42: No 6-pack, no insurance. Huh, really?

[upspirate]

When I went for insurance on my 21' powerboat, I asked about a discount because I had a 100ton master at that time. They said no discount unless I took a CGaux or Power Squadron course.


I found it very interesting that the CG found me competent to take a 100 ton vessel with passengers 200 miles offshore, but State Farm would only give a discount with a flunky safe boating class (better than nothing, but nothing compared to getting an OUPV or Master)


I went ahead and took the class with my new wife and stepdaughter as a refresher and to support them as well as ins discount



At the CG Ax class, the teachers got rules and requirements wrong, they didn't know anything about sailing so asked the class if they could skip that part, (I ended up teaching that part) and they got the part wrong about inflatable PFD's (needing to be worn to comply)

[Lihuedooley77]

yep,

Those insurance peddlers, and people who have never EARNED a U.S.C.G six pack, or 100 ton and dismiss those certification and the knowledge gained have no clue as to the safety and nautical knowledge that a person will acquire.

When I first read that they wanted an applicant for insurance to take the Power Squadron Course, I thought what the heck, I may learn something, and good on
upspirate for getting his family involved. And then it turns out that those courses were not presented accurately to the students.
__________________________________________________ _________________

We had a guy that worked for our sailing club, supposed to be a ace on sailing, motor vessels, and nautical knowledge....some one named him the bull -alvard bosun .

He would tell every one that he was not going to take the prep course or get the
U.S.C.G 100 ton, because if he messed up the U.SC.G would not be able to take anything away from him, and he would be blameless. Brilliant deduction !

He also performed maintanence on our vessels sail and motor up to 55 footers. We had a four day club flotiala ( 10 boats ) cruise from Newport Bay up to the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz and Anacapa and return. I was skippering one of the instructor boats, a 45 foot sailing vessel. Unknown to me or anyone else, he had worked on the binnacle throttle and gear shift cables the day before we departed. That required , removing the ships binnacle compass and of course putting it back in place. Sell, he totally screwed up the binnacle compass. I was not aware.

The cruise was several days, and included night sailing, and a huge fog , very low visibility situation for many hours.

The bloody ships compass varied as to deviation up to 45 or more degrees depending on the heading. It was not a set deviation.

I used my hand bearing compass for the proper heading, and then used the bogus ships compass heading to hold course . Related to and check our proper heading in short intervals.

Lesson Learned : Now when I get on any vessel, I compare the ships compass
with my personal hand bearing compass. I also check the autopilot heading with
my hand bearing compass.

And yes, I had the auto pilot heading indicator on a Moorings bare boat, off by 20 to 40 degrees. The ships compass was correct. Really did not have to depend on the auto pilot for nav since the boats compass was correct. But, from what we see, not many people hand steer any vessels or use coastal nav in this day of magic boxes.

We actually had a very low vis ( 200 yds down to a few feet , rain and low clouds situation from the Mooring Base, Tortola to Norman Island. We just left the auto pilot off and dead reckoned . All turned out fine.

Lesson learned to check ships compasses and other nav gear headings with my hand bearing compass , and followed that for 30 years thanks to the guy to knew it all ,

Well......, none of us , will know it all .

Just FYI to support upspriate's experience, and one little additional safety idea
when pre checking all of the vessels systems , before departure.

[Brewgyver]

[QUOTE=Lihuedooley77;2987076]yep,

(snippage)
my hand bearing compass.

And yes, I had the auto pilot heading indicator on a Moorings bare boat, off by 20 to 40 degrees. The ships compass was correct. Really did not have to depend on the auto pilot for nav since the boats compass was correct. But, from what we see, not many people hand steer any vessels or use coastal nav in this day of magic boxes.
(snip)/QUOTE]


With apologies for the thread drift, I totally agree with verifying the ship's compass on a strange boat. As to the AP, I would hope that any charter company would tell me where the fluxgate compass was located, as it is far too easy to throw them off just in loading the boat. Some newer designs (Raymarine EV, e.g.) are supposed to be immune to such things as loading a mess of steel canned food on the opposite side of the bulkhead from the sensor, but most charter boats will have the older fluxgate-type unit.