How to Document Boat Damage for a Claim or a Deposit

First, the order of things

1. Make it safe. People, then the boat: stop the water, isolate the gas and electrics, secure the lines.
2. Record before you touch. Once something is moved, cleaned or patched, the record of how it was found is gone. Photograph first, then act.
3. Tell the insurer the same day (and the marina or charter company if they are involved). Policies require prompt notice, and the call is itself part of the record.
4. Do not repair beyond what prevents further damage until the insurer has agreed, or has told you to go ahead.

What to photograph

• Wide, mid, close — every time. One frame that shows where on the boat the damage is, one that shows the damaged area in context, one that shows the detail. A close-up on its own cannot be placed.
• With scale. A tape measure, a coin or a hand in the close-up. Cracks look very different at 2 cm and at 20 cm.
• Both sides. The undamaged port side as well as the damaged starboard side; the matching fitting that is still intact. Comparison is evidence.
• The cause, if visible. The neighbouring boat that broke loose, the pontoon cleat that failed, the rock at low water, the fender that was not there.
• Identifiers. The hull number, the engine serial, the damaged equipment's model and serial.
• The surroundings. Weather, water level, the state of the mooring lines and fenders, the time on a phone screen or a clock.

Use the phone's own camera so that the photographs keep their date, time and location in the file. Do not edit, crop or "enhance" them; keep the originals and send copies.

What to write

A short note, written the same day, answering: what happened, when (date and time), where (berth, position), who was there, what you did, and what you noticed that a photograph cannot show — a smell of fuel, water rising, an engine that would not start. Write facts, not blame. "The boat in berth C12 was against our starboard quarter at 06:40; its port bow line was parted" will be read very differently from "the idiot next door hit us".

Keeping it tamper-evident

Insurers, yards and courts are used to photographs being questioned: when was this taken, has it been altered, is this the same boat? A record is stronger when each photograph is fingerprinted at the moment it is taken and the whole report is sealed when it is signed, so that any later change is detectable. That is how SoundHull's inspection reports work: the photographs are hashed as they are captured, the findings are recorded in a fixed vocabulary, and the signed report shows each repair with its labour and parts cost, all sealed by the signature. The same walk that documents damage produces the indicative repair estimate the conversation with the insurer starts from — indicative, always; the yard's quotation is the number that counts.

Three situations, three details

• Storm damage in a marina. Many boats, one morning. Document your own boat first, then the neighbours that touched it, then the pontoon and the lines. Marinas that record every hull on the day — see how marinas use SoundHull — settle the arguments in days rather than months.
• Charter return. The check-in record is compared with the check-out record. If the check-out was not photographed properly, the deposit argument has no floor. Operators who do the walk at both ends rarely have the argument at all.
• Grounding or collision. Photograph the outside at the first lift-out, the inside the same day (bilge, keel bolts, tabbing), and get the surveyor before the yard starts. A damage survey is for the insurer; your record is what the surveyor starts from.

What not to do

• Do not clean up before photographing, however much you want to.
• Do not accept a verbal "we will sort it out" from a neighbour or a yard; put it in a message the same day so there is a date on it.
• Do not post the photographs on social media before the insurer has them; it rarely helps and sometimes harms.
• Do not delete anything, including the blurred shots. Volume of contemporaneous evidence is itself persuasive.

Questions people ask

How soon do I have to tell my insurer?

Policies say "promptly" or "as soon as reasonably possible"; treat that as the same day. Late notice is one of the common reasons claims become difficult.

Can I use my phone's photographs as evidence?

Yes, and they are better than most alternatives if they are unedited originals with their date and time intact. A record that fingerprints each photograph when it is taken and seals the report when it is signed is stronger still, because it shows nothing was changed afterwards.

Should I get repair quotes myself?

Usually the insurer will want quotations from a yard they accept. An indicative estimate helps you understand the scale of the loss and have a sensible conversation; it is not the figure the claim is settled on.