Dive boat accident involving Dive tech and Cathy Church boat

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Ok everyone, I think the point has been made, let’s not drive the woman to suicide. I’m sure she feels terrible about it and will never get over it. It will likely get adjudicated correctly. She wasn’t drunk as far as we know and from all accounts she is a very nice person. She will likely never drive a boat again etc. etc.

 

[flyboy08]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Insurance covers you for "accidents". They don't generally like to cover you for deliberately stupid actions.

Wrong...there are no stupidity exclusions in policies....short of burning down your own property.

 

[AggieDiver]

See above regarding the difference between negligence and gross negligence. Driving a boat too fast for the conditions and accidentally hitting a partially submerged piece of debris is an accident (possibly negligent). Aiming your boat at a mooring that is occupied by another boat and leaving the helm is deliberately stupid (probably grossly negligent).

 

[Divetech Cayman]

Hi all,

first of all thanks for your kind words regarding this incident.

We’re mostly thankful that no injuries have been reported with either the guests and crew on our boat, the other involved vessel, or other people at the scene. Our crew transferred our guests safely to one of our other vessels after the incident to complete their afternoon of scheduled dives on the Kittiwake and a reef.

I would like to compliment our crew members Drew and Kim who handled themselves calmly and professionally during the incident, and thank the other dive operators on the island for their support and assistance.

High season and a boat out of the water for a while will have a huge impact on Divetech's business. Their other boat will be packed and/or they will be losing clients and dollars through no fault of their own. I feel badly for Divetech owners, staff and customers.

Remember that we recently acquired a new 36' Newton to the fleet just a few months ago - Atamyway. With this new addition, we were able to keep all of our customers diving as normal this week. The only thing inconvenienced was our staff by having to shuffle boats around, however this is very minor and nothing we are not accustom to. While it may affect our 12-month growth strategy, we really do not anticipate much if any impact to our customers in the next few months. Had this happened before the busy Christmas season it would have been a different story.

Tony

 

[Wookie]

Wrong...there are no stupidity exclusions in policies....short of burning down your own property.

I'm not a lawyer, or an insurance dealer in this or any state, but I just read my last boat policy, which was a 2 million dollar policy, and the specific exclusion wording in my P&I policy was:

This Endorsement Does Not Extend Coverage To Any Entity for Liability Attributable To or Allegations Made Against Said Entity for His/Her/It's Own Conduct.

 

[caydiver]

Doubt anyone will be able to explain this. Marl Road has an article as well but as usual the press is offering anything too helpful aside from supposition. Obviously they cannot know until an investigation is done but that doesn’t stop the Headline Grabbing Poop. Sadly by the time the truth is available everyone has their mind made up from reading the HGP. Thanks Tony for letting us know all is well. Hope whatever lead up to the situation on Cathy’s boat isn’t serious and they are okay too. Until the authorities are done there will be no factual information on media source and after the investigation is finished what is publicly announced may very well be a deeply edited version. Sometimes ops do lend crew and boats and equipment. Other ops did it for us when our boat sank. Everyone has their own customers to deal with but will help wherever they can as should happen anywhere in the world.

 

[flyboy08]

I'm not a lawyer, or an insurance dealer in this or any state, but I just read my last boat policy, which was a 2 million dollar policy, and the specific exclusion wording in my P&I policy was:

One must read the whole contract..what is this endorsement referring too? If I'm not the named insured, I can run your boat aground on purpose...your insurance would make you whole again.

 

[Wookie]

One must read the whole contract..what is this endorsement referring too? If I'm not the named insured, I can run your boat aground on purpose...your insurance would make you whole again.

If I let you run my boat, I’m negligent and if you aren’t licensed, grossly negligent.

 

[tridacna]

All depends on the country or state. Some entities differentiate between Gross and Willful. Some do not. Hard to determine without seeing the actual policy. But this is the Internet...

 

[flyboy08]

If I let you run my boat, I’m negligent and if you aren’t licensed, grossly negligent.

And your insurance would still respond...