Is single-handed sailing covered?

Short answer

Sailing alone inevitably means periods without a watch and without a lookout. That is exactly the point, and most wordings never address it.

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Anyone sailing alone eventually sleeps. That is not carelessness, it is the nature of the thing, and it is still where single-handers come unstuck in policy wordings. An unmanned watch can be read as a breach of the duty of care, and a lookout that is not posted as a breach of the collision regulations.

The market handles this differently but rarely expressly. Almost nobody prescribes a minimum crew or a minimum number of manned watches. One large provider does exclude single-handed passages of more than 24 hours at a stretch in its bought-in overseas areas, and several wordings steer through general care clauses whose application in a claim is anyone’s guess. The effect is the same: you do not know in advance where you stand.

We say it expressly: single-handed sailing is covered, as are the skipper’s rest periods and time without a manned watch and without a lookout. There is no minimum crew and no minimum number of manned watches, in every tier and without a bolt-on. If this matters to you, ask every provider to put it in writing. A wording that is silent has not decided the question, it has postponed it.

Does that hold for long overnight passages?

Yes. The undertaking is not tied to a duration, neither 24 nor 48 hours.

Do I have to prove my experience?

For worldwide cruising, yes: evidence of the required qualification and of the sea miles sailed, both in text form before we accept.

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