New boat insurance requirements

[lkb]

USAWaterski announced today that boats used to pull sanctioned events now have to have $1,000,000 of liability coverage. How much more will it cost to get the extra coverage? Sounds like it just got harder to get boats to pull our tournaments.

I sanctioned my tournaments today. For each tournament, as the organizer I had to legally acknowledge not once, not twice, but three times that my a$$ is on the line if anyone gets hurt. It's getting to the point where it's not worth the risk.

[boarditup]

Global Marine Insurance writes these policies.

Be sure to run your events through an corporation or an LLC.

[lkb]

Boarditup, do you know how much more a boat premium costs when you have to get $1,000,000 worth of liability instead of 500k?

[boarditup]

Not much more.  I am switching from Progressive to Global.  I'll get a complete quote tomorrow.

 

[RichardDoane]

I received quotes from Global Marine, and to increase the liability from $500K to $1 Million was only a $56. increase - well worth it.

[Old MS Accout]

1 more gouge for the promo guys to eat.

[lkb]

Exactly

[PJ]

i thought that it has been at $1,000,000 for a while now.

[jdarwin]

As a tournament organizer/site owner, your a$$ has been on the line for years - the USAWS insurance is 3rd party at best.  Meaning, the skiers health insurance is primary, the boat owner's insurance is secondary and any other insurance covering the host site then responds.  After all other remedies have been exhausted, THEN and only then, does the USAWS insurance respond.  You get what you pay for.

[lkb]

Jdarwin, what are your thoughts about USAW making the organizer sign a contract saying he must run the event by all the rules of the organization and then when sanctioning a tournament the organizer has to acknowledge/agree to the same contract two more times before getting the sanction? To me, that part feels like if God forbid, something does go wrong, USAW will be trying to find a way to put everything back on the organizer. 

[Old MS Accout]

The first big Jonny Cochern lawsuit will shut the tourney scean down on all the private lakes. It will be back to wally world public water for tournement sites.  

[BrandonWolf]

USA-WS has not increased the Watercraft Liability requirements. The minimum requirement is still $500K, but the difference is that if the boat owner chooses to carry $1M in Watercraft Liability coverage USA-WS will provide excess coverage to the boat owner if an incident were to result from the use and operation of the boat during a USA-WS sanctioned event. Please refer to the Boat Insurance Requirements for details at the following link:  http://www.usawaterski.org/graphics/downloads/InsuranceResources/SanctionedEvents/TowboatInsuranceRequirements.PDF

 If anyone has any questions feel free to email me directly at bwolf@usawaterski.org.

[jdarwin]

lkb - to a certain extent, that has always been the case.  Any good agreement has "exit clauses" built in.  In insurance contracts, they are called "exceptions".  Meaning, if you failed IN ANY MANNER to abide by the rules and regulations, all bets are off as far as their coverage is concerned.  As site owners, we have the responsibility (and ultimately the liability) to expend due diligence to make certain our events are run within the scope of the rules.  We’re no further out on a limb this year than we’ve been in the past.  The difference is that it has been made visible this year thru the execution of these addendums.  In the end, USAWS’s insurance provider is simply increasing the amount of their deductible from $500k to $1mil. 

[lkb]

Brandon-thanks for the clarification. I see now that I misread it. Jdarwin-do you use the Global Marine Lakeowners Liability Policy? Just curious what other lakeowners are using for coverage for day in day out activity.

[Horton]

Hey guys Brandon Wolf reads BallOfSpray! Yaaaa