A Variety of Risk Exposures Exist at Marinas Big and Small

Marinas are places where people interact with boats. Maybe that’s not earth-shattering to you but consider all that it means to operate a marina and all of the different ways that risk is present at a marina.

Marinas can be small, local places where everyone knows which boat belongs to whom and when they’re likely to take it out again. They can also be bigger, where there are dozens of slips (where boats park) of all sizes and it’s as likely that you’ll see a small charter fishing boat as you will a 50-foot yacht.

The exposures faced by these operations are as varied as the different marinas can be. If you’re considering working with a marina in their risk and insurance program, consider that you will need to know a few things about the risks they might face.

People Get Hurt, Break Things

A primary category of risks a marina can face is the risk associated with the premises. Premises exposures are created when a business invites people to come to their location and do things. Marinas have premises exposure like many other businesses, but they turn it up to 11 in some ways.

Of course, there is the risk of the slip and fall, like many other places. However, add to the normal slip and fall risk the fact that there’s water everywhere. Are most parts of the marina generally dry enough? Sure they are, but consider that a marina does have a large outdoor area (most, if not all, of the slips are outdoors) where customers and other visitors are walking, running, boarding or disembarking from boats, and doing other outdoor things.

Not only is there a large outdoor part of the property, but much of that is built over, or floating on, the water. It doesn’t matter if that water is a lake, river or ocean; the slips and docks are on the water.

A well-built dock that is secured to the floor of the body of water is stable, so it doesn’t move much, no matter what the water is doing, but when you have floating docks, they are directly impacted by the weather, which means people are walking in places that are possibly wet and possibly moving. In addition, the weather might be bad nearby, changing the probability of bodily injury or property damage.

Thinking about property damage, boats move and sometimes, the people operating them aren’t as skilled as they think they are. Not only are there different types of pilots, but there are different types of boats. They can all drive at different speeds, and they all have different steering abilities. Some are small, quick and nimble. Others are small and slow. Some are big, and don’t turn very easily. And if you thought an 18-wheel truck was hard to stop, try stopping when there’s no actual ground underneath your vehicle.

As is always the case when you’re looking at the risks of a business, the idea isn’t just to point out the bad things that can happen, but to point out ways to mitigate the risks so that fewer accidents happen and fewer claims are filed and happier people are everywhere.

These premises risks need proper signage to remind people not to run, fool around, or otherwise tempt fate when walking on the floating docks. A few speed limit signs and maybe wake warnings out in the water don’t hurt.

People Eating and Drinking

People like to eat and drink, and they like to do it at places that have wonderful views.

Marinas make a great place to have a good meal while enjoying the sights of the lake or the bay. That tells us that marinas might also experience all the exposures that are resident in any restaurant.

There is the risk of fire because of the kitchen.

There is the risk of bodily injury from undercooked, or improperly stored food.

When you serve adult beverages, you add exposures related to that, as well.

The same risk management techniques that are available to a restaurant downtown are available to the restaurant at the marina, so there’s no need to explore that too deeply. It’s time to move on to a major risk for marinas.

Was That Rain? Is the Wind Blowing?

Weather, in particular water and wind, is a serious consideration for marinas. Weather events can shut down a marina, and potentially create an exposure that the owners weren’t thinking about.

Consider the marina that has a boat storage facility on premises. What happens if there are 20 boats in dry storage when the hurricane comes by and grabs one boat out of the water and throws it into the boat storage facility?

One of my favorite restaurants used to be a seafood place sitting on a river. It wasn’t next to the river. It was on the river. Pull your boat up to the dock and you’re three steps from getting a table in the dining room. Its biggest problem was that every other year or so, in the rainy season when the river would rise, the river would come into the restaurant. Until the river level dropped, there was no way that they could serve dinner.

Then there were the gators that had to be removed from the dining room. They overstayed their welcome but wouldn’t leave until they finished their entrees or at least until they were good and ready.

Weather is a serious consideration for the risks that a marina deals with.

Fuel Spill at Pump Three

Marinas often have exposures like the gas station on the corner does.

Maybe not the old coffee exposure, but the exposure that the fuel pumps might malfunction and spill fuel into the water. At the gas station down the road, at least there is usually concrete that can help contain spills and you might even be able to find some materials you can use to clean it up. When the fuel ends up in the water, it takes more to clean it up.

What if there is an accident between two boats and they both have fuel and oil on board? There’s another potential environmental issue.

These are just some of the risks that a marina faces. A well-trained risk manager who understands how to identify and analyze risks can find ways to mitigate some risks while arranging for insurance or transfer of the risks to serve the marina and help them to keep serving their customers.