Calculate the distance to the horizon: visibility and the duty to keep a proper lookout

From the cockpit of a sailing yacht, roughly two metres above the water, your view reaches barely three nautical miles. A cargo ship whose superstructure stands thirty metres high is seen much sooner, because the two distances to the horizon add together. That is precisely why large vessels seem to appear out of nowhere: they have been there all along; it is only their hull that lies below the horizon.

In legal and insurance terms, this is what the duty to keep a proper lookout turns on. A collision in which the lookout was demonstrably neglected raises the question of gross negligence, both in the liability cover towards the other vessel and in your own hull cover.

For your cover the picture is simple: collisions are covered from Basis-Plus upwards under the all risks comprehensive hull cover, even where you caused the damage, while the Basis tariff gives you only partial hull cover without collision protection. The waiver of the defence of gross negligence likewise applies from Basis-Plus upwards. If you know how far you can see, you are less likely to find yourself having to fall back on that waiver.