Preparing For What “Could Never Happen” To You

Written by Peter Teuten

Marinalife Insurance Services has had an exciting start, and we really appreciate the amazing response from the Marinalife community over the past year and a half. It has been a pleasure to get to know many of you, and we are looking forward to a bright future!

We are also looking forward to another hurricane season without a major hurricane! To those of you not based along the Eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast waters, that is naturally of little concern, but then neither was the possibility of a hurricane in rural England in October 1987. “Couldn’t happen”…“Never here”…“Don’t be ridiculous.”

At 6 p.m. on Oct. 15, 1987 the UK Met Office’s head forecaster Michael Fish confidently announced on BBC national TV that a “lady caller” from the West Country rang to say that a hurricane was on its way to London. Mr. Fish’s response: “Don’t worry folks we really don’t have hurricanes here”. The rest is history, as was Mr. Fish’s career.

Murphy’s Law of course dictates that such a comment inevitably will lead to the opposite outcome. Mr. Murphy delivered, and the whole of Southeastern England was laid waste that night. Memories of hanging on to trees and ducking flying debris seem to me like an unlikely fantasy, but they were very real. And very scary!

The point? Well, if a nickel was the prize for every time I have heard the phrase, “We have thought of just about everything and don’t really have an exposure,” I would be immeasurably wealthier than my aspirations could ever project. Things can happen and do, and they have an annoying habit of occurring just when we least expect them, or consider the possibility that they might happen at all.

Sure, we sell insurance at Marinalife, but the goal is to find ways to prevent our customers from ever being in the crosshairs of an accident that could be prevented or at least be mitigated by adequate and reasoned preparation.

Our insurers, of course, love to hear comments like that, but the real winners are you the boater. Like it or not, having to deal with an insurance claim is inconvenient and stressful at best, and avoidance of this is always the smartest goal.

Providing free risk analysis and mitigation planning, which is a key part of what we do at Marinalife Insurance Services, is a highly effective way of attaining this goal. Yeah, we want to help you navigate the insurance-buying process, too, but once you get to that point, doesn’t it make more sense to present a risk to your insurers that is fully mitigated? Guess what, your insurance premium comes down!

Please feel free to call us, and let us help you navigate these processes. In the meantime, stay safe on the water and remember that weather is fickle, boats can be bothersome and tides treacherous!

Easy Steps:

• Review your personal safety checklist
• Call Peter Teuten for a free risk assessment at 410-752-0505 ext. 1004
• Renew your boaters insurance with Marinalife Insurance Services.

Peter Teuten has more than 34 years experience in the insurance and risk management fields in a number of diverse operational, management and ownership roles. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and contributes to multiple global publications.