Travel Insurance requirement when doing overnight sailing courses?

[Learning Curve]

I've booked myself on 3x2day (overnight) sailing courses and the sign up document suggests I take out travel Insurance. This seems really odd to me as I've only ever taken out travel Insurance for international travel. I'm based in Sydney Australia and the yachts stay within 15 NM off the coast when out doing the course. Is it normal to have to take out such Insurance?

It's not a large cost but is more having to go through the process and having to do this for each two day course as they''re spread apart.

I guess it would cover costs if I had to cancel the course due to ill health etc but the other side of it is the chance I became injured at sea. The course contract naturally indemnifies the sailing school for anything and everything.

Has anybody else had to do this and is there a better way than having to take out separate policies each time?

Thanks

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Learning Curve.

[Sailmonkey]

I've personally never taken travel insurance, and can't imagine ever doing so unless I book a month + long ascent of Everest and was worried about the flu.

IMHO, weigh the cost against what you're willing to lose. It's gambling that is tilted heavily in the favor of the house.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[jstevens]

I guess I'd call the school and ask them why they recommend this insurance, and what it insures.
Is this insurance offered by the school to cover cancellations due to weather or equipment failures, or is this insurance for those travelling to the school. Sounds like it is a local school for you.

John

[Learning Curve]

Thanks John. It's only a recommendation so students are free to go source ourselves. Yes I did call them today and they said it was a personal choice and to cover cancellation costs, medical emergency or similar.
Cheers
Noel

[jrbogie]

Originally Posted by Learning Curve

I've booked myself on 3x2day (overnight) sailing courses and the sign up document suggests I take out travel Insurance. This seems really odd to me as I've only ever taken out travel Insurance for international travel. I'm based in Sydney Australia and the yachts stay within 15 NM off the coast when out doing the course. Is it normal to have to take out such Insurance?

It's not a large cost but is more having to go through the process and having to do this for each two day course as they''re spread apart.

I guess it would cover costs if I had to cancel the course due to ill health etc but the other side of it is the chance I became injured at sea. The course contract naturally indemnifies the sailing school for anything and everything.

Has anybody else had to do this and is there a better way than having to take out separate policies each time?

Thanks

it's not a large cost because insurance companies know the risk is somewhere near microscopic.

[roverhi]

They probably recommended the insurance to save you the loss of their fee should you not be able to make the course. If there is a no refund policy for the course fee, you'd be out the money without the insurance. They are just being proactive to make you aware of a remedy for a situation you may not have thought of. Of course there is always the possibility that they get a kickback from the insurance company.

[PappysSailing]

I've worked for a sailing school here in Texas for the last seven years and no students were ever charged for a 'no show'. True, their deposits were held to be applied for their next 'space available' opportunity to join a class, but that always seemed fair to both parties.
As far as other sailing insurance goes for this activity, the organization that I worked through included about a million $$ worth of liability ins for me, the instructor, to pay out if one of the students were hurt or property damage occurred under my direction. Of course, the owner of the boats had hull insurance, etc.
Travel insurance directly related to the class.... ? sounds like some gently educated, social media aficionado in their marketing department might ..
Hell, I'll just leave it at that. Cheers, Pappy

[dannc]

We have bought travel insurance twice due to what we considered a greater risk and/or large enough amounts of money at risk.

One policy paid out due to an injury and the second policy was not used. Frankly, I wish the first policy was not used as well.

One should look at the cost of the policy, what the policy will pay for if it is triggered, and how much money is at risk if there is a problem with the trip.

We were/are looking at some at sea sailing classes that are 5-10 nights long. Given the schedule I was seeing for these classes, the likely hood of their being a weather/travel delay/cancellation, and expense, we will look at travel insurance if we went on one of those trips/classes. Flip side, if we were taking a class that was a couple hours away, and comparatively low cost, we would not get travel insurance.

Some travel policies include medical evacuation back to your home country. If you need that service and don't have the insurance, it is going to be very expensive.

Later,
Dan

[Sun and Moon]

Just came back from a bike trip to Italy. My buddy actually bought the full package medical evacuation insurance and unfortunately got hit by a truck and spent 9 days in an Italian hospital with broken fibula, 4 broken ribs, 2 broken vertebrae and something wrong with his shoulder. His insurance was absolutely worthless. They did nothing and paid nothing. Eventually he came home on his original ticket, upgraded for $300 to business class. There may have been contributory communication issues between the Italian hospital and doctors (who speak very little English) and the insurance co, but surely part of their responsibility is communication.

On the bright side, the Italian hospital and medical care was wonderful. The hospital, the driver's insurance and Kaiser cooperated and resolved whatever issues they had. And rumor has it my buddy, who is recovering remarkably well, now has the phone numbers of a bevy of Italian nurses.

[bvisailing32]

Factual experience.....different destination and more days. Long flights.

Over all of the years that we bare boat chartered all over the planet, usually two weeks in great cruising grounds , we always added on the trip insurance. Just in case.

One year, we were two weeks away from sailing with the moorings in Belize. We were flying out of LAX, our friends who were also coming along were out of Minneapolis , Minnesota.

Erica and I had sailed our Ericson/Olsen 34 over to Catalina for a three day weekend, and were moored in Avalon. We had plans to go ashore for dinner, but another couple who we knew well, were also moored a few boats down and came over to have boat drinks.

Belize was still two weeks away, the boat, airfare, hotels, provisioning, everything was prepaid. Normal procedure, and that came to several thousand dollars.

After a couple of rums, our Catalina friends ran us ashore to a small dinghy dock that had a rather steep inclined ramp heading up to the road. Erica was in front of me, I was clowning around pushing on her tush, and planted my foot on the ramp as I pushed her up the high incline.

Kersnap ! My calf muscle tears, and I heard it. Not good. I hobbled to dinner ashore there in Avalon, and back to our vessel on the shore boat.
The next morning, we sailed home to Newport bay, about 26 miles. I was effective as skipper, and had Erica as crew. She did most all of the deck work, and we swapped out helm watches.

After docking the boat, Erica drove me to the VA, and after exrays and doctors and big black boot and crutches I called the Moorings the next day.
They said no way should I be skippering a sailing vessel in Belize.

The trip insurance kicked in. They returned all of our Belize trip money , the airfare, the hotel for a couple of days, the boat costs for 14 days, everything.


We used a trip insurance company called Travel Guard.

Two weeks later I received a check in the mail for all of our paid costs, and immediately sent the exact amount paid by our friends to them by check.

All those 33 years of bare boating, it was the only time that we had to actually use the trip insurance. Very happy that we had it. Also, it effected our friends as well since they also signed up for the trip insurance.

There you go, when we travel on vacations, land or sea, we still sign up for the trip insurance. Sometimes we have to use different companies. So far we have never had to actually use it again. Which is good.

As to your own situation, which is a bit different, that is your decision.

[Cheechako]

If your flight is delayed or cancelled etc and you lose your school booking it covers that right? and things like that...

[Snowdog2]

Hi,

I have bought travel insurance for some trips including a week long livaboard. Never used it. But here is a story from the other side, and even though it is not a sailing course example, the concept applies. I used to rent my home out to renters on Cape Cod. In our contract we always recommend travel insurance. We do this, as we are not the insurer if they need to back out. Well, one year a two-week renter, who was a repeat renter from previous years needed to back out due to health reasons (which travel insurance would have covered). Our policy states that less than 60 days, no refund. This was a difficult situation for us, as the owners of the property. As it turned out we were able to rent one of the weeks, but not the second week. It had been reserved 6 months or more in advance. In the end, we returned one weeks rent, but not the second week, as we were out the money. Had we returned the rent, we would have become the default insurers. We could not rent it that week in the few weeks we had, and due to them having reserved the property up till a few weeks before the rental, it was not available during the prime rental period.

So the question is, if you have a situation that causes you to cancel, would you expect the school to cost themselves the money if they can not fill your slot? We did not have to return any of the funds, by our contract, but we did our best to rent it once we knew, and we would have returned all the funds if we could have rented both weeks, but that is up to each school.

[LTDsailing]

I agree that with the class being local for you, it seems unnecessary. We have had a few students who were forced to cancel their courses due to circumstances beyond their control and have always worked with them to re-schedule their courses. For us it is all about whether we can re-schedule the boats or not as we often use boats from Sunsail / The Moorings. But they have always been willing to work with us. So - no problem.

The one time I saw travel insurance work for someone was when I was running a flotilla for Sunsail. One of our guests had a hip dislocation and the medical facilities in the Grenadines were unable to deal with it. His travel insurance arranged a private plane with a doctor and nurse to transport him to Martinique for medical care. I was impressed!

[Mithril Bham]

We would always offer travel insurance but not necessarily recommend it. Like all insurance. Obviously favors the house heavily but great when you need it. Like betting in a casino.