Two rows of wooden poles spaced L16 ft apart are driven into

Two rows of wooden poles spaced L=16 ft apart are driven into the bottom of the bay to support the walkway for a dock or pier.

Solution

In extreme conditions there is no life expectancy, rather pleasant surprise should some parts survive in the bad storms.

Unless there is a specific clause in your contract that states in plain english the Marina\'s liability to provide Cyclone proof facilities I can\'t see how any one will win apart from the lawyers. You are going to have to prove that through omission or negligence on the Marina owner\'s part either inferior poles/piles were substituted, or that the ones used were too light or badly maintained or not replaced at the right time. And that this Marina can be demonstrated to use lesser materials or extended service life of materials etc. compared to all other similar marina setups in similar waters including your immediate area. All this YOU must prove. It is called the burden of proof. You may well be able to bankrupt this owner, they may well not have done the right thing - or the very most it is possible given the extreme weather event I don\'t know, and then you might only end up with a paper victory and a huge legal bill and still broken boat so why do it??

At the end of the day take responsibility for your own boat and your own life - if you live in a part of the world that gets Cyclones/Hurricanes/Typhoons/Tornados just prepare for it and insure yourself. The Marina operator may well be infinitely worse off than you are after this - find out if he is covered under his insurance himself before thinking badly of them. At least when you are insured yourself you just get the boat fixed and get on with your life - it is your insurance company that will hound other parties to death, not you. That is why you should insure ANYTHING that you cannot afford to just shrug and walk away from without a backwards glance should it get damaged or destroyed.

You will not get anywhere asking Answers.com for advice on the engineering of a commercial waterway - as soon as you start talking to qualified professionals about such matters you will need to pay them. A lot. It\'s what they do. Even if you are 100% in the right you have barely a 50/50 chance in the courts and it can take years to get nowhere. Move on, learn from it, go boating and enjoy life and your family - life is too short for that rubbish.

Edit - in the recent floods and Cyclones in Queensland, Australia, one (of many affected) Marina was very badly damaged, there is that much debris and silt choking the channels/berths/entrances that just getting in and out is really hard and fraught now. The owner/developer is possibly going to accept the full insurance payout and disburse a percentage in damages to various berth owners according to some method I have not fully understood - and then walk away. This leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of some, who paid in good faith amounts well over $100,000 for 25 or 30 year leases, and as the local and federal authorities are encouraging the abandonment of areas proven to be at high risk there is all sorts of conflict and mis-information flying about. The only clear thing is that warnings were given to secure your vessels or leave, remaining is between your insurance company and you, not the Marina or anywhere else you choose to weather the storm.