Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/274

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YACHTING INSURANCE.

ALSO A FEW LEGAL WRINKLES ON THE STATUS AND RELATION OF OWNER TO CREW.

Underwriters, as a rule, seem not particularly anxious to run foot-races after the owners of small yachts who navigate their own craft. For some reason or other the amateur skipper is looked upon by them with suspicion and disfavor. Why, I do not know, for considering the immense number of pleasure craft in commission every year the ratio of loss through wreck, collision, or fire is remarkably low. I think, if underwriters took this circumstance into consideration, they would find it in their interest to offer more attractive inducements to owners of yachts to insure their floating property.

The vast number of pleasure craft in commission on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, on our great fresh-water lakes, and on the large sheets of water that, like the Great South Bay, are divided from the ocean proper by a strip