The Beaufort scale, wind force, wave height and the storm clause

The Beaufort scale does not describe the wind alone, but its effect on the water: ripples, white horses, streaks of foam, breaking seas. In practice wave height tells you more than wind speed, and wave height depends on fetch and water depth as well. The sea at wind force 6 in the Baltic looks different from the sea at wind force 6 in the Atlantic.

On the insurance side, wind force 8 is the threshold: from that point on, an event counts as a storm. Storm damage is covered under our tariffs, with no hurricane or cyclone exclusion clause and no securing obligations for the storm season. Other policy wordings do impose restrictions there, and if in doubt that is the paragraph to read before a summer in the south.

One thing applies with us too: the general duty of care. Anyone who stays in the berth with inadequate mooring gear when a storm is forecast risks being accused of gross negligence. Gross negligence is included from Basis-Plus up to 25 per cent of the sum insured and in the Premium tariff up to 50 per cent, but it remains a risk that a second line would prevent.