Gloucester Daily Times
Wednesday, July 18, 1984
By Kevin Sullivan
Poor boat maintenance can lead to fishing boat sinkings – intentional as well as accidental – according to many people in the insurance and fishing industries.
A poorly-kept boat is dangerous, like any piece of machinery. But if a boat falls, it can sink and endanger the lives of everyone aboard. And, some point out, a poorly-kept boat is expensive. Putting off maintenance can lead to more serious engine and structural problem, which cost big money to repair.
Rather than spending thousands of dollars to repair chronic engine problems, some fishermen may sink a boat intentionally to collect insurance money and buy a boat in better shape, say insurance industry officials.
Thomas Linsky, owner of Gloucester Dry Dock and Marine Repair, 375 Main Street, said the routine repairs that most boats need every 12 to 15 months-which he calls a “shave and a haircut” – cost about $2500 to $3,000. For that amount, a boat is hauled out, has its hull cleaned and painted and shaft checked.
Damage to a boat, like a bent propellor or shaft, or damage to the hull, can lead to “astronomical” costs, Linsky said.
“If they’re not paying their bills,” said one insurance adjuster, who has investigated at least 10 sinkings in Gloucester in the 1980s. “If you’re locked into major financial problems and you can’t see your way out, what are your options?”
Coast Guard records show that several of the 35 Gloucester boats that have sunk in the 1980s had been disabled and needed Coast Guard assistance several times in the months prior to the sinking.
Low fish process and high prices for fuel, insurance, maintenance and gear have made many fishermen push their boats too hard, said Joseph Sotddard, of J.W. Stoddard Insurance Agency in New Bedford, who handles insurance for Massachusetts Inshore Draggermens Association.
Codfish is hovering around 30 to 50 cents a pound, exactly the same price it sold for in July 1974.
Diesel fuel now costs about $1.05 a gallon, according to an official at Rose’s Oil Service Inc. A large offshore dragger will burn about 24 gallons of fuel and hour, he said. On a 10-day trip, that’s about 5,760 gallons of fuel, costing about $6,048.
Smaller, inshore boats burn about 7 gallons of fuel an hour. In a 12-hour day, that’s a fuel cost of about $88.
Ice to keep the fish fresh cost $28.50 a ton, according to an official at Cape Pond Ice Co. Offshore boats will take 20 to 30 tons for each trip, an average cost of about $712. Inshore boats generally take about 3 tons of ice, about $85.
Sam Parisi of Parisi Marine on Commercial Street said most boats replace their net wire about every six months. That costs about $2,000, he said. And, Parisi said, larger boats routinely have to replace $400 – $500 worth of ripped netting on every trip. Major damage, like the loss of an entire net, cots up to $5,000, he said.
Parisi said survival suits, carried on most offshore boats, and some smaller boats, cost about $300 each. For a six-man crew, that’s $1,800. Food is generally paid for by the crew, but that’s another $500 – $700 cost for most offshore trips, according to Raphael Oliver of Friend Street Market, who sells food to many boats.
Wit that kind of overhead, and hefty mortgages and soaring insurance costs, maintenance is often put off.
“Economy has a lot to do with it,” Stoddard said. “When a boat owner is faced with a non-forgiving mortgagee who’s not willing to give a fisherman a break … it forces the boat to be overworked in hazardous conditions.
“There has to be a profit for boats to be maintained,” he said. “If there; not enough money to pay the mortgage, there’s certainly not going to be enough money to pay for maintenance.”
Joe Giacalone, skipper of the 57-year-old St. Peter, said his maintenance costs are double his insurance premium.
Much of a fisherman’s profit is funneled back into maintaining the boat, he said, and a boat owner ends up asking himself more and more, “Jeepers, what are you doing here?”
Joseph Orlando, a lawyer who specializes in representing fishermen, said,
“When you put off maintenance, you have problems.”
“The fishing business is like any other business; maintenance is a major cost,” he said. “Most people put off maintenance, like painting a house, until absolutely necessary,” he said.
“But when boat owners do that,” Orlando said, “they risk the well-being of the crewmen on deck, and maybe the boat itself.”
Orlando said insurance companies do not inspect boats as frequently as they should, allowing fishermen to forestall maintenance.
“I throw that responsibility as much on the insurance company that’s wailing (about boat sinkings), because they have an insurable interest,” Orlando said.
“If they did their job better, perhaps a lot of these 13 or 14 boats we’ve lost in the past year would still be fishing out of Gloucester today,” he said.
Carlo Randazza, owner and skipper of the Sacred Heart, said boats owned by one person and skippered by another, often do not get proper maintenance.”
“My boat, I run myself,” Randazza said. “I take care of the boat. I take care of the gear. It’s not like a company boat where they say, ‘I don’t care.'”
Mark Godfried, owner and skipper of the Stella G, agreed and said most small boats are family-owned. About two-thirds of the 35 Gloucester boats that have sunk in the 1980s have been large, offshore boats.
A skipper working for a boatowner, “may not poke around as much as the owner-operator of a small boat would.”
“Absentee ownership is very hard to control,” Stoddard said. Owners that do not operate the vessel don’t have the facilities to monitor maintenance and operation of the vessel the way they should.”
Howard Clark, regional marine manager for American International Marine Agency, a national underwriter that recently stopped insuring fishing boats, said many boat-owners do not train their crews well enough to handle emergencies.
“Probably the biggest percentage (of the sinkings) would be caused by stupidity,” Clarke said, “something that could have been prevented with a little more training.”
