What is the alcohol limit on board?

Anyone in charge of a pleasure craft on German waters is subject to its own alcohol limits. On inland waterways the limit for the person in charge, and for anyone contributing to the safety of the passage, is 0.5 per mille; beyond that the general rule applies that nobody may navigate who is not in a fit state to do so. The same principle governs sea waterways. Above 1.1 per mille you are in the range of absolute unfitness, with criminal consequences and the risk of losing your licence, including your car licence.

In insurance terms alcohol is the point where wordings are least forgiving. Most other breaches of care are graded: a waiver of the defence of gross negligence absorbs a great deal, or it stays at a higher excess. For alcohol and drugs that waiver is expressly carved out in the wordings we reviewed. It does not apply, and the indemnity can be reduced to nil.

Two practical consequences. First, the question is not whether you feel fit to navigate but what an expert reconstructs afterwards. Second, it does not only hit hull cover. In personal accident cover too, a disturbance of consciousness caused by alcohol is excluded, and there it concerns injury to people. If there is drinking on board, decide beforehand who stays sober, and let that person berth the boat.

Worth remembering

The waiver of the gross negligence defence absorbs a great deal. For alcohol and drugs it is expressly excluded in the wordings we reviewed.