Club liability insurance?

[BrendanS]

Anyone any experience in this area?

The club I belong to have been with the RYA approved scheme for years, but as liability insurance options become more limited, and premiums hiked through roof, and many clubs being turned down - who are the players in this market, and who have best rates?

 

[Skysail]

We looked around seriously and decided that Heath Lambert the RYA recommended people were the only brokers who understood this market and the cover needed - but if there is a better one, would be interested to hear of it.

 

[BrendanS]

Thanks. I know the liability market well, but other committee members think we can just shop around like for car insurance.

Anyone else have any good or bad experiences or knowledge?

 

[TheBoatman]

Brendan
My club has been with HL for years but we are changing this year. As you say the premiums go up and the coverage goes down. I believe that we are changing to Norwich Union later this year. We outlined the coverage we wanted and they seem to come in with best quote.

Question(s)?

Does your club have any heavy lifting equipment for moving boats i.e. travel hoist etc.
Do your club rules forbid members suing the club for any reason?

I'm away for a couple of days on business but would be pleased to hear more.

Peter.

 

[BrendanS]

We are a 'virtual' club, in that we have no club premises, just meet on the water, so no heavy lifting equipment. No rules about not suing club

 

[DavidofMersea]

How can a club have a rule forbidding members from suing? If the club is negligent, they are liable, and that is that - no rule can exclude a club from their responsibility.

 

[fireball]

This is the sort of thing that gets me ...

you pay your membership fees to be a member of a club, have an accident, decide it is the clubs fault for not protecting you from it and sue the club .... great - so your suing yourself really - afterall where does the club get its money from??!!

It is about time everyone WOKE UP and took RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS without expecting everyone else to do it for them.

Cripes - if I worried about it every time I climbed the club mast to sort out the halyards we'd never get things done ... I went up, no safety harness or line, just up a ladder then mast steps to 25' above a hard surface ... did I worry? No ... because I've been climbing since I was very young and am sure of my grip. I drew the line at climbing a few years ago when I decided the mast was too rusty for me to trust it to take my weight so brought a scaff tower down instead - again, no harness or anything. Had I fallen the last thing on my mind would be to sue the club for not making me read safety notices telling me I have to wear hard hat, harness and enough padding to make me bounce when I hit the ground - infact the safety equipment would have made it harder for me to climb and more likely for me to fall off ..
IMO if you can't decide for yourself what is safe or not, then it is not safe for you to do it.
Shall we stop suing everybody and put these solicitors and insurers out of business? Think of the money we would save - enough to get someone else to do the work in the first place!!

 

[BrendanS]

I'd love you to expand on this. Clubs can be potentially sued for all sorts of thing, hence liablity insurance

 

[BrendanS]

If an accident happens on a club cruise, organised by club, the insurance comp will claim against someone. Better the club insured, even if not at fault

 

[michael_99]

I'm glad, but sad, that we are not the only ones with that problem down under. I was forced to move my boat out of the club because of this.They have started to close down childrens playgrounds because this.Where will it all end?? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[fireball]

Thanks Brendan - I am aware of the "liability" that insurance companies assume. The problem is that it is ever decreasing circles with ever more complex risk assessments and higher insurance costs that will end up with very few group organised events with 3 volumes of instructions and costs so high that nobody wants to go.
Say, for example our club is on a jolly to the Hamble, and we're not breifed about Bramble bank, if I had an encounter with it and lost my keel (very unlikely but these things could happen) then it would have to be an insurance claim. I hardly think that the insurance company could claim against club insurance for not giving adequate briefings. I know this is an extreme example and things like the fabric of club properties do need to be covered, but I don't see why a club should have to insure against stupidity.
In your case, I think you said your club has no fixed abode - then what is there to insure? OK, you might hold a race and provide some sort of patrol cover to pick up any boats that fall apart, well - what if you have 20 entrants and only 1 patrol boat, you could easily be 30 minutes away from assistance, is that the clubs fault? Or should the competitor race within their ability of handling the vessel in the prevailing conditions....

These days it seems like you have to be insured to breath in and out (just incase you pass a cold on) - in the end, we're the ones that loose.

 

[BrendanS]

We organise trips in company. If a members boat or crew damaged or injured, that persons insurance company could claim against the organiser or club officials, even if the club member had no intention of suing. That's what liability insurance is for. Not really interested in debating whether we need liability insurance or not - we've decided we need it, and would be stupid and neglectful not to, just want to know if anyone else has found suitable cover for reasonable cost

 

[fireball]

Sorry Brendan, I wasn't questioning your current need, just exasperated at the general trend towards the US model ....
I'm not sure who we use as it is outside my remit and therefore a SEP!

 

[roger]

I've been concerning myself with our club crane and on the net by chance found a website helpfully explaining how to sue if you had a "not your fault" crane accident. With this sort of publicity about a club has to take precautions - to say nothing of the way the HSE would come down heavily if anyone were seriously hurt.

 

[Doug_Stormforce]

Brendon

Although not quite the same I recently shopped around for my training centre insurance. Having spoken to every insurance company and broker under the sun Heath Lambert came out on top by far. They were the only company that would insure all the risks required, they have done it at a far better price than anyone else offered and took only 48 hours to put the policy in place.

They seem to me to be the experts in this field