No doubt.

US Sailing carefully walks a line in their race prescriptions when it comes to liability and insurance...rightfully so. If they leave the door open to where they admit to being a party to determining "at fault" then they suddenly become part of the equation and any potential litigation. So their stance that they only determine the outcome of the racing serves them well in this regard. In the one relatively significant instance I had, the insurance company took the findings of the protest committee and consulted a maritime attourney and came to a conclusion.

This is the second instance where I've heard that State Farm pulled the "equipment failure" or "poor design" thing. Why did the tiller bar break? Was it established that there was a high rate of tiller bars breaking therefore they determined that it was a manufacturing problem? No...this is a first line of defense and is intended to get you to turn away. You'll have to go through legal motions to get them to pay up (and for $300 it's certainly not going to be worth it). This is why I didn't choose State Farm even though they offered comparable rates for my boats because I heard of another such instance on a larger scale (daggerboard ripping through hull). When I had my incident and it suddenly looked like there was going to be a fight, I approached my home owner's insurance about filing a claim to repair/replace my boat...They told me that this would be a bad idea because too many claims on my home owner's insurance would result in me being dropped! I've been paying State Farm for 15 years with one minor auto claim that entire time. That response really dissapointed me. Who is paying who here? They act like THEY are the customer and that I should feel privaledged that they will take my money.