated deductible. Again will know after filing a claim but that's my understanding. Other policies without an AUV clause I believe market value or replacement cost factors into the settlement calculation. Again that's my 50,000 foot understanding.

[captnvinny]

Captnvinny just curious from your post, what or who is y-days wind. Is that a company or type of shrink wrap?

Yesterdays wind. Sorry to hear about your rig

[Capt. Debbie]

Jeez, I used to dock there in the AP's days and ALWAYS fuel up there inbound.

[jcstriper1]

Sorry for those who lost there boats, at the end of the day boats can be replaced people can't. Glad nobody was injured or killed.
Dakota y- winds means yesterdays wind

[Rightaway III]

The RIGHTAWAY III (top left in photo) is alive and well!! We will be Togging starting April 1st. We're sorry for those that lost their boats.
Capt Ed

[shrimpman steve]

Will find out soon enough but my guess is my insurance will handle the claim and subrogate against Seaport's liability insurance for recovery. If there was a third party contractor involved in the accident, which is why I asked the question to captnvinny I initially did, my insurance company will go after them as well for reimbursement. Monmouth County Prosecutor's office has to finish their investigation to start the ball rolling and their findings involving cause, negligence etc. will influence I assume how the insurance company proceeds. That's my general understanding of how the claim process will work.

We have, which I believe is fortunate, what's called an "Agreed Upon Value (AUV)" policy. SO I believe in the case of a complete loss which this is, the insurance company will settle the claim for the stated agree upon value of the boat in the policy, less possibly a stated deductible. Again will know after filing a claim but that's my understanding. Other policies without an AUV clause I believe market value or replacement cost factors into the settlement calculation. Again that's my 50,000 foot understanding.

Close enough on the insurance issue. If you don't have agreed value you must deal with depreciation. Put a claim into your carrier and let them subrogate.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Will find out soon enough but my guess is my insurance will handle the claim and subrogate against Seaport's liability insurance for recovery. If there was a third party contractor involved in the accident, which is why I asked the question to captnvinny I initially did, my insurance company will go after them as well for reimbursement. Monmouth County Prosecutor's office has to finish their investigation to start the ball rolling and their findings involving cause, negligence etc. will influence I assume how the insurance company proceeds. That's my general understanding of how the claim process will work.

We have, which I believe is fortunate, what's called an "Agreed Upon Value (AUV)" policy. SO I believe in the case of a complete loss which this is, the insurance company will settle the claim for the stated agree upon value of the boat in the policy, less possibly a stated deductible. Again will know after filing a claim but that's my understanding. Other policies without an AUV clause I believe market value or replacement cost factors into the settlement calculation. Again that's my 50,000 foot understanding.

That sucks and sorry to hear it Tom... Smart thing having an Agreed Upon Value policy on your boat for sure... Been there twice now with older boats we had dumped a considerable amount of money into when we repowered them and never would have got that money back with a retail replacement value policy.... You probably have a personal effects amount that is due you as well, so probably a good idea to start gathering receipts and or pictures of the stuff.

Sorry you have to go through this but on the bright side, it sure is going to be exciting shopping for a new boat.

Best of luck and ping me if you need any help.

[dakota560]

Gerry very appreciative and thanks for your offer to help. We have good coverage so I think we'll be fne. Hope all others effected can say the same and glad no one sustained personal injury. A few pictures of the fire, our boat was top tier middle and didn't stand a chance. I think we were fortunate it was totaled as opposed to singed truthfully!

[Striper80]

That sucks and sorry to hear it Tom... Smart thing having an Agreed Upon Value policy on your boat for sure... Been there twice now with older boats we had dumped a considerable amount of money into when we repowered them and never would have got that money back with a retail replacement value policy.... You probably have a personal effects amount that is due you as well, so probably a good idea to start gathering receipts and or pictures of the stuff.

Sorry you have to go through this but on the bright side, it sure is going to be exciting shopping for a new boat.

Best of luck and ping me if you need any help.

When my boat was totaled in sandy, the progressive adjuster said with agreed value everything was included in the total agreed value. They wanted my life jackets and all. I wound up keeping my boat and taking the money, minus the salvage value, so I never found out if that was 100% true or not.

[Gerry Zagorski]

I have a Geico agreed to policy on my boat and there is also a separate item on the declarations page for $3000 for personal effects so not sure how that works in a total loss... Nothing in the policy I saw that would indicate personal effects would be included in the agreed to amount.

[dakota560]

Here's the reply I received from my insurance company:

A review of your declarations page does, indeed, indicate that your Yacht Policy does not include Coverage F for Personal Effects. However, the E790 Angler Endorsement to your policy does provide up to $5,000 of coverage for Fishing Equipment, which is specifically limited to rods, reels, tackle containers (including items stored in the container such as artificial lures), electric trolling motor, and other fishing-specific items. More than likely, the loss of the GPS would be something that a homeowner’s (or tenant's) insurance policy would cover, even if lost or damaged aboard your boat. So, I see no issue with retrieving what remains of the GPS when permissible and safe to do so and having you secure that.

So while we don't have personal Effects coverage, we do have a rider (whatever an E790 Angler Endorsment actually means) which covers angling related items but not items of a personal nature.

Just FYI to anyone reading this thread. The reason my representative replied about the GPS is we have all our way point information in it. Annually we remove the navionics chips but I don't think they have our way points on that chip, believe they reside in the unit itself. If so we might have lost all our numbers over the last 30 or more years which sucks. Always intended to write them down in a log and never did. Trying to see if I can get the unit which I'm sure was destroyed and see if someone can retrieve the information. Don't make the same mistake we made, those numbers are gold and irreplaceable and if lost would hurt.

[Capt. Lou]

Also if ur ever selling ur boat never leave a log book like I did on my galley table , some A - H walked off with that ! Brokers don't care & it's not their responsibility it's ours !
Totally my fault simple solution don't trust anyone keep all those books with u or locked up in the boat . Always back up,with copy in ur possession cause fire takes everything !
Probably hundred ways to store numbers Its just me to make a hard copy that I have at home . Old habits die hard !

[Capt. Debbie]

Who pays for disposal cost of your boat?





Will find out soon enough but my guess is my insurance will handle the claim and subrogate against Seaport's liability insurance for recovery. If there was a third party contractor involved in the accident, which is why I asked the question to captnvinny I initially did, my insurance company will go after them as well for reimbursement. Monmouth County Prosecutor's office has to finish their investigation to start the ball rolling and their findings involving cause, negligence etc. will influence I assume how the insurance company proceeds. That's my general understanding of how the claim process will work.

We have, which I believe is fortunate, what's called an "Agreed Upon Value (AUV)" policy. SO I believe in the case of a complete loss which this is, the insurance company will settle the claim for the stated agree upon value of the boat in the policy, less possibly a stated deductible. Again will know after filing a claim but that's my understanding. Other policies without an AUV clause I believe market value or replacement cost factors into the settlement calculation. Again that's my 50,000 foot understanding.

[Capt. Debbie]

A friend had a boat down C&C Marina in Bayville. Sandy took it after winter layup(Drain plug out and bilge pumps w/o battery) so sunk on its trailer. Total loss. Agreed value $14,000. Then marina hit him up for $9800 for retrieval costs and another $1,000 for disposal costs. Insurance met coverage and walked after paying for lost boat $14,000. A year of litigate later he paid out of pocket to a marina. I helped negotiate it down to $4,000

Let us know how this turns out?

This could be a good lesson in what coverage does and does not cover.

Many marina have a hold harmless clause and you pay for yourself. That's why they require you have insurance to store on their property. If you have no insurance you have to sue everyone to get anything. very different form car insurance under no fault.

Who is your insurer?

Since this is not no fault, you pay your own way ( your insurer fixes you up) and you have to sue the other to recover the cost. If you do go after the "at fault" party and win then your insurance company wants their money back.

[Abrasion]

A few things(I do insurance for a living) I wanted to comment on fromreading this thread:

1: It doesn't matter how the fire started as long as you didn't start it. You should have your claim processed asap
2: On a stated limit policy, they will pay the stated limit or the repair, whichever is LESS
3: someone correctly pointed out that salvage is part of not in addition to your stated limit.
4: building on #3, you should consider filing 3 claims. A: your boat policy B: The marina's Liability policy C: Your Homeowner's policy.
I'd file A and B immediately. Wait on C until A&B clear a little. The marina's liability policy is important in case there is any out of pocket that you can't recover due things lost in the fire that insurance didn't cover. Your homeowners may cover your personal effects(clothing and fishing gear) since the boat was not in the water(read your policy to confirm).

I don't do personal lines insurance but insurance is insurance is insurance. If anyone needs help understanding terms in their policy, shoot me a pm.

[Striper80]

A friend had a boat down C&C Marina in Bayville. Sandy took it after winter layup(Drain plug out and bilge pumps w/o battery) so sunk on its trailer. Total loss. Agreed value $14,000. Then marina hit him up for $9800 for retrieval costs and another $1,000 for disposal costs. Insurance met coverage and walked after paying for lost boat $14,000. A year of litigate later he paid out of pocket to a marina. I helped negotiate it down to $4,000

Let us know how this turns out?

This could be a good lesson in what coverage does and does not cover.

Many marina have a hold harmless clause and you pay for yourself. That's why they require you have insurance to store on their property. If you have no insurance you have to sue everyone to get anything. very different form car insurance under no fault.

Who is your insurer?

Since this is not no fault, you pay your own way ( your insurer fixes you up) and you have to sue the other to recover the cost. If you do go after the "at fault" party and win then your insurance company wants their money back.
Progressive paid for the "salvage" of my boat. The salvage was a set price per foot charged by the the towboat co. My boat needed to be untangled from the others and repositioned on the trailer. They gave me a separate check for the salvage.

[Capt. Debbie]

That's great!

Most people don't realize a boat policy is not pure value


Progressive paid for the "salvage" of my boat. The salvage was a set price per foot charged by the the towboat co. My boat needed to be untangled from the others and repositioned on the trailer. They gave me a separate check for the salvage.

[dakota560]

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up regarding the fire at Seaport Inlet Marina "SIM" earlier this year and the surprise boat owners who experienced damage or a complete loss were provided a week ago. As the saying goes, "buyer beware" or in this case customers beware. All boat owners effected by the fire were early on provided information pertaining to SIM's insurance carrier, claim number and contact information. Owners filed claims against their insurance and for any items not covered filed a claim against SIM's carrier.

Over the course of six weeks, owners were led to believe our claims were being reviewed and we'd hear back from SIM's carrier on a number of occasions. Promises were made and not kept. It was virtually impossible to reach anyone at SIM's insurance company for discussion and if you tried getting an answer from Seaport Inlet Marina themselves the standard reply was they're not involved and we had to call the insurance company directly. The entire process was set up for Seaport Inlet Marina to conveniently have plausible deniability and the insurance company to be completely unreachable.

About a week and a half ago, all owners with destroyed boats were told SIM's attorney was meeting with the insurance company to review the status of claims and to expect updates within 24 hours. Again a date that came and went with no response. The following Monday all owners involved received a notice from the attorney notifying us that a suit was filed with Seaport Inlet Marina as the plaintiff and all boat owners who incurred losses or had their boats destroyed in the fire as defendants requesting a "Declaratory Judgement". So Seaport and their insurance company while telling us they were reviewing our claims, preemptively took the information we provided and filed a suit against us to essentially dismiss our claims. All the time the owner of Seaport was telling his customers if there's anything he could do to facilitate our claims with the insurance company to let him know.

When accidents like this happen, there are those who take the high road and willingly accept responsibility for their actions. And then theirs Seaport Inlet Marina's of the world who destroy your boat in a fire caused by their own employee and subsequently file suit against you in an effort to avoid responsibility. Got to love the irony in that!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Well that sucks Tom....Once attorney's get involved everything changes :mad:

[dakota560]

Gerry you said it! I understand with a situation of this magnitude and potential environmental concerns the marina getting an attorney involved. To me that's being prudent. BUT for Seaport Inlet Marina to willfully mislead their customers into believing claims would be considered while simultaneously filing a suit to have those claims dismissed is tragic. Wanted to share this with the site for anyone storing or having work performed on their boats, make sure you understand the small print on the contracts you sign. A few seemingly innocuous words shouldn't be overlooked especially when it deals with liability and loss language.

[hammer4reel]

will be curious to how this plays out.
as since SIM was PAID to store those said boats.
and it was one of their employees that caused the fire.
I would expect a court will rule against them AS well as make them pay your legal fees.

[Ron Eleuteri]

I too lost my boat a pursuit 2570os,my insurance Travelers settled my claim within 10 days. Travelers will now subrogate SIM insurance company. My coverage was for replacement value plus accessories. While this fire is rare, all owners at any marina should review their policy details for loss coverages. I have had boats at different marinas thru out the years from shark river to Barnegat, all marinas required insurance on the first to pay basis.

Kudos to the Belmar fire and police depts., great job, no injuries and further loss of property.
During this time ,SIM has been most helpful to me in locating another Pursuit , and it will be delivered to SIM next week along with repowering and rigging. SIM over the years have been both helpful and accommodating to my needs, this was an accident and things happen, the legal and insurance process will work itself out ,and hopefully all will be in the water soon. I hope this was helpful from an information standpoint.

[Darreng21]

I’m a new customer at SIM and fortunately my boat was not damaged in the fire. I’ve found Rob and team to be good to work with. Accidents happen glad nobody was hurt.

[Abrasion]

I went over there a year ago to look at a boat for purchase. He had no time for me and was a total jerk. I asked him for details on the motor and told me we could hire him to get that information. Dude, you are the seller. The lawsuit makes no sense. Do you have details?

[dakota560]

Ron / Darren....I'm glad things worked out for both of you. Like you I had insurance but there were items not insurable or beyond the coverage limits we had. The unearned winter storage premium between the date of the fire and the 4/30/17 term date with SIM should be reimbursed to all boat owners whose boats were destroyed without even going through the claims process. EVERY owner who had their boats completely destroyed should be reimbursed that amount without asking, yet no such offer has been made. We also had ~$1,000 of gas in our tanks not covered by our policy in additional to electronics and fishing equipment beyond our limits of coverage. I understand it's an accident and accidents happen but it's a fire started by SIM's employee and they should accept the financial responsibility of those actions.

Telling boat owners the attorney was meeting with the insurance company to review the status of claims while SIM and said attorney were simultaneously filing with the courts a Declaratory Judgement against the boat owners who lost everything to preemptively dismiss those claims is egregious. If you consider that to be good business practice and good customer relations, well then let's just agree we have different definitions of both.

Abrasion, final chapter hasn't been written so at this time I'd prefer not providing more detail.

[Capt. Debbie]

After you are paid the value of the boat by your insurer, who is paying to dispose of the boat. That's NOT FREE.

[dakota560]

Capt. Frank, that cost was covered by SIM's insurance carrier.

[Capt. Debbie]

I'm glad that you had a better ending. Boat are unlike cars. The totaled boat is NOT the insurer's property after the check is cut.

Many get burned a second time by their insurer ( Sorry. I could not resist the pun)


Capt. Frank, that cost was covered by SIM's insurance carrier.