Bond, $60,000 Bond – Moonraker Now Being Towed Into Court For Rescue Salvage Award
In August of 2011, Topical Storm Irene blew through the Hudson Valley causing a lot of mayhem and destruction. On August 29th, 2011, “Moonraker”, a 120 foot super yacht, became disabled during the storm and asked for assistance from “Margot”, an 84 foot tugboat out of Troy, NY.
(“Moonraker” gets it’s name from the 1979 James Bond movie by the same name)
CLICK HERE to view more pictures of “Moonraker” and (if you have a big enough wallet) charter for a mere $50,000/week
Tug boat owner Rob Goldman is now taking the “Moonraker”’s owner, a company registered to Canadian businessman Michael Silver, to court for $60,000 under the maritime Laws of Salvage.
According the Laws of Salvage (Wikipedia article); “A vessel is considered in peril if it is in danger or could become in danger. Examples of a vessel in peril are when it is aground or in danger of going aground. Prior to a salvage attempt the salvor receives permission from the owner or the master to assist the vessel. If the vessel is abandoned no permission is needed. The amount of the award depends on, in part, the value of the salved vessel, the degree of risk involved and the degree of peril the vessel was in. Legal disputes do arise from the claiming of salvage rights. To reduce the amount of a claim after an accident, boat owners or skippers often remain on board and in command of the vessel; they do everything possible to minimize further loss and seek to minimize the degree of risk the vessel is in. If another vessel offers a tow and the master or owner negotiates an hourly rate before accepting then salvage does not apply.”
According to the lawsuit the Moonraker, would have been in “serious peril” without the help from the Marot. “The unique and dangerous phenomena of whirlpools with vortexes lower than the surrounding water’s surface were observed in the river’s channel”.
Considering this Super Yacht charges $50,000/week to be chartered do you think the $60,000 award is unreasonable? Tell us what you think!
Times Union Article: http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Tugboat-operator-sues-yacht-owner-for-rescue-3741935.php#ixzz22ColaTuT
More Info on Marine Salvage & Recreational Boaters: http://www.rms-republic.com/cgi-bin/jump/jump.cgi?www.safesea.com/salvage/law/anderson/anderson_main.html
Marine Salvage Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_salvage
Make it $50K since that’s what they charge a week.
The Captain of Moonraker had knowledge of salvage law and procedure, and the vessel was not in peril. They had injested debris into the water jet drive and did not want to create damage by trying to pass the debris through the propulsion system…a smart idea by this captain. They negotiated a $ 5,000.00 fee for Margot to tow Moonraker to a secure position. Once this happened, Moonraker’s crew then dove under the vesel and cleared the debris within 10 minutes so this was an easy $ 5,000 to the owner of the tugboat. After discovering how much Moonraker might charge for a charter fee, the owner of Margot decided to stick it to them – and said it would now cost $ 60,000 for the two – citing grave peril for the vessel. This event was an “assist”, not a rescue, as the tuig owner now claims.
At a time when the Hudosn Valley can use every dollar of revenue from visiting yachts, the owner of Margot has decided to make all boat owners think twice about deciding to cruise up the Hudson River, effectively taking retail revenue out of every maritime related businesses’ hands. This is a disgraceful move by the owners of Margot; the yachting industry is small and close knit – the result of this will be known to all and the this will impact future visitation plans by other yachts. I think the most appropriate word here to use would be….Greed. Shame on Rob Goldman. Whether he is successful in this bid or not, the tone is now set for the opportunist nature of his kind in the Hudsonn Valley.
I think this is quite a difficult one. With the boat’s jet-propulsion units broke it doesn’t sound like the vessel was ‘in peril’. Thank you for shining some more light on this LJ, if like you said the $5,000.00 fee was agreed I think this should be honoured, but I have also read reports that say they didn’t agree to a set price for the rescue – I think this is key. Whatever was agreed should be upheld, but if nothing was agreed, then the $60k should be paid and lessons should be learned.
Greed harms all.