Marine Max Avoids Responsibility for Near Lethal Boat Crash
I’m providing this account of our experience with Marine Max employees, in order to help boaters in deciding which dealer they want to do business with. Marine Max have insisted that we sign a non-disclosure agreement, in order to cover up the dishonest behavior of their employees, has brought us to this point.
We are grateful that no one was hurt, or killed. It was terrifying to have a boat,~10-12 tons loaded, pull out into the channel, in "wake mode", with a surfer behind, hit our port bow gunnel, on our 16 knot approach. We were only 100-200' from the G25, when she launched forward. I had reversed my jet boat, as the G25 "captain" brought his bow up under hard throttle, to pull up a wake surfer we couldn't see, until after they hit us. The Marine Max boat crossed our bow, then turned hard to port, right into our port bow gunnel. When their keel climbed over our port gunnel, I thought they were running over us, just as I found my horn switch. Even so, we felt the two boats, tied off together in a busy, narrow channel, presented a hazard to everyone involved, as well as passing traffic, we decided , in the interest of safety, not to call for a TPWL Ranger to the scene, even though my wife smelled cannabis from the Nautique Paragon G25., a $400K boat, owned and operated by Marine Max.
After Marine Max inspected the damage on both boats, they realized that their employees had concocted a lie, claiming that we caused the accident. Marine Max had the boat dry docked, at a nearby marina. This is what may have led the Marine Max employees to think they could collectively lie about who was at fault. It’s possible they didn’t pull the boat out of the water-the marina dry stacked the 25' boat, so they didn’t see the hole in the hull, on the bottom of the boat. The damages left no doubt about what had happened. Our initial repair estimate was ~$5K, but it grew to just under $10K, after the hull was dusted with graphite, revealing that the hull was spider cracked in a large area, beneath the gunnel. Our contact at Marine Max, an area manager, was professional and helpful, suggesting that he may be able to get us a new boat, given the damage on our one month old 2024 Yamaha AR195 boat was so extensive. He even found one, in their inventory. Unfortunately, a higher up squashed that suggestion, after we had paused the repair work on our boat, while awaiting a decision on the replacement. Our request to halt repairs was not appreciated by the service manager at the repair shop, and our boat was, of course, pulled out of the shop, and placed behind other repair work. At that point, I felt a 10% diminished value compensation was in order, at a minimum. After all this...nearly having my Wife and I injured or easily killed, or calling law enforcement to the scene of the accident, they came back at 40% of the 10% diminished I asked for, offering $2K, in diminished value, plus the repair bill. They put an incompetent, probably inebriated pilot at the helm of a 12 ton boat, who keeled us. There were ~15 men, women and children on board this boat that reeked of weed, nearly ran us over and sunk us, then decided it would be a good idea to nickle and dime the situation. All this also ended our season after just a few outings in our new boat. To add to the questionable business ethics, I saw what appeared to be the exact same Nautique Paragon G25 that keeled us, listed for sale at the Austin store, where I was informed the boat had been moved, listed for sale, in mid October, over 3 weeks after the wreck. There was an extensive, 16 page ad, including 54 photos, but no mention that the boat had been driven over another boat, and had a hole in the hull, near the keel and well below the water line, repaired. This particular Nautique Paragon G25 has been deleted from the Austin store inventory online ad page, either sold or moved. I do have a copy of this ad, which violates condition disclosure laws. Based on my experience, you'd be a fool to trust Marine Max.. This is a company who does not fire employees who conspire to lie about a serious boating accident. The accident report with Texas Parks and Wildlife, as well as Marine Max management admitting fault, then failing to offer anything close to compensation for $10K on a new boat their employees plowed into. They then informed me that I was unreasonable for not trusting them to repair my boat, after their employees lied about their causing the accident.
