It has been a tough year for Mariposa. At the end of the 2024 sailing season, Mariposa was looking to be in great shape. We slowly upgraded her over the years and she was finally the perfect boat when we hauled her out for hurricane season. Carriacou while out of the offical hurricane belt, it was still enough north that there was still a risk. Keeping her on the hard allowed us the best chance to survive a storm in the event it made it that far south. Fast forward to June 30, Hurricane Beryl made a direct hit as a Cat 5. Nothing can live through that kind of storm. In fact 99 percent of the structures on that island were destroyed. We were desperate to know the state of the island after hurricane. Scanning Facebook photos we saw a few that did not give us alot of hope. Searching for anyone to contact I found an incredible person that would send a video of Mariposa and her damage. At first it appeared Mariposa would only loose her mast which was replaceable. We were hopeful and I made plans to get on the island as soon as possible to asses the damage first hand.
Getting on the island is a challenge, you have to fly to Grenada and then hope a ferry over to Carriacou. The Minister on the island haulted travel to that island in an attempt to prevent looting. Once traveled was allowed again I was on the first ferry ride across. Northern Grenada looked pretty good but the more north I went you could see the damage to the trees, and most everything on the north side of the island was blown away. Carriacou is another 20 miles north and I wondered what it would be like when I got there. To say I was shocked is an understatment. The entire island was stripped of its tropical vegitation and what houses survived would be without a roof. Every boat in the mangroves was either sunk, flipped over or stacked on top of one another in the leeward corner of the lagoon. Devistation was everywhere and it was beyound anything I was prepared for. The boat yard destruction was even worse. 50 foot catamarans were flipped upside down, or pushed several feet from their orginal resting point and every single monohull was laying on its side from falling off its boat stands. It was chaos.
Since there was no infustructure on the island I quickly setup Mariposa for my expended stay. She was somewhat dry inside so I could camp in her for my time on the island to asses the damage.
Day two on the island I starting to asses the extent of damage mariposa sustained. Not only did she loose her mast, but when the mast fell a 5 foot structural crack was created from the force of the mast falling on the super structure. This crack allowed seawater and rainwater to soak the structure of the boat. Once inside the boat I noticed that the keels substained major damage from the rocking back and forth during the height of the storm. While that is fixable, the incredible challange to fixing it on an island that has lost everything is a monster challenge. The dingy itself was ripped from the davits and layed under Mariposa in about a foot of sea water upside down completely destroying the engine. It did not look good.
Luckily we were insured and that gave us a bit of comfort that we would at least be financially protected or so we thought. Let me outline the experience we had with a carrier that had a history of being a great company that was fair and would pay a claim quickly. While I was on the island, I planned to secure Mariposa the best I could and meet with the surveryor to asses the damage together. I will not get into to many details other then the surveyor was the least professional person I have ever met. He is staying in the bay on a 50 foot catamaran he chartered down and could only complain it did not have AC. Keep in mind no one on the island had a place to stay that had a roof, AC, or even drinking water was available. He was a peice of work. His survey process was to only take photos of what I pointed out as damage and then suggested the damage was minimal and fixable. The only really purpose of that trip was to actually check the manufacture dates of the fire extinshers to ensure that they were within a year old. That at first seems odd to me for a boat damaged by a hurricane. When I read through the insurance contract it states that they need to be replaced yearly or the contract could was not fullfilled and they would denign my claim. Lucky we just bought ours but seeing how they were only interesting in finding ways I was deficient in holding up my end of the contract made me uneasy for the rest of the process.
Fast forward a month after the hurricane we were still waiting for the damage report from the surveyor to get some kind of indication of if we would be covered for this claim. I have had plenty of surveys and tyically it takes a few days for the report to be finalized and sent. In this case an entire month. To make matters worse I would not get a copy of this report. It is strickly the property of the insurance carrier and they can withhold the damage details. Once the report was finalized we get word back that Mariposa was deamed repairable and to start getting quotes for getting her repaired. Imagine getting a quote for repair work where the island itself had no infustructure for basic human life let alone the skilled labor and materials to do the work. As I tried to start getting quotes I quickly came to the realization Mariposa would need to be moved to Grenada for repairs. Problem number two, how do you get a questionable seaworthy boat 60 miles south in open ocean for repair work? At this point I decided to write up my own survey report and send to the insurance adjuster in an attempt to show them the damage and salvage costs would quickly add up to a level that exceeded the value of Mariposa.
Now let’s move on to the salvage companies which are the human equilavent to vultures. In this case the company is known as Husky Salvage, who comes from the British Virgin Islands. They actually wore shirts that said “Your Mayday is our Pay Day!” They arrived a few weeks after the hurricane to capitilize on the work that needed to be done to save the boat yard. They rented a local crane for about 1 thousand dollars a day and then proceeded to charge the boat owners salvage rates that were ten times the going rate for the work. For example, if you can get a mast removed in normal times for around $600 USD, Husky would charge $6000 USD. This is about an hours worth of work. You can move the boat with the travel lift for about $250 USD, except that the travel lift in Tyrell Bay was damaged in the hurricane. After the hurricane that price jumped to $25000 USD on the same travel lift. To make matters worse the Boat Yard (Tyrell Bay Marina) would get a cut in the profits if they would only allow Husky to do the yard work. The majority of the boats were damaged beyound repair and the majority of those owners did not or could not afford insurance therefore many lost their boats. As they tried to minimize their finacial loss Husky would make that as painful as possible. I know of several boats that Husky purchased from the owners for a rediculously low price and then turned around the next day to sell the very same boat for 10 times the purchasing price. It was an impossibly unfair time in the boat yard. I was not sure how I could navigate that nor how they sleep at night.
Back to Mariposa and my report. After a week of letting the adjuster examine my report they started to talk about Mariposa being considered a total loss. This was good news and bad news. The good news is well maybe we do not have to navigate the impossible process of getting her repaired on an island that had to skilled labor. The bad news is well we just lost our home we have worked so hard on. In some instances once the insurance adjuster declares a boat a total loss you either get to keep them to dispose of or buy them back for a few thousand dollars. The Insurance carriers do not want the added cost of dealing with a damaged boat. I was hopefull we would have that option so I jumped on a plane to head down and salvage more of Mariposa the potential to keep her. As I landed in Grenada, I was informed by the adjuster that we could buy Mariposa back for $70,000 USD. The going rate for these boats should be right about $2000-$3000 USD thousand dollars. My trip quickly turned into a trip to say good bye to my freinds on the island and gather what personal items I could. Imagine going through everything you own on this planet and deciding what fits into a few bags of luggage. It is not a pleasant process.
Fast forward 5 months from the date the hurricane hit we finally get an insurance payout minues a 20 percent deductible since it was a wind storm event. If we sunk or caught fire we would have had zero deductible, go figure. Sure glad our fire extingishers prevented a fire. The carrier I choose to insure with was known for using fair adjusters and would pay a claim in a matter of days. In our case, our carrier(Concept Special Risk) used Sedgwick Marine services as an adjuster. They were about as shadey as a company can be and in the end held the payment until they very last day the contract would allow them too. I can not every recommend Concept Special Risk to anyone looking for marine insurance. Stay clear and save yourself some headache.
Things we have learned in this process include, read every word on your insurance contract. I know people that were denied a claim because their fire extingsihers were 2 years old. Keep in mind the Coast Guard recommend fire extingishers be replaced every 10 years. You will need to come up with a hurricane plan and stick to it. Be where you say you will be, and do what you say you will do. One poor soul was not strapped down prior to the hurricane due to a boat yard mistake. His claim was denied and he lost his boat. No one in the insurance business is your freind. This is a money tranaction based on a contract and make sure you hold up your end of the contract. One insignificant mistake and you can and will be denied. Your Insurance agent should be your advocate to the insurnace carrier. This is perhaps the most important thing we learned. Our Agent was perhaps the very worst. While they gave a few helpful hints on the process, they were absent through most of the process and got in the way in many aspects. Know you are on your own.
We learned alot of painful lessons in this process, however I also learned that there are alot of incredible human spirits as well. I made many life long freinds with sailors and locals that lost everything. From my taxi driver that I now talk to every few weeks just to check on each other to the family who lost their house, their car, their boat and their business. They are all proof that the human spirit is alive and well.
Cement Donkeys 