The Australian Consumer Laws (ACL) has indeed changed the marine business seascape with amongst many changes; contractual terms and consumer guarantees being discussed below with a view to helping your business navigate its way with some practical tips. Part 1 What sort of contract should my business use? Apart from purchasing a home purchasing a boat is the second largest…
It is a popular expectation and a folklore tradition on the high seas that the captain of a ship should always go down with it, risking their own life in order to ensure the safety and welfare of their passengers. But in the modern shipping world is this still the case? For family and friends who lost loved ones on…
A New Year heralds in a challenging year for business with growing economic uncertainty and troubled markets and while surviving these uncertainties is an important part of running a business; this job can be made easier by considering the known variables within the business. An employer’s legal obligation in respect to employment is one such known variable that business owners…
Let’s face facts – owning a boat is an exercise in expense. There’s the ever-rising cost of fuel, the marina, storage or transportation fees, registration, insurance, and the seemingly endless upkeep and maintenance costs. As a lawyer, I often come across clients who’ve fallen into the trap of buying into the boating dream without fully appreciating the true costs associated…
Over seventy-nine years ago, in the Scottish town of Paisley, a young woman was meeting with a friend at a local café when she decided to order a bottle of ginger beer. After drinking a glass of the refreshing beverage, she started to pour herself a refill from the opaque bottle, when out flew the decomposing body of a snail.…
Bedazzled by what are perceived as bargain basement prices, increasing numbers of private purchasers are turning online for new and second-hand vessels in the USA and other enticing countries as a result of a strong Aussie dollar. But along with this new found freedom of expanded marine markets has come a litany of consumer problems, as unsuspecting purchasers throw caution…
Several years ago I attended a business clinic held by the NSW BIA and the single point I remember was, ‘In times of uncertainty, how business responds, is critical to its survival’. The uncertainty facing the marine industry today is real and it would be fool hardy for a company director to ignore the underlying economic factors causing this uncertainty…
Stranded on the high seas, the bilge pumps are working at full capacity as the engine-room floods and all power is lost. Circumstances have it that you are able to do little more than don a lifejacket, transmit a mayday message and prepare your crew to abandon ship. Both you and your vessel are now at the mercy of the…
While it can be hard for businesses to keep afloat with the barrage of constantly changing laws and regulations, some impending legislative reforms are too important to ignore. In less than six months, a radical (yet long overdue) federal scheme will come into force that will impact on manufacturers, retailers, lenders and borrowers alike. Right now, all across Australia, businesses…
Its early morning at the bustling Port Hueneme in California and a crane operator is carefully unloading a 72-foot, 42-ton Sunseeker Predator yacht from the weather deck of a European cargo ship. Clearing a stack of shipping containers the luxury yacht hangs suspended in the air, some 30-metres off the ground. Suddenly and inexplicably the crane gives way and the…