Basic knowledge of insurance

A fair-weather weekend trip on a motorboat is a leisurely affair. In this situation, neither the skipper, his crew nor the guests think seriously about the fact that the risk of an accident is higher on a boat trip than on a normal stay on land.

Without dramatising the risks, we would like to make it clear below that everyone involved in motorboat sports has the opportunity to at least minimise their individual risk by taking out insurance. We deliberately speak of the "possibility" and not of a must, because there is no legal obligation to take out insurance for water sports enthusiasts or those involved in water sports in Germany.

Depending on the form of your involvement in motorboat sports, we will tell you what insurance is available for you and whether it makes sense or not.

The passenger

They merely travel more or less frequently on different boats belonging to friends, acquaintances or relatives. You may take the helm from time to time, but you are not the skipper.

According to Section 823 of the German Civil Code, anyone is liable to an unlimited extent for damages that they culpably cause to others. And this applies to his entire present and future assets. To prevent this, there is the Personal liability insurance. Nobody should go through life without such a policy. It covers the everyday risks of private individuals and includes liability when practising sports (except shooting, gliding and certain martial arts). Damage caused intentionally is excluded from the obligation to pay benefits. So if you are travelling with friends on a boat, whether sporadically or regularly, you are on the safe side with personal liability insurance.

If, for example, expensive equipment is broken, the boat is damaged or another person suffers a serious injury due to the negligence of a crew member, the skipper will initially have to answer the question of whether he has instructed his crew correctly. However, if it turns out that the skipper did everything correctly, the person responsible will be held accountable - or their insurance company.

Experts recommend a sum insured of at least three million euros for personal injury and property damage and at least 500,000 euros for financial losses.

A passenger also runs the risk of being injured on board. Sometimes so much so that permanent physical impairments are the result, leading to the partial or complete loss of the ability to work or earn a living. Even if an accident cannot always be prevented, the financial consequences can be minimised. This is where private accident insurancebetter still aOccupational disability policyso as not to be dependent solely on state support in the event of a permanent loss of earnings.

Accident insurance covers full or partial disability. Its benefits are intended to compensate for the loss of earnings resulting from the accident, cover any necessary disability-related modifications to the home or house and enable additional aids or therapies not covered by the health insurance or pension insurance provider.

The German Insurance Association has the following rule of thumb for the amount of cover: 30-year-olds should insure six times their gross annual income, 40-year-olds five times and 50-year-olds four times their gross annual income. At www.bundderversicherten.de you will also find other important aspects that everyone should pay attention to when taking out private accident insurance, such as the agreement of a so-called progression or the waiver of an accident annuity agreement.

If the family of a passenger should not suddenly find themselves in financial difficulties, especially in the worst-case scenario of an accident resulting in death, a Term life insurance further. The sum insured should correspond to at least one, preferably two years' gross income so that the surviving dependants have enough time to reorganise their lives without financial pressure.

You can find the article "Insurance basics" in BOOTE issue 10/2020 from 16/09/2020 at newsagents or online in the Delius Klasing Shop.