Adding Municipal Marinas To Your Boat Policy

Some municipal marinas in Canada are demanding to be added as an "additional insured" on boat  policies.   This is  a requirement to keep your boat at the marina but adding them to your policy has two additional benefits:

1. It provides some assurance that your marina neighbour has liability coverage.   Some boaters  were cheating the system by getting a policy, sending a copy as confirmation to the marina then cancelling the policy.   Once the marina is  named as an additional insured they will receive notice if your policy is cancelled.   The onus is then on the marina to take appropriate action.    Transient boaters don't have a contract with the marina so they will likely be exempt from this requirement.

2. The marina will automatically receive notice of renewal so the boat owner no longer needs to worry about sending them confirmation of coverage each year.   If  the marina manager asks for confirmation of coverage you can politely point out it was sent to them on renewal.  



Adding the marina as additional insured means your insurance company will defend the marina if they are named on a lawsuit because of an incident caused by your boat.   Lawsuits tend to  name every person or entity connected to the incident regardless of who is at fault.    As an additional insured the marina is protected from the cost of  nuisance lawsuits arising from the actions of their clients.    This would not apply if the marina caused the accident or if they damage your boat.   The marina has their own insurance for those situations. 

If your marina demands to be added as an "additional named insured" or they ask you to sign a "waiver of subrogation" don't do it.     If they ask for this it is  time to find  a new marina because they are trying to shift too much liability on the boat owner.    BoatUS wrote a good article about this  that is worth reading.

2013 Sail Canada Team of the Year - John McRoberts and Jackie Gay

The 2013  Male Athlete/ Team of Year selected by Sail Canada are  John McRoberts and Jackie Gay of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club


John and Jackie are both experienced sailors in the paralympic classes. John has represented Canada twice at the Paralympics in the Skud-18, he won a bronze medal for Canada in the 2008 games in China, and placed 4th in London 2012. Jackie has sailed the Skud since 2006 when the boats were first delivered and also campaigned for China. She has since been sailing in the 2.4mR single handed class as a member of the Canadian Sailing Team before teaming up John.

John & Jackie are Canada's Skud 18 Paralympic Sailing Team currently training for the Paralympics in Rio De Janeiro, September 2016. John McRoberts and Jackie Gay are  both a sailing team and a married couple who have high hopes for a podium finish at the Games. 'We always knew we'd make a strong team,' says John. 




 John & Jackie will be recognized at the Sail Canada Rolex Awards in Toronto on February 28 where they will be the first recipients of the Skippers' Plan Athlete of the Year award.   Find out more about their Road to Rio on their website Team UCan2 and send them your congratulations. 

2013 Sail Canada Female Athlete of the Year - Isabella Bertold

Laser Radial sailor Isabella Bertold was selected by Sail Canada as the 2013 female athlete of the year.  She hails from BC and is a member of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.    Isabella is the youngest sailor to ever qualify for the junior and senior national team in the same year and her career has been on an upward trajectory ever since.  She had a fantastic 2013 season and is on course to bring home Canada’s first Olympic medal in the sport of Women’s Sailing at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Isabella will be presented the Skippers' Plan Female Athlete of the Year  trophy at the Sail Canada Rolex Awards on February 28.  We hope you can join us at the awards to celebrate the best sailors in Canada.  The event also recognizes the outstanding contribution  made by Canadian volunteers.  

Congratulations to Isabella, the other outstanding members of the Canadian sailing community.   Send your congratulations to Isabella via Twitter @IsabellaSailing or http://isabellabertold.com/contact/

Is this the future of Insurance?

According to one European think tank the future of all insurance products is the Internet.   David Smith, CEO of Global Futures and Foresight  had this to say about the future of insurance.

 “Insurance is one of those products that can be completely satisfied over the Internet—there aren’t many product or service areas where you can actually do that.  (Insurers) now need to move from clunky, annual, impersonalized relationships linked to that renewal and/or a catastrophic event, to something that’s much more personal and improving of life.”

 So how does an insurance company transform to become more personal and improving of life.  Mr Smith's solution  might come as a shock.

"The more interesting stuff is when (insurance) becomes preventative, reducing risk in the process. With the ‘Internet of things,’ you can have real-time information: you can get a ping saying don’t take this route down the street, this pizza parlor has had three robberies in the past two months, this one is safer, or you can have real-time cameras in the car” 

WOW!  I often contemplate ways to make the insurance experience better for consumers but not in my wildest dream (or nightmare) have I considered a world where insurance companies "ping" my clients if they engage in risky activity.   I think it is a really bad idea to have anyone watching you via personal live feed not to mention a gross violation of privacy.   That might explain why I have not been recruited by a Think Tank but I find the whole concept disturbing.   What happens in this brave new world if a person chooses to ignore the unsolicited advice their insurance company?   Perhaps they will also have the ability to simply stop your vehicle.  This new world is closer than you think.    Is this what consumers really want? 

These comments were published in Property Casualty 360 and I invite you to read it to confirm I am not taking them out of context .  My response to Mr. Smith is short and personal - see video.

Weather Warning for Boaters

In my experience as a broker and sailor I see too many boaters that are care-free and/or reckless when it comes to the weather.    Weather should be  a critical consideration for every boater so why do so many ignore it and what can be done to educate people ?



Meteorological resources are readily available but they are useless if ignored.     I have to bite my lip listening to one sailor tell me how he was knocked over and dismasted during a severe thunderstorm.   The damage is covered by insurance but why would you take your crew out in  dangerous weather that was forecasted?    The common refrain is that it was a nice sunny morning so nobody  checked the forecast.    The forecast  was overlooked but what about the changing clouds,   decreasing barometric pressure, the wind shift when the front passed or the arrival of the storm's gust front?    This person was out for a day sail and thinks he's a victim of the weather but he is really a perpetrator of a bad decisions  and poor seamanship.   Is this result of  ignorance,  lack or training,  blind faith that search rescue services are always available or is it something else?

Trouble can also come when  people focus on the boating activity while ignoring the environment.    Not every significant weather event is predicted accurately  but in most cases nature provides plenty of warning.    Yet every year in Canada fishermen are found dead next to overturned boats,  sailors more concerned about the regatta than the storm need rescuing,  and power boaters  fail to safely arrive  at their destination  due to severe weather.  The vast majority of these events are preventable with just a little education and common sense.

Here are a few of my suggestions to help you avoid becoming a "weather victim".

1. Educate yourself about the weather by taking a course.  
2. Train yourself to keep a "weather eye"
3. Develop a weather check routine 
4. Install a weather app with radar on your desktop or phone
5. Never leave the dock without checking the marine weather forecast
6. Experiment with and cross reference Aviation weather reports
7. For longer trips prepare for extreme weather  instead of reacting to the consequences.
8. Share you experience with other boaters.
9. Never forget that  it is always better to be on the dock wishing you were boating than to be on the water praying you make it back to the dock. 

Let's all do our part to make this a safe and fun year on the water.

    

Are Sailing Helmets an Idea Whose Time has Come?

Ten years ago there was a spoof article  announcing helmets were now mandatory for sailors in Canada.  The article elicited real passion and anger from people who felt our society and sport was becoming too soft.   Following the 2013 America's Cup and with helmets becoming de rigueur in other sports I wonder if sailing helmets are an idea whose time has come.  

America's Cup teams came to the line  dressed for battle in helmets and protective suits with emergency air bottles, knives, and communication systems.  Team New Zealand  looked  like fighter pilot Terminators.  Their website even  featured a group photo of the team with Tom "Top Gun" Cruise.   If you ignore Luna Rossa's ridiculous silver suits the AC teams looked cool and nothing sells safety gear like seeing it on the top pros.   It has succeeded with snowboarding, skiing, wakeboarding, cycling and others.    You can't  compare the risks of catamarans "foiling" at 40 knots to recreational sailors and I'm not suggesting you should.  Nor am I advocating for helmet use.   I think helmets will migrate into performance dinghies like 49ers and Moths and wonder if this is a trend that will change the standard for safety gear  in sailing and other boating activities.   What do you think?

Maverick visits Team New Zealand

I expect the old guard will  be brutally dismissive of sailing  helmets while lamenting the wussification of society at large.  But  how many of them are on the water sporting dorky wide-brimmed hats for protection from the sun?   To each his own but talk about wussies; what's a little sunburn compared to permanent disability, mental impairment or death  from  a head injury?    There will also be people who will say helmets don't always work and if you consider former F1 driver Michael Schumacher's current situation you can't argue that point?   The future is not really about what the salty dogs think.  The trend and the future of sailing sailing helmets is going to hinge on the attitudes of younger sailors.   




We have no issue wearing gear  to protect us from the elements or for safety (PFD) so why not consider protection for your noggin?   I'd like to receive your comments on this blog or  let's have the discussion on Twitter @SkippersPlan #sailinghelmets