7 Tips to Avoid Damaging Your Yacht

While owning a yacht to enjoy life on the water, you also need to face many risks of damage to many yachts. From changing weather to complex navigational environments, a yacht can be damaged at any time. In this article, we will teach you how to avoid damage to your yacht from a variety of aspects such as careful mooring, coping with bad weather, and keeping an eye on unfamiliar waters.

Choose your mooring location carefully

To avoid damage to your yacht, it is important to choose your mooring location carefully. If you don't moor your yacht at that end, once you're on board, the yacht will be at risk of damage, especially in the UK's changeable weather conditions. However, if you moor your yacht at a marina with fixed berths, it is far less likely to be damaged by strong winds and rough currents. And, if the marina is manned 24 hours a day, there will always be someone on site at the marina who will be able to contact you at the first sign of damage and minimize the damage.

Be prepared for bad weather

If you're planning to take your yacht out on the water, but the weather forecast indicates that a bad storm may hit soon, then it's best to postpone your trip to another day. It is important to note that even if you keep your yacht in the marina until the weather improves, bad weather may still cause damage to your yacht. If a storm is forecasted, it is advisable to let down the mast and secure it with strong cables to prevent the yacht from being blown over. Also, keep an eye out for other boats around the marina; others who are not properly secured may also cause damage to your yacht.

Keep an eye out for small boats

In addition to underwater objects, yachts and other boats are also at risk of collision. While collisions with larger vessels can result in more serious damage, don't underestimate the damage caused when smaller vessels collide. Common collisions are often associated with smaller vessels because they travel faster and are often in the blind spots of a yacht's vision. Therefore, to avoid damage to your yacht, it is recommended that you or your skipper, even if you don't see the vessel that may have caused the danger, look carefully and watch the water for signs left by small vessels sailing in the water as a way of determining whether there is a small vessel in the vicinity.

You cannot operate a yacht while under the influence of alcohol

Drinking and driving a yacht is a common yachting accident. Most people go sailing on a yacht to relax, get away from the stresses of life and enjoy freedom. But while enjoying your freedom, you have to be responsible for yourself and others. Although there is no law that clearly and exquisitely regulates drunken yacht driving, drunken yacht driving is very dangerous and insurance companies will not claim for accidents caused by drunken yacht driving, so to avoid damage to your yacht, don't drink and drive your yacht.

Stopping vandals

It is important to note that there are indeed some willful vandals in life who may maliciously damage your yacht. But taking a few simple precautions will prevent them from even attempting vandalism. Storing your yacht safely is one effective means of deterring those opportunistic vandals. For example, if you do not intend to dock your yacht at a marina when you are using it, then pick marinas that have 24 hours then pick marinas that have security facilities such as CCTV installed and equipped with key card systems. This way, vandals will not be able to get close to your yacht, let alone damage it.

Regularly check for fire hazards

Many of today's small boats are equipped with advanced fire alarms and detection systems, and fires that can cause serious damage are becoming increasingly rare. But for yachts, fire is a real and significant risk, and when it does occur, the damage is usually very heavy. This is due to the fact that yachts are much larger, with correspondingly larger engines, and there are many electronic devices and appliances on board, which together greatly increase the likelihood of a major fire occurring.

In order to avoid damage to your yacht, it is important to equip your yacht with a high-quality fire detection system and to ensure that the crew of your yacht are trained in fire safety, so that in the event of a fire, they can act quickly to try and minimize the damage. 

Take care when sailing in unfamiliar waters

Having an experienced crew on board can reduce the number of yacht collisions. However, it is often the things that we cannot see with the naked eye, such as reefs and coral, that can really damage a yacht. In addition, unfamiliarity with the navigational environment may also trigger a collision. If this is not a commonly used channel, there may be many obstacles underwater that can cause damage to your yacht. Therefore, to avoid damage to your yacht due to a collision, it is important to do your research when navigating in an unfamiliar area and make sure your skipper is familiar with the navigation area in advance.