Liability Insurance for RC Subs

[TuptubBuilder]

I'm in the process of switching Home Owners Insurance Providers and the subject of drones cam up. That got me thinking about driving RC subs in Public Lakes. Does anyone own or thought about Insurance to cover anything like this? I know that RC airplanes can be covered by the AMA.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I'm in the process of switching Home Owners Insurance Providers and the subject of drones cam up. That got me thinking about driving RC subs in Public Lakes. Does anyone own or thought about Insurance to cover anything like this? I know that RC airplanes can be covered by the AMA.

The quickest way to ruin something is to invite Lawyer's into the process.

Lawyers write the Bills; Lawyers pass the Bills into Law; Lawyers argue the laws in criminal and civil court; and, finally, Lawyer's advance and slip into back evening dress, grab a gavel, assume three-feet of altitude and from up-on-high adjudicate the law. All to enrich and empower their very special professional community. ****ing lawyers!!!

As we shlubs loose our boating sites, battle with empowered Karin's, and watch products we require leave the shelves because some god-damned law firm sued the pants off some supplier, driving them out of business, or to produce a 'safer' (less useful) product via a class-actin law-suite some Ambulance-Chaser secured for his firm.

NOW YOU MUST have insurance! Thank the lawyers of the world for this awful situation. They get their cut of your money -- like it or not.

[TuptubBuilder]

It' seems that today's society is a sue happy "ok boomer" world. I'm glad that I don't fly drones given the FAA regulations and liability concerns. Just the fact that drones are a line item on my insurance application gave my pause for concern. This is going off topic but this whole situation stems from my current Home Owners Insurer trying to find cause to drop me. I'm slipping back to my "Hippie" days when you couldn't trust the "man".

[CC Clarke]

An RC aircraft owner has a significantly greater potential to hurt someone or damage personal property than an RC submarine operator. In the case of the larger aircraft, crashing one in a crowd could kill people. I think liability insurance for those in this hobby is a bit of a stretch to even worry about. (Unless the boat is nuclear-powered of course.)

[SubSteve]

I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of an unlicensed nuclear reactor in my teenytiny model submarine.

[TuptubBuilder]

I agree that the risk is all but zero. I just find the trend to be scary, especially for drones. There is insurance available, namely NAMBA. After a cursory review, I have decided not to go down that rabbit hole and vow to never mention the subjects of insurance and liability ever again.

[Marylandradiosailor]

I think the risks with subs is pretty low, however I used to be very active with kids groups including hosting many model rocket launches so I carried a large personal umbrella insurance policy just in case which was above what the model rocket organization carried. Well fortunately we never had an accident with the youth groups, however the utter destruction MY kids caused behind the wheel of various moving vehicles made me very happy I carried the umbrella policy.

[Albacore 569]

I think it is a non-issue due to the nature of our hobby. most or all insurance is related to liability against speeding moving objects or aerial objects. RC subs are neither also they operate in a medium (water) where persons are usually not present. We don't even make loud sounds or noises to annoy neighbors.

If such an issue was to surface, the issue to me would seem ultimately one of education about the hobby, not insurance. It someone says you need insurance for stamp collecting, lol...it's a scam.

Firing a model rocket from a model submarine might be an issue, but how many in our hobby do that? The whisky Long Bin building thread I don't think will have any or do our Germans friends need really? lol.

It could get complicated if you ever may need a diver to recover a model in a lake. Permissions from the park service if there is any. Risk to the diver, but also a diver should already have a clear understanding of any risk involved in diving in the first p[lace.

Best policy is designing your model, so you have a very high degree of certainty you never have to go swimming in the first place.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I think it is a non-issue due to the nature of our hobby. most or all insurance is related to liability against speeding moving objects or aerial objects. RC subs are neither also they operate in a medium (water) where persons are usually not present. We don't even make loud sounds or noises to annoy neighbors.

If such an issue was to surface, the issue to me would seem ultimately one of education about the hobby, not insurance. It someone says you need insurance for stamp collecting, lol...it's a scam.

Firing a model rocket from a model submarine might be an issue, but how many in our hobby do that? The whisky Long Bin building thread I don't think will have any or do our Germans friends need really? lol.

It could get complicated if you ever may need a diver to recover a model in a lake. Permissions from the park service if there is any. Risk to the diver, but also a diver should already have a clear understanding of any risk involved in diving in the first p[lace.

Best policy is designing your model, so you have a very high degree of certainty you never have to go swimming in the first place.

All well and good, Steve. I agree that (discounting ordnance and ramming attacks) our vehicles present little possibility of injury or property damage to other parties. But, it's what the City, State, and Nation does -- in answer to Lawyer mandates and lawsuits -- that directly effects us submarine drivers.

Lake and pool owner-operators are subject to lawsuits resulting from the conduct of people who use such waters -- if I drown in such waters will my estate sue everyone in sight at the urging of some Ambulance-Chasing scum-bag?

In these very litigious times its become much easier for pool and lake owners to say no to us, than yes.

We lost our boating site because some drunk Mexican illegal swam out to retrieve his r/c boat and drowned. The City was sued and his relatives south of the boarder scored millions in Virginia resident tax-money. Lawyers at work. Mount Trashmore is no longer available to us.

Remember: Lawyers write and pass the Bills. And they use the Laws created to enrich themselves.

[Subculture]

It varies here in the UK. Some venues will insists on modellers having insurance, others it's up to the individual, but its not generally mandatory.

I had a laugh some years back about a story regarding the model boating lake in Highgate, which is based on the east side of Hampstead Heath. This is a very affluent area, and some influential busy bodies were successful in banning i.c. engined craft from the pond on the grounds of noise and pollution and requiring modellers to have insurance if operating other craft, yet when works on the pond started requiring partial damming and draining, a mark 3 Ford Cortina was found in the bottom, alongside numerous other dubious objects.