GJW Insurance

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Trying to get insured with them for single handed operation at night.

Fair enough, they want to know what kit the boat is fitted with to aid night navigation.

I reel off the bits:
- Raymarine E80, 2kw Radar, dGPS, Gyro Compass
- Garmin 276C
- VHF etc.

BUT the sticking point appears to be that Flower Power is not fitted with:

wait for it ...

...

An Autohelm!!!!!

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I don't think you understand. An autohelm will allow you to get a very rewarding 8 hours sleep so that you are bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to take over in the morning. You will however, have to explain to 'Flower Power' that he will be on his own in the dark for said 8 hours but that you are not far away if he gets scared of the dark. Try to get an autohelm that does bacon and eggs in the morning...the extra expense will be worth it! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
If you can find one that handles stong winds, looks good in a short skirt and buys a round in the pub let me know and I will order one as well.

My current one won't do more than force four and insists I buy all the drinks but then one out of three aint bad.
 
Errm, no they haven't! At least, not where I am: too many pots to avoid.

I just can't frame any kind of reply without ending up collapsing laughing half way through the email.

It's this idea that me sitting there sipping coffee as the boat thunders through the night on "auto" is somehow going to be safer than me standing upright at the helm peering into the gloom with my hand on the wheel!

Methinks that clause was writ with yachties in mind.

dv.
 
I dont think autohelm absolves you from your navigational insurance responsibilities.. take it up with them.. its their insurance whatever we think...some ins.cos seem more flexible than others. Doesnt suit you?Pay the premium elsewhere. However nuts its seems.. thats the terms you are paying for.....
 
I've managed to craft a semi-sensible reply, although I possibly shouldn't have used the phrase "What on earth..."

The ball is in their court now.

dv.
 
SWMBO is really interested in this point. If you can find one that opens the locks I am reliably inforrned that I will have no excuse for not making the coffee - unless of course the auto can do that as well - and at the same time of course!
 
Ok, I agree that the autopilot is for comfort and not for safety - though arguably a less stressed helmsman has also something to see with safety.
But what I don't get is why you seem to consider crazy the idea of night cruising on autopilot.
Yes, there are nights where you can see a lot, possibly with a full moon in front of you, reflected on a dead calm sea.
But have you ever tried a passage in a pitch black night?
Trust me, in such conditions your only chance to spot ANY obstacle is the radar.
Therefore, a careful setting of the radar (possibly with an alarm sector on your course), leaving the boat on autopilot, is exactly as safe as grabbing the wheel constantly, staring at nothing but the totally black glasses of the pilothouse.
Assuming that even then, you still keep an eye at the radar screen, of course. Otherwise, the autopilot+radar option is much safer!
 
Exactly. I'd regard the a/p as essential for night work.

Sure, at close quarters you might hand steer your way around obstacles. But in many conditions, especially open water and true blackness, the a/p takes over the laborious task of keep the boat on the track you've chosen, leaving the navigator to do things that a computer can't do well like observe radar and keep a look out. If helmsman is hand steering in open water too much of his attention would be burnt up by checking XTE and heading, which are tasks a computer should do (under human supervision of course).

Likewise if you want to make a course change you can dial in 20deg on the a/p in 1 second and keep your eyes on the radar and the road. With hand steering a 20deg course change diverts your attention towards looking at the heading and iteratively getting the boat on the new heading.

Of course if you have lots of crew to divide up the tasks then maybe you don't need an a/p but if you are on watch alone I'd consider it essential. So, to be honest, I don't find GJW's enquiry at all strange.
 
This a 28ft sportscruiser.

There is no "pilothouse".

The Solent is full of small unmarked lobster pot buoys, and other small uncharted buoys that do not show up on Radar.

It's very rare that I would be out in the pitch black: there is almost always some light from somewhere, and we're not talking about long passages either.

What works is to stand up and use night vision to spot the small stuff, keeping an eye on the radar for the big stuff.

Using an autopilot at night around here will result in you becoming entangled with something sooner or later, but you would at least have been tracking a very steady and accurate course as you became entangled.

dv.
 
All true, but you have kinda moved the goalposts. You're asking GJW for cover for singlehanded at night. You're not asking them for cover "at night but not in pitch black", nor cover provided "there is some light from somewhere". And you're not asking for short passages only in areas infested by lobster pots.

If they gave you what you were asking for you'd be covered for night running in circumstnaces where the absence of an a/p could contribute to an incident

It's a bit like asking your car insurance co to cover you for driving on bald tyres because it's only a small car for running to the shops and you wont be using it in the rain.

It's worth looking at it from their point of view :-)
 
Err S28 I think you're missing the point.

The autohelm isnt required so you can go to sleep its so you as a single handed sailor can leave the helm of the boat to attend to other things and the boat should still behave predicably for you and other sea users, ie steer a straight course. The direction of that coures is still your responsibility as is hitting or missing anything in your path.

Call it picky if you like but in my humble experience of MOBOS as soon as you let go of the helm they behave like supermarket trolleys and go where they like, erratic is a poor discription of their chaotic course keeping qualities.

And in my experience GJW know more than a little bit about boats.
 
Very sensible point. I didn't consider that in my previous reply, but that's absoultely true.
Unless of course the helmsman is willing to cruise with a bucket under its seat, just to make the simpler example of why one might need to leave the helm for a while...! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Besides, I obviously second what jfm says re.moving goalposts.
My objection was just meant to point out that at least in some night cruising conditions the A/P makes a lot of sense, whilst S28 and some other posters seemed to find it ridiculous anyhow.
 
>Err S28 I think you're missing the point.
>The autohelm isnt required so you can go to sleep

I think I figured that one out already /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I can see that an autopilot would be useful for longer passages across clear water, but that's not what I'm asking to be insured for, which is picking my way thru the lobster pots from Bembridge to Chichester.

I'm not going to leave the helm to "attend to other matters" with the boat underway, and I'm reasonably sure that I can keep a straight-ish course manually.
 
I am with GJW and have this endorsement on my S24 with no A/P. I just phoned them and asked for it and after a few questions it was agreed, this was a few years ago though.
 
Update:

After a bit of email ping-pong that was going nowhere, I got to speak to a nice lady called Janet with a very fetching Liverpudlian accent.

Apparently she asked around the office, and someone there owns an Ocqeteau(sp?). His reaction to the "autopilot" clause was similar to mine.

So, we agreed on a slightly increased excess if I stack it single-handed at night, which I am happy with.

Result.
 
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