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BoatUS VS Seatow

Steve

Member III
It's that time a year again, which one to pick? Pricing is close, -within a few dollars for the the same coverage, any ideas about either? Every so often we go a year without... (self reliance) -The law-of-large-numbers reminds us all of the eventualities, so it's time to hedge this bet! (besides the boat not getting any younger!)

Steve
e35-3
 

CaptDan

Member III
It's that time a year again, which one to pick? Pricing is close, -within a few dollars for the the same coverage, any ideas about either? Every so often we go a year without... (self reliance) -The law-of-large-numbers reminds us all of the eventualities, so it's time to hedge this bet! (besides the boat not getting any younger!)

Steve
e35-3

I think the choice is a function of service area; in other words, should you break down, how quickly and efficiently can either company muster a boat to your location.

Can't speak for the East Coast, but since Boat US bought Vessel Assist, they tend to dominate the market over SeaTow. There just seems to be more subcontractors available for those crunch season times as well.

Look in the phone book or in marine services directories. Does it look like SeaTow has more boats in more places? Vice versa? What do your dock mates say?

Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"
 
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rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
I like SeaTow, I know one of their captains and their polices are better, at least here they are. SeaTow doesn't charge for hauling you off a soft grounding. I know for a fact that SafeSea does. I got to witness a SafeSea member that had grounded in my harbor channel at low tide FREAKING out when SafeSea wouldn't drag him without a charge. SeaTow would have covered it. I got to watch it all from SeaTow's deck which overlooks the channel and this debacle. Thats the other reason I have SeaTow, they are in my harbor. Bottom line, read the fine print. RT
 

sharkbait

Junior Member
To echo Rob I've got a BoatUS/Vessel assist boat on my dock and have more than a passing aquaintance with them.Its like knowing the tow truck driver(my brother in-law) If they know you they're not going to ding you for the little stuff,but they will make fun of you.
I guess the moral is to shop local and learn to use a kedge
 
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lbertran

Member III
Tow Boat US

On Chesapeake Bay it seems there are more Boat US boats than Sea Tow, not sure if that's true. I've always used Boat US tow insurance and have been very happy.
 

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
I like Sharkbaits post. Learn to use a kedge. Only had to get towed once and that was in Stock Island channel after a nasty KWRW. Owner was trying to save weight by keeping the bare minimum diesle in the tank. 8 foot beam seas and 35kts and the engine sucked air. Before we could get a sail up we had blown out of the channel and were pounding on a sand bar. Testimony to my buddy's home built boat to handle 3' drops onto a sandbar and not part the keel fairing though...Guess now my smart ass comment will have me needing a tow this year...
 

Steve

Member III
Thanks All

Good food for thought, your right, local knowledge is key. My problem is we just haven't needed this type of service to-date and know few who have.

Steve
 

treilley

Sustaining Partner
How about both? My yacht insurance policy with Amica covers unlimited towing back to nearest port. I can choose any towing company and Amica reimburses the fee.
 

CaptDan

Member III
How about both? My yacht insurance policy with Amica covers unlimited towing back to nearest port. I can choose any towing company and Amica reimburses the fee.

A small caveat: many (maybe all) insurance companies who offer towing coverage also penalize insurees for seeking towing reimbursement. It's usually considered a claim that can result in higher premiums, and an incident report that stays on your insurance record for four years.

It might be worth checking with your carrier to see what their policy is.

Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"
 

Steve

Member III
Good Point!

Our policy from Acadia (Maine), $702, will cover up to $500 per tow/assist incident with a $1,000 max... I would think it would be treated the same as any claim. Otherwise don't use it unless you really need it or it's bundled along with a bigger hail-mary claim...

Steve e35-3 #159
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Personal Experience

Before Sea Tow tried (without success) to sue for salvage over a boat they took over the tow from when the fire dept was putting out a boat house fire, most of us figured one tower was about as good as the other. The last time I renewed my BoatUS membership and of course the insurance, I paid the extra $35. for local unlimited towing. Good decision, as fate would have it. Sea Tow would be my second choice, nowadays.
I wrote up our own grounding "adventure" for a local 'net sailing group, and here it. Have a chuckle on us!
:rolleyes:
______________
Dateline: Sept 8, 2008.
"Fantastic sail we had on Saturday on the annual SYSCO cruise down river to St Helens. About 22 miles in a wind that started at about 10 kts and built to over 20 near the end.
Bright sun, 80ish degrees temp by late afternoon.
Boat was going to weather well, and pointing with the best of 'em. I was getting a bit tired of winching after 3 hours... but Kathy was doing a great job driving, and getting increasingly better at modulating the tacks to slow the fall-off onto the new tack so I could hand tail the 135 in and only have to winch the last 4 feet of sheet. Actually, before some chop started slowing us down, we were hitting 6.7 to weather!

Just above the Warrior Rock light we made one little miscalculation, though. Carried a starb. tack 20 feet too far and when we straightened up for the new tack change we stopped... immediately.... in five feet of water. Unfortunately we draw 6 feet.

Sand/clay bottom. Went from 13 feet depth to 5 in about a boat length... Yikes! :p

Several friends with other sailboats motored over to take lines from the bow, but no go.

Only 3:30 p.m., and tide still dropping for another hour, too. Hmmm....

Trivia: Being about 100 yds out of the ship channel, it IS true that a loaded freighter does suck back the water from the shore as the bow is across from you. The resulting heeling is rather bad for your heart rate! It did not put the turn of the bilge on the sand, but for a few seconds there we nearly had water on the side deck! :)

The inrush of water shortly after raises the level right back up but not to any additional height..... so no help to drive off. Darn.

Called BoatUS and they dispatched a tow. From Portland, and over an hour plus because he was ungrounding some other unfortunate boater.

Super nice guy and very very competent. I dropped the loop in his hawser over both bow cleats and he took up the pull gently. After about 2 minutes of increasingly throttling up his 200 hp, the bow came down, I had to stop running our diesel due to our prop coming out of water and/or cavitating, and we slid forward about 5 feet and were floating again.
The tow boat is purpose built, with two large OB engines and large reel for the line. Darned good thing I opted to pay the extra $35. towing this year to BoatUS. I saved well over $600. in this one incident...

With 20-20 hind sight, I maybe should have asked my initial "good samaritans" to take the spin halyard out to to deep side and heel us down while another boat took the tow ahead. That idea, traditional and good as it is, might not have worked out either, because there was a monster deadhead about 20 feet off the beam in about 5 feet of water on the side that the halyard-picker-upper would have to maneuver in...
:(
(In the afternoon chop we never saw that log ahead in the shallows, either, going in toward the island.)

Also, we could tell by some reluctance in our steering that the rudder was partly on the sand, once the bow was faced out. Not a good idea to linger longer, waiting for high tide six hours later after dark and bouncing through hundreds of ship and small boat wakes. I will have the rudder checked soon, as well as see how shiny the keel is at the bottom!

So, a super-great sail, and even a new "adventure." (Well, after all, no obvious damage and no personal injuries.)
Yes we have been aground several times before in the last 3 decades, but always at low speeds and always able to eventually drive off.
Since we were last in to the town dock, the gang was ready and waiting with a raft-up spot for us and many tales of their own groundings, several in almost exactly the same place! No one gave us a hard time about it either.

No great moral to this story, just that no matter how fast you sail and how much fun you are having... You should tack away from the shallows a little bit sooner that you think that you really have to. (Kind of like reefing before you really have to do so.)"
________________
I hauled the boat for a quick noon-lift in the travelift slings and found no damage. Bottom foot of the keel was shiny, though.

Insurance is good. Luck is good. Both in the same year: priceless. :)

Loren
 

CaptDan

Member III
Another Gotcha

Insurance is good. Luck is good. Both in the same year: priceless. :)

Loren

Great story, Loren. Sorry you went aground, but happy it all turned out well.
Thanks for a tale well told.

As long as we're sharing 'gotchas,' here's an incident you might find amusing:

Recently, on my next-to-last-day of the Ride-The-Duck season - with 20 passengers aboard - I ran the DUKw SMACK into a Muckleshoot gillnet.:esad:

As you know, the Native fishermen have rights to lay nets virtually anywhere up here during fishing season, and they don't hafta mark 'em very well either. Somebody runs into one, they gotta pay - not only for damage, but also for 'lost catch' if the net is holding fish.

There's no excuse for my blunder - though I was distracted at the time, attempting VHF coms with a rather large tugboat pushing a sandbarge on my portside. As is my custom, I hail large commercial craft in my vicinity to arrange passings, etc. By the time I'd concluded that communication, I noticed the ONE red float on my bow. The DUKw's front tire snagged the submerged net and - well - let's just say I shredded it in several horribly mangled pieces.

Disabled, without prop or rudder because of the entanglement, I arranged a tow with DUKw Central, when a marine sanitation skiff happened by. Bearing against our beam, the skiff operator provided ample force so I could maneuver the DUKw through the fairway and onto the launch ramp. Once on dry land, the extent of the damage was painfully apparent - providing passengers and onlookers plenty of grist for YouTube. :mad:

The DUK CEO shows up, takes one look at the DUK's underbelly - the remains of an expensive net, plastic floats strewn around the running gear, transmission fluid dripping like blood from a wounded moose on the pavement - and sneers:

"You REALIZE what a f*#!ing MESS this is, don'tcha?!"

Indeed I did. However, the story has a happy ending: two other vessels had struck the net the same day, the Harbor Police couldn't accurately assign liability, and fortunately the fishermen had emptied the net just an HOUR before I hit it. So - it wasn't the expensive mistake it could've been.

Epilogue: At the end of season party, I was given a 'joke prize' - Captain Most Likely To Abuse Native American Fishing Rights.' The trophy? A deck of cards for use in official Indian gaming casinos. :rolleyes:

Moral of story: you can NEVER be too careful out there.

Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"
 
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