Speed limits, wash and what a fine really costs

How fast you may go is not a question for an insurance contract. It is set by the harbour authority, by the navigation authority or by local byelaws, and the figure changes from one stretch of water to the next. Inside harbour limits and close inshore it is almost always far lower than outside, and many places add zones where any wash at all is prohibited, whatever the speed. The notice at the entrance and the authority's own byelaws are the source that counts, not the habit of the boat ahead.

A penalty for exceeding a limit is a personal sanction. It follows the person who was at the helm, it is not a loss to the boat, and it is not the kind of thing an insurance contract is built to absorb. What does differ between contracts is the legal side of it: whether costs in regulatory or criminal proceedings connected with the use of the boat are addressed at all, whether legal advice by telephone is available, and whether that part of the wording reaches beyond home waters. Those are questions to put in writing before a season in the Mediterranean, not after a letter arrives.

The expensive case is a different one. While nothing happens, speed costs a fine. The moment something happens at an unlawful speed, the conversation is no longer about a penalty but about how the damage was caused, and that is the ground on which liability and any argument with an insurer are fought. The same goes for the wash: the boats that snatch at their lines as you pass, the pontoon that takes the load, the tender that fills. The wash is yours, and the first question afterwards is always how fast you were going.

Worth remembering

One costs a fixed sum. The other decides who pays for the pontoon.

Who sets the speed limit in a harbour?

The harbour or navigation authority, through its byelaws. The figure varies from one place to the next, and the notice at the entrance is the version that counts.

Can a fine be insured?

No. A penalty is a personal sanction, it follows the person at the helm rather than the boat, and that holds wherever you are. What a contract can be checked for is the legal process around it.

Am I liable for my own wash?

Yes. Damage that your wash causes to other boats, to a pontoon or to a tender is a liability question, and the speed you were making is the first thing anyone will ask about.

What changes if there is damage as well as an offence?

It stops being a regulatory matter and becomes a question of how the damage was caused. That is where arguments about serious carelessness begin, and they decide far more than the fine does.

What should I check before a season abroad?

The speed and wash rules of the waters you plan to use, and, in writing, how the contract treats legal costs in proceedings connected with the use of the boat outside home waters.

You hit the boat next door Who pays when you damage the pontoon? Gross negligence and your own mistakes