The thread about boat insurance made me think of this. I hope I don't get kicked by the moderator because this is kind of an advert. But if I stay silent no-one will know of an idea that can be of benefit to many boaties so Seabreezers should at least know about it.

For 6 years recently I paid my boat Insurance for my Martzcraft 35, nearly $6000. And I made no claims. Before that many other boats. Ouch.

When I bought the Martzcraft it tried to sink a few times so I designed a simple gadget that would SMS me if water filled the bilge. Then it was expanded to check the batteries because of stuck bilge pumps and a friend got his solar panel stolen. It has become this www.trektransponder.com.au Now the gadget monitors all kinds of things including beer fridge temperature.

2 years ago I decided the gadget worked well enough to rely on it and switched to 3rd party insurance only. My insurance went from nearly $1000pa. to $400pa. A really big saving. As of now I have saved $1200. In two years. Now I ping my boat every day when Im not on it to check where it is, the batteries, bilge etc. So with this pinging I am happy that all is well.

So the story is this:- if you can get to your boat, or someone else can, when you get an alert that something is wrong and fix the problem it substantially reduces the need for insuring the boat itself or at the least should cut the premium. You are insuring it yourself by guarding it.

There is a risk that something could go wrong with the boat that was undetected or that you couldn't fix it in time and you could loose the boat. Someone could steal it very quickly. Or it could sink very fast on the mooring. For these kind of events you need insurance.

But In my 40 years of boating I never knew anyone who lost a boat fast, except offshore so that risk seems small to me which is why insurance companies have such big big buildings. They know that too.

I still have third party insurance to cover other people and their property but Im covering my boat myself.

Wow.

Awesome idea.

Im always close by chopes and bro .

But it would be nice have a night away and still know shes ok !