Dave and Mike Hill,

I think that the practice that Scooby point's to is the right way to go!

I don't have a problem with a statement that the skippers sign stating... "I certify that I have 100,000 in liability insurance." (This is the way we used to run things BTW)

If the skipper lies and events come back to bite them... the civil courts will resolve it.

From the sailing side of things... The sport would ban the skipper from future racing. All of the sailing rules are grounded in Corinthian ideals where you self police the game of sailboat racing.

Having this explicit liability agreement on your registration form is not essential but it is a good way to highlight the importance and EXPECTATION of liability insurance.

For example, the huge Chi to Mac race has an enormous list of required gear.... Most of it would be quite useful to save your life as a matter of fact. The OA does not certify that your boat has all of the gear before you race...You agreed to race with all of the gear. What they do is spot check the top boats and a few others in the class for a couple of random items. If you cheated... they toss you.

The game of sailing deals with cheaters by DSQ.

The Coast Guard, State, Federal Law deal with safety, safety gear and liability issues.