Marina and Moorage Management Editing and Proofreading Services

A boat has not moved for four years. The owner stopped answering letters two winters ago, the berth fees are eleven thousand pounds in arrears, the vessel is taking on water, and the marina cannot simply remove it — because a boat is somebody's property, disposing of it requires a process, and the berth agreement signed in 2016 says nothing about any of this.

We edit what marinas and moorage operators produce — berth licences and moorage agreements, abandonment and unpaid fees procedures, insurance and survey requirements for berth holders, liveaboard and residential policies, tidal access and depth information, site rules and conduct documentation, winter storage and lift-out terms, fuel, waste and environmental procedures, berth waiting list and allocation documentation, and incident, weather and emergency communications to berth holders. Our editors work on the agreement that has to work when an owner disappears.

The berth agreement's abandonment and access provisions are where a marina is either able to manage its own basin or stuck with a sinking boat and a lawyer, and their failure is silence about the difficult cases. We work through these so the agreement states what the operator may do when fees are unpaid, in stages with the notice at each — restricting access, lifting out at the owner's cost, and ultimately selling the vessel — with the notice periods and the addresses notices go to, since a process not written down is a process the operator cannot use; so the owner's obligation to keep contact details current is stated with the consequence of not doing so, given that this is the fact that makes every later step possible; so the insurance requirement is specific about the cover and the evidence, and states what happens when it lapses, because an uninsured sinking boat in a basin is the operator's problem financially; so the survey requirement for older vessels is stated with the trigger; so the tidal access is described honestly with the depths at the berth and the sill, because a berth holder who cannot get out at neaps will not renew; so the liveaboard position is stated plainly whether permitted or not, as ambiguity here creates residential rights nobody intended; and so the storm and emergency procedure states what the operator will and will not do to an unattended vessel. Agreements written this way let a marina act in the fourth winter.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including agreements, berth holder information and correspondence. We are editors rather than legal or marine advisers, and we offer no view on agreements, abandonment procedures or liability. What we can do is make the agreement usable when the owner has stopped answering.