Marina Sunk My Boat

Location: North Carolina

My family has had a large boat docked at a marina since 2018. The marina moved the boat without notice to rebuild the dock. 12 days later there was an ice store that hit NC and the boat sank. Where the boat was located there is no way the marina plugged the power back into it. I believe the bilge pump failed to work after unplugging it and the ice was the final straw.

It took them 3 days to notify us that it sank. The worker there told me he saw it sinking and it sank within an hour of him arriving. When I arrived to look at it they had already attempted to salvage it without any permission from us.

I called the coast guard and they started to monitor the situation due to the potentially 400 gallons of diesel on board. I texted the owner of the marina to stop all salvage attempts and that an actual salvage company needed to be hired. He immediately called me despite me waiting on him to call me for 45 hours. He said he would go down and assess and call me. When he called me he said the “boat was floating.” He apparently tied a rope to it and toed it. Coast guard sent me photos of it in two feet of water. It wasn’t floating… it was beached.

Consulted lawyers and maritime surveyors and long story short they said my best bet would be to get him to settle. The boat wasn’t pretty but it was a 41 ft hatterus which functioning engines and electrical components.

One of my first conversations with them they recommended I file an insurance claim…. This isn’t on me. This is on them…. It rubbed me the wrong way and I recorded almost all phone conversations and in person encounters with the employees.

I would win a law suit but it might cost what I get out of it. Advice?

No insurance. I’m new to owning it and it was given to me by my parents.