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Miami drawbridge crashes down on MY Rockstar

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by Pascal, Dec 2, 2014.

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  1. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Wow. I never thought about that possibility. Now something new for me to worry about.
  2. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Ouch. That is one of the issues that could happen as they've changed a lot of the bridges from a mechanical mechanism with gears and an electric motor over to hydraulic. I would imagine if one of the hydraulic lines blew, that the bridge would just start coming down quickly.

    You don't give it much thought when the bridge tenders say on the VHF, "stay outside of the fender system until the bridge is fully raised"
  3. captholli

    captholli Senior Member

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    Ahhh, going to sit back & see how Mark Elliot of International Yacht Collection spins this in his "Bespoke marketing tool bag." Yes sir, truly Palm Beach Bristol and turn key! I'm sorry, what did you say? bridge incident ? I do not recall ....
  4. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    One thing I've always done is heeded that warning and others made by bridge and lock tenders.

    Lucky no one got seriously injured or killed. Boat can be repaired.
  5. captholli

    captholli Senior Member

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    The Trinity Rockstar Ex - Blind Date will carry the stigma of this damage No matter how well it's repaired. What type of compression and shock damage was done on the Port side of the top deck down through the fashion boards or bulkheads? It doesn't take a lot of force to break aluminum strap welds but It took a lot of force to shred the arch like that.
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2014
  6. RER

    RER Senior Member

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    LOL... no kidding.
  7. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Yeah considering over here in South Florida we have a different drawbridge we have to go through about every 3 miles.
  8. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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  9. RER

    RER Senior Member

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    Right. I meant no kidding ...as in I agree. We've been tied up in WPB at Palm Harbor most of this year. Don't let the Newport Beach thing fool you. I just returned from Florida last Saturday.
  10. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I feel very badly for the owner as there are so many complex issues. Who is liable? You run over a problem with a road and damage your car, it falls on you as an assumed risk of driving on the road and is generally covered with comprehensive insurance. You may sue a municipality over something like a pothole but collecting is rare and even cities that pay, like Chicago, pay less than half the loss when they do pay.

    Now assuming an insurance claim, another difficult issue. Insurance will pay for returning a car or boat to it's previous condition. Most policies do not cover loss of value it it can be fully repaired. We've already discussed the loss of value here. Asking price was $20,900,000. And what about loss of charter income? Did they have business interruption insurance? Even if not for the issue of perception it would lose value just in the time out of service. And who even knows the value of a boat of this nature. It isn't the asking price as it would have sold.

    This is before considering whoever was towing the boat. Do they have any liability?

    Oh and if courts involved, which courts prevail? US or Cayman?

    This is going to be a very lingering disaster for the boat owner.
  11. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    It's the bridges fault if the bridge was fully open and fell. Therefore Department of Transportation. If the yacht hit the bridge that wasn't open yet and not a bridge failure, then it falls under the tow boat's insurance. The yacht is not liable as it was being towed and in the full care of the Towboat company.
  12. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Towboat situation depends on the specific contract and the regulations governing his business. Who hired the towboat will figure into all this at some point.

    As to the Dept of Transportation, that becomes a very difficult case to win. It gets into a lot over presumption of possibilities and negligence vs. gross negligence and much more. Much will depend on what caused the collapse and whether warnings had existed.

    Under General Liability I found this:
    In accordance with Chapter 768.28, Florida Statues, the limits of liability (under the waiver of sovereign immunity law) are $200,000 per person’s claim and $300,000 per occurrence for all claims occurring after 10/1/2011.

    I don't know for certain that applies here. But Florida at one time worked under a law of sovereignty. Then who actually operates the bridge and who do the employees work for?

    Very tangled and slow to resolve.
  13. jhall767

    jhall767 Senior Member

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    The one article says the bridge caused 10's of thousands of dollars of damage to the yacht. More like 10 times that.
  14. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

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    On the Welland Canal there a several bridge of all type.
    When you approach a bridge you MUST wait for a green light, when the green light is displayed the bridge locks are driven and then there is no way the bridge can come down.
    Below are few few bridge accidents:
    1974 down bound Welland Canal laker hits bridge :http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/scanner/07/01/default.asp?ID=c004

    August 11/01 down bound Welland Canal ship hits bridge,ship had green light but few minutes latter the operator started bridge down.


    October 2013 Detroit drunk operator lowered bridge.
    http://www.professionalmariner.com/...e-after-drunk-bridge-tender-lowered-the-span/
  15. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Army corp of engineers owns the bridges I believe. I believe the operator is an employee of the Department of Transportation.
  16. Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    I think the bridges are owned by the state. Locks, some are at least, are Army Corps.
  17. Riverdance

    Riverdance Member

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    • Boat Name: ROCKSTAR
    • Year: 2009
    • Previous Price: US$ 19,900,000 (04/13)
    • Current Price: US$ 20,900,000 (09/14)
    • Located in Ft Lauderdale, FL
    • Hull Material: Aluminum
    ROCKSTAR is the latest delivery of the enormously popular 161 series of Trinity Yachts in which 17 yachts have been delivered or are currently under construction. ROCKSTAR has a contemporary interior by the award winning Patrick Knowles Designs, as can be seen in the accompanying photos. It should be mentioned that the yacht can be further customized with the addition of new owner's art and soft goods furnishings. Perhaps the most unique design aspect of this series of yacht is the split-level on deck master stateroom featuring 280 degrees visibility. Upon seeing the master stateroom for the first time most people are overwhelmed by the spaciousness of the room. ROCKSTAR has her tender and personal watercraft storage on the main deck which allows for a completely unobstructed Sun Deck with built in Jacuzzi, loungers and W/C. ROCKSTAR has it all in a 161' yacht - 5 staterooms, room for up to 10 crew, reliable Caterpillar power, 17 knot cruising speed, Quantum Koop Nautic stabilizers, ABS classification and MCA compliant.
  18. German Yachting

    German Yachting Senior Member

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  19. CaptTom

    CaptTom Senior Member

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    Most bridges in Fl are operated by third party vendors under the state or municipality. Towboat may have liability as some sharp lawyer may say they should have seen the span coming down (check video). That's also like telling Tracy Morgan that he has liability in the truck wreck that killed his friend since Wal-Mart is saying that he didn't have a seatbelt on.
    Looking at the video I think it's a testament to Trinity Yachts' build process that the whole hardtop/arch wasn't sheared off, but that the yacht stopped in her tracks.