Liability for kits

[Pepper]

I am new to this forum. I found it this morning and have been reading and learning for 5 hours...wow! I wish this fourm was around 10 years ago. My question/statement is: I designed and made a boat for myself 10 years ago. I have been reading about liability if I sell them.(here's the question) What it I sell them as a kit that the buyer needs to do a percentage of work to complete? I know this is how many of the small aircraft companies operate. Is there a percentage of assembly for boats where the buyer assumes the liability?
My boat requires: the top to be "shoebox" glued to the hull, hang an outboard on it, hook-up some hardware, and paint.

Any thoughts?

[waikikin]

Sounds more like a can of worms than a shoe box, not knocking your boat or the structure but at least get a naval architect to draw it up & do the stability calcs & laminate schedule & make power recomendations, like if the buyers do the assembly to your specs & some thing still goes wrong at least youve taken some duty of care in using the pro, but the culture of litigation will point the finger at everyone involved to kind of hedge their bets in getting some $ to pay the lawyers-this stuff is sport to them. Once I even heard of a builder getting the blame for some one diving off their boat into shallow water & getting hurt- dunno how it went? Talk to your legal advisors & insurers to factor some margin to cover this stuff. All the best from Jeff.

[ted655]

Not only does the buyer assume liability, they also assume other things as well. They are ENTITLED to reasonable assumptions of safety,reliability, value, durability & probably a few more things.
You will have to prove in court that your kit met reasonable expectations. The more experts, testing and successfully product examples you can produce the better ground you have under you.

[PAR]

The moment an owner takes a tool to the kit, the amount of liability the kit manufacture has decreases. Assuming a sound design and reasonable assembly of pieces, in quality and manufacture the builder has to accept responsibility for their efforts.

Anything can be debated in court with equally diverse results. Unless the kit materials or assembly procedure can be proven flawed, the kit manufacture is likely to be cleared. Typically debates will focus on specific issues. Were the fasteners sufficiently sized for their tasks, was sufficient torque applied during fastener installation, was the point of failure a result of flawed materials or was running the boat up onto the rocks more to blame, etc.

All manufactures attempt to limit their involvement in these types of debates with a simple disclaimer, which typically suggest they can't control what you'll do after the product leaves their control and that they will not accept responsibility for the purchasers work.