Your totaled boat in the Bahamas

Wondering how all these 1000plus boats that are deemed totaled in the Abaco's end up, how does this work? I'm guessing the owner gets a check and that is the end of it but what happens to the valueable items that can be salvaged out of these boats. Who disposes the boats and how do they go about that in these out islands?

If it works like most insurance, title goes to insurance company, you remove valuables not damaged, otherwise they pay you for those as well and they salvage boat and get what they can for it.

I doubt there will be much left of them. My friend went to the Abacos immediately after the storm to bring emergency supplies. There was a tenuous agreement between the different groups of residents to work cooperatively and not Lord of the Flies style. There were even private security people on hand (black water?), full on special forces style. They unloaded and scrammed. I cannot imagine that anyone, boat owners included, expect people to not make use of anything they find after the storm. Not even sure if maritime law does not allow it. Boats aground or sunken and unattended, etc.

Yep, they will be stripped of anything valuable by the locals. Centuries old maritime tradition for locals to take full advantage of shipwrecks. Carcasses will be left where they sit. In more affluent areas someone might hire a crane barge to get rid of the eyesores.

I doubt the insurance companies will bother with many recoveries, and I doubt the local govt will try to force the issue, if they even can.

We shall see...

I don't know about current policy. I do know that the Katrina cleanup down here entailed insurors going to extraordinary lengths to insure that there was no (zero) path for salvage of usable items/equipment from insured and totalled boats by the owners or any other party. I'm sure there's a good, lawyerly reason for it.

Tons of good hardware into the ground.

I know when my ski boat was sunk in Katrina (in my driveway), the adjuster asked me if I wanted to keep the boat. I told him no thanks, but he gave me the impression that they would have let me have it for a pittance.

I suspect it will be similar to the aftermath of Irma in the BVI. Insurance will pay off those with good policies. No one will clean up the mess. The local authorities will post notices on the wrecks but nothing will happen.

These pics were taken in Jan 2018.

The first is Road Town, the other two are Trellis Bay.

Real estate was treated the same way. Outsiders were paid off and then walked away.

Group9 said:

I know when my ski boat was sunk in Katrina (in my driveway), the adjuster asked me if I wanted to keep the boat. I told him no thanks, but he gave me the impression that they would have let me have it for a pittance.

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Very, very common. The bank is not in the boat business. They have no interest in owning or selling boats. They understand that a totaled boat will not sell and will require a sizable expense to get to a sell-able state.

Either they cut you a check and spend money disposing it, or sell it back to you for pennies. You're not really buying a boat in that case. What you're doing is paying them to make their problem your problem.

When my boat sank in hurricane Irma a couple of years ago the insurance company asked me to have it raised and the engine pickled. I did and they declared it a total loss. They paid me the agreed value and asked if I’d like to buy it back. I said no, I didn’t need a project, and they towed it away.

A couple of months later I got a call from a guy who had bought it. I was able to answer some questions and give him some equipment that hadn’t been on the boat when it sank.

They are considered shipwrecks by the locals, and then fair game for salvage for whatever they can get from those wrecks. Which is probably a good thing, gets rid of some of the junk and the native people get a little something to help them stay alive. Your not in the USA, when your in the Bahamas, which is a mix of mostly 3rd world people and some fewer first world rich folk who entertain themselves with their luxurious lifestyle.

My guess would be after stripping the hulls will be filled with rubble and used to create an artificial reef , or perhaps create a harbor.

sdowney717 said:

They are considered shipwrecks by the locals, and then fair game for salvage for whatever they can get from those wrecks. Which is probably a good thing, gets rid of some of the junk and the native people get a little something to help them stay alive. Your not in the USA, when your in the Bahamas, which is a mix of mostly 3rd world people and some fewer first world rich folk who entertain themselves with their luxurious lifestyle.

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That's not the way legal salvage works....anywhere in the world (maritime law)/



Salvage is the rescuing of goods so further loss can be mitigated.


Once the further damage threat is gone...not real"salvage".




Whether or not the locals worry about legal is certainly noted....


Unfortunately the striping of fiberglass hulls and leaving the broken mess doesn't help paradise look much better in the short term.



Not till the boat is legally "abandoned"can the bone pickers start.


Heck there are dozens of sailboats along the ICW.... years after the US East coast canes.

psneeld said:

That's not the way legal salvage works....anywhere in the world (maritime law)/



Salvage is the rescuing of goods so further loss can be mitigated.


Once the further damage threat is gone...not real"salvage".




Whether or not the locals worry about legal is certainly noted....


Unfortunately the striping of fiberglass hulls and leaving the broken mess doesn't help paradise look much better in the short term.



Not till the boat is legally "abandoned"can the bone pickers start.


Heck there are dozens of sailboats along the ICW.... years after the US East coast canes.

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I think he's talking about what actually happens, not the Queen's law that's on the books.

And, from a lot of time in the Bahamas, I'd say that's about right most of the time.

psneeld said:

That's not the way legal salvage works....anywhere in the world (maritime law)/



Salvage is the rescuing of goods so further loss can be mitigated.


Once the further damage threat is gone...not real"salvage".




Whether or not the locals worry about legal is certainly noted....


Unfortunately the striping of fiberglass hulls and leaving the broken mess doesn't help paradise look much better in the short term.



Not till the boat is legally "abandoned"can the bone pickers start.


Heck there are dozens of sailboats along the ICW.... years after the US East coast canes.

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Sure it may not be legal, but I doubt the government will shoot people or prosecute for looting or theft seeing the current situation. This is not the USA, it is like a war zone in a third wold county with massively bombed and destroyed structures. There is not much organized stripping yet, whatever is of most value would be goods to keep you alive from ruined shops, not ruined boats.. if they were merchant boats full of food stuffs and goods wrecked on coastlines, but they are not, so for now private small boats are of little value to anyone. People are going to look through all they can to find stuff to keep on living.
There is so much crap and junk all over, best thing might be to bulldoze and burn most of it. Salvaging of small boats by insurance companies is going to be far down the list. I can imagine people stripping what might hold some future value from wrecked boats, stuff they can unload after a recovery begins, if they have the luxury of time versus dealing with primary needs, like recovering their dead and food and shelter.

As I posted knowing I would get lectured.....


"Whether or not the locals worry about legal is certainly noted...."


Just pointing out to those who may not fully understand "salvage" versus lawlessness.

The sell some to people they know, auction off some, and scrap the rest. I don't mean take things off and recycle. I mean they cut up and/or crush them. Then bury them in a landfill somewhere.



This guy did just that down in the BVIs.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYrqanbSklKodK2Onpt6KgA/about

There will probably be a very small local market for used, removed boat parts , they will have to be exported to find buyers.


Crushing boats and putting them in a landfill may require dirt to be imported to bury them.

FF said:

There will probably be a very small local market for used, removed boat parts , they will have to be exported to find buyers.


Crushing boats and putting them in a landfill may require dirt to be imported to bury them.

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Or export the remnants.

Maybe drag them out and make a reef out of them, but I suspect that will be years away.

I'm concerned for them with current hurricane spinning off them now, sure hope if continues north, they don't need another one...

It may well be that wrecked and now derelict boats that chose to be in paradise will prove the undoing of parts of paradise.

A lot of people don't realize that Bahamas is the 3rd wealthiest country in North America. Unfortunately that's a "paper" statistic - mostly related to banking. It doesn't filter down to the locals. It's possible that the government will clean up Abaco & GB at some point but I think that's unlikely, or - at best - it will be very slow. On these northern islands there were a lot of Haitians and other transplants. They don't tend to be concerned with the scenery or the environment even during good times. The cruise companies don't have much incentive to clean it up either since their customers don't see those places. So, it will be a mess for many years unless outside organizations get involved. Probably affects the private boaters from the US mainland more than anything. (other than the inhabitants of course) They'll just have to change course and pick a different arrival point.

It took two years to clean up all of the wrecked boats after Katrina. And, that was with a lot of available infrastructure and resources to make it relatively easy to do.

We're lumping a lot of different boats together. There is the group of totally destroyed boats in Marsh Harbour and nearby areas and many of those can't even be found or identified. The insurer may eventually have someone there to look but mostly will have to work off of affidavits and statements and evidence the boat was there.

However, you have far more boats in nearby places like GTC and in Grand Bahamas. In situations where the boat is totaled, the insurer generally is also responsible for salvage, although a few policies don't have it as an additional payment. Typically insurer buys the boat and sells the salvaged boat if possible or pays to have it disposed of. Often they just work things out with the marina or yard where the boat is and turn the title over to them. There are professional hunters of salvageable boats who will definitely be visiting the areas and looking to buy or be paid to haul away. However, they've be interested only in perhaps 1 of every 500 boats.

Sure would like to get my hands on a generator out of one of those totaled boats, i need a northern lights 5kw generator soon. Wonder if there is a salvage company getting ready to harvest?

We were in Nassau in May. There were plenty of wrecked/sunk boats around, presumably from previous storms. Did not seem to any attempt to move them - just left to rot - except FG does not rot!!

silentfaith said:

Sure would like to get my hands on a generator out of one of those totaled boats, i need a northern lights 5kw generator soon. Wonder if there is a salvage company getting ready to harvest?

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Ninety per cent of the islands get their power from diesel generators. That's one items that no one is going to leave lying around for long.

Wouldn't they require water cooling?

"Wouldn't they require water cooling?"

On land a radiator like from a truck with engine driven fan does the cooling.

BDofMSP said:

Wouldn't they require water cooling?

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You would not believe the ingenuity of Bahamians!

I've seen every kind of jake leg rig you can imagine in the out islands.