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Mooring holder wins case


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Cameron, it's possible in a legal case, as in the war in Ukraine now, that there is disgusting despicable behaviour on both sides. It's pretty clear that council lied. My guess is they thought they could get away with it and might have done had not Bolton's estate had the council receipts. 

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36 minutes ago, Kevin McCready said:

Cameron, it's possible in a legal case, as in the war in Ukraine now, that there is disgusting despicable behaviour on both sides. It's pretty clear that council lied. My guess is they thought they could get away with it and might have done had not Bolton's estate had the council receipts. 

My guess is that the council was misled by office holders and employees.  By and large councils and govts do not lie in NZ - its too easy to uncover the facts and you look like a dick.  And your legal counsel are not big fans of being misled either because they also do not want to look like a dick.

Not sure who said it, but it tends to be true - never put down to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

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I've dealt with a very senior council bureaucrat in compliance. Not to put too fine a point on it, he was a two faced prick. But you're right about incompetence. His lower level subordinate administering a hardstand contract over council land did not have a clue and should not have been in the role. 

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Regardless of the mans capabilities. He was using a council/harbourmasters approved mooring for his vessel, as the findings show was laid incorrectly. As renter of a mooring how would he know if laid correctly or not.

Would it not fall under the consumer act??not fit for purpose?.

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3 hours ago, harrytom said:

Regardless of the mans capabilities. He was using a council/harbourmasters approved mooring for his vessel, as the findings show was laid incorrectly. As renter of a mooring how would he know if laid correctly or not.

Would it not fall under the consumer act??not fit for purpose?.

Going back a few decades I think the following questions would be asked:

  1. Was the mooring arrangement inline with accepted best practice for the location and intended use (vessel size etc)?
  2. Was a reputable contractor used for it's installation and/or inspections?

If the answer to both of those questions was yes, then it was more often than not put down to a "stuff happens" incident. NZ now seems much more ready to crawl over things to look for opportunities to nail it on someone.

As someone else eluded to - I can almost hear the conversations at Auckland Transport - "I'm calling a staff meeting to discuss how the heck we can get out of administering recreational moorings. They're not profitable, a PIA for our staff and look to be a significant liability..."

 

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15 hours ago, John B said:

Random drift, You know donut holes? I have Gypsy's hole. Ie the bit of hull punched out /in when she was run down. I bought it at the fundraiser to get her rebuilt.

20220712_120602.jpg

Mad skills JB, most of us start a resto with bit more than that! 

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3 hours ago, harrytom said:

Regardless of the mans capabilities. He was using a council/harbourmasters approved mooring for his vessel, as the findings show was laid incorrectly. As renter of a mooring how would he know if laid correctly or not.

Would it not fall under the consumer act??not fit for purpose?.

The council were going to lose, regardless of what kind of person owned the vessel. To avoid precedent, all other incidents involving council moorings will have to follow the same time consuming and expensive path to justice.

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The key is that he was not on the mooring offered by the council, but another similar, the council just wanted it to go away so paid. As far as a competent yachtsman and a loveable rogue goes, the first three mutinies he suffered points the other way. I wonder if Classique is still tied up at Robertsons (the salvage yard ?? referred to in the Herald where she has resided since the harbour bridge rest)

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8 hours ago, harrytom said:

Regardless of the mans capabilities. He was using a council/harbourmasters approved mooring for his vessel, as the findings show was laid incorrectly. As renter of a mooring how would he know if laid correctly or not.

Since the council don't lay moorings, I'd imagine there is another conversation going on down the track. Quite possibly the council has little skin in the game

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So we could all agree then that the contractor maybe at fault as to the way the mooring was laid?? In the article it claims it was a anchor type block that hadnt dug in due to the fluke facing upwards or on its side?

Seems was asked to change moorings on more than one occasion.

Guess moorings will be thing of the past,no more new moorings,only piles or marinas. Speaking of piles several have been replaced in the panmure river and some were well past their use by date,worms have a great time nooring them.Had a vessel been lost due to a pile failure would the council step in?

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Had a fair bit to do with Mr Bolton over the years. Deep Purple sums it up well - he had a yacht he could not afford to maintain let alone berth properly. Had flogged the guts out of the boat and engaged in dodgy trips to off shore island with contributing crew (not a charter!!)

Was a menace around the harbour until Council let him use one of the old barge moorings - a temporary arrangement that dragged on (excuse the pun).

Recollect the turn of the century dawn celebration where the wakas emerged from the mist at Okahu Bay, a no anchoring area had been established along the Okahu Bay breakwater in anticipation of a low flying pass by a Skyhawk. The boats all parted as per schedule but smack bang in the fly zone was Classique - anchored and unattended. He had gone ashore to get his missus.

The fly past was aborted at the last minute.

This epitomized Mel Bolton and his actions.

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