Sorry if the details of complying with the new sanctions are posted elsewhere. If they are let me know.
We've chosen to sanction our 2013 event through USMS because we believe we can fulfill the new requirements. Last year our event had a number of paddlers around our 2.5k perimeter supported by 4-5 motorboats. Two were government boats, the other three private.
My approach to trying to secure the 3 private crafts again this year will be to:
First seek boats with inboard motor (which I believe can operate around/outside the course)
Then boats with outboard motors (stationed at anchor with engines off around the perimeter)
As far as insurance (getting boaters to produce a cert of liability for with a min of $1M), this actually seems more complicated than I first realized. A boating friend emailed me this:
Vessels that are insured usually include $300,000 liability. A $1m increase would require additional insurance premium. For example, our craft has a hull insurance of $200,000 and a personal liability of $100,000. We do that because we have the umbrella on our homeowners of $1m.
Bottom line, the vessel insurance is not the way to go. the operators will have to get personal individual $1m liability from their insurance co or yours.
Has anyone done this yet or is anyone aware of the costs involved to a private boater to securing a cert of liability in this amount?
If the new rules are too prohibitive to secure private boaters our approach will be to recruit as many paddlers as we possibly can to station around the course supported by the two government boats. Not the way we prefer to go but sounds like there are no other options.
Dave, can you please provide a reference for this? I looked through cibbows.org and cibbows.net and did not find one instance of the word "insurance" anywhere. Maybe I missed it. In fact, on the cibbows.org home page there is a fine print section at the bottom that includes the following:
If you are advertising that an event or an organization provides insurance for participation and/or members, the coverage really should be spelled out for them. I would hope that your events also spell out what insurance coverage, if any, is available to participants.
The USMS accident and liability insurance programs are documented at www.usms.org/.../gto_ins_general.pdf.
will bring that up with the board. website updates often lag a bit....