Harbor advisory board probes insurance, vendor barriers to truck‑to‑boat diesel fueling

The Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board on March 3 discussed obstacles to safely transferring diesel from trucks to commercial boats after receiving an email from the Great Harbor Yacht Club that its insurance adviser said vendors "are not able to fuel trucks to boats for a number of reasons." The board examined whether the restriction is an insurance coverage issue, a vendor cost issue or both and set follow‑up tasks to gather evidence.

The chair said the matter stems from Chapter 91 licensing and a separate email from Steven Kreese at the Great Harbor Yacht Club describing insurer pushback. A committee member said, "As I suspected, we are not able to fuel trucks to boats for a number of reasons," and added that specialty markets such as Lloyd's could underwrite the exposure but might be cost‑prohibitive.

Board members sketched operational fixes including a single weekly fueling window so one truck could fill multiple boats, and agreed to contact mainland fuel suppliers to compare insurance requirements and rates. One member estimated that about 10–15 charter and commercial boats in town could use a coordinated service.

Members also reviewed historical infrastructure: a fuel pump once existed at the Town Pier/PEP but was removed and would not meet current standards. The board discussed whether establishing a fixed fueling station was realistic given waterfront space constraints and permitted uses, and whether temporary truck fueling could be accomplished under current Chapter 91 licensing.

The meeting turned to emergency repairs after several anecdotes about boats needing immediate haul‑out or propeller repairs. Members raised concerns that a contractor (Finger Boatworks) exercised discretion in declaring what qualified as an "emergency repair," and asked for concrete examples to determine if that discretion aligns with Chapter 91 accountability expectations.

Action items: the board asked Mister Sherwin to contact off‑island vendors about their service and insurance terms, asked Mister Anderson to research the insurance language and potential markets, and noted a member had a call scheduled with the fire department to discuss emergency response considerations. The board will reconvene the discussion after collecting vendor insurance details and examples of claimed emergencies.

The board did not adopt any regulatory changes at the meeting; members said changes to fueling locations or licensing requirements may require further review of Chapter 91 and coordination with Natural Resources and the town.