CGB said:
For those that can explain....
Just how much banging/bashing and squashing... can a boat take before you can no longer "trust" the hull - even if obvious damage does not show?
I'm told - this "is" an issue of raising the wonderful wrecks that have been always sitting out of view, just under the surface in many places off Tortola
The saltwater damages the invisible plywood/wood interior structure - and you can no longer trust the integrity
A industry standard hull is very durable. The abuse the intact hull can take is substantial. The issue for most "damaged" boats is simple economics. Boats depreciate very fast just sitting at the dock in the sun. Even a boat with little damage can cost more to fix than the boat was worth before the event. Just replacing a Diesel engine may have greater costs than the boats actual cash insured value. Then add a generator? Then multiple ac's. A mast, rigging, and new sails. Rewire everything? Any of those projects can easily approach or eclipse the real market value of the 3-5 year old boat. Then add the issues of doing anything in the islands.
If you want to worry about issues with repaired boats save the fretting for the electric gremlins that plague some boats. The hulls themselves that are not somehow crushed will be fine. They are all designed for the extreme use of sailing upwind in a seaway.
On the other hand because of the location the industry may end up crushing and shredding many sound hulls that could be repurposed or put to some other use than a restored charter boat.
During Sandy many of the insurance companies simply paid the cash value to the owners or their banks. Then put the boats in massive yards on the hard and sold and liquidated the damaged hulls "as is where is" to free the underwriters of any long term repair and hidden damage issues. Where would that yard be in the BVI to store a 1,000 or more damaged boats? The cost to ship a boat elsewhere for repairs could easily be $20k. I am betting many of these boats will be crushed and put in a hopper barge to be burned or dumped at sea. When you remove any of these clusters of boats with a crane onto a barge where does that barge go to be emptied? Lifting and loading a damaged boat can take hours of expensive crane and barge crew time. Crushing can be done in minutes. How long does the Tortola want to take to restore the bays and harbors to order? The underwriters will want to see Paraquita Bay restored and readied with a new storm plan before next June. No storm plan accepted by the underwriters and their may be a requirement to move all or many of the boats south before next June.
There is great work and project planning to be done. I hope a massive outside general contractor is hired to complete the cleanup sooner rather than later.