Orange Bowl Open/Masters Indemnification

I just re-read the Notice of Race for the Coconut Grove YC Open Orange Bowl. Lasers and Masters will compete. However, big as life, they have us idemnifying the club and everybody else involved in the Waiver that must be signed to compete.
I understood that "I" word went out long ago. US SAILING has written several times, including in my new Race Committee manual, that sailors should not be expected to sign their financial life away.
Now I'm wondering if I should make the drive to Miami.....
Dave Ellis
Grandmaster
 
Waivers aren't worth the paper they are written on. You cannot sign away certain rights, many of which waivers ask you to relinquish. Having organized many motorsports/offroad races I am fully versed.. Waivers are there for the sue happy folks that just like to complain about things. If anything really bad happens, and lawyers are involved, you can rest assured that the waiver you are signing will hold VERY little weight, if any, in any court in the US. Especially where negligence is involved.
 
Lawyers and people who are prone to sue are one thing.
Our insurance companies are another. "Sorry, you have indemnified them yourself, so we no longer have to." Yes, it has happened. I just surprised that a seemingly savy club would still have that archaic wording.
 
just sign the waiver and go and have a good time, its a great regatta, and arent the adults sailing out of CGSC, and remember BE CAREFUL
 
When negligence, especially gross negligence, is involved the waiver will be worthless in any US court. There is no waiver that will protect anyone from acts of negligence which are the grounds for most law suits.

Go have a good time!
 
OK, I'll go fill out the fleet. It's been over eight years since Laser racing. There is nobody to run into at the tail end of the fleet. Maybe when they are coming back down from he windward mark.
 
SAILWRITER said:
It's been over eight years since Laser racing. There is nobody to run into at the tail end of the fleet. Maybe when they are coming back down from he windward mark.

You will be surprised at the action among the slower ones in the back of the fleet. Nobody wants to finish DFL.
Been there; done that :eek:

Regarding the windward mark, maybe there will be an offset buoy to help sort things out and minimize contact.
 
Absolutely do not ever for any reason sign any form that has the word Indemnify. Look it up. When you indemnify YOU take the responsibility.

Signing an waiver is hard. The legal system is set up in the US to protect us and help us keep our rights. Waivers generally don't realy waiver our rights because we are all considered under the law to be too stupid to know what we are doing to ourselves by giving away our rights....so we have to do a lot of legal stuff and hire official trained legal member of the bar professionals to actually succeed in giving away our rights.

Indemnify is another situation all together. When you indemnify, you say.."OH I will take on that responsability. I will stand with you. I will help you. I will be there when you need me."
Once again...Our legal system... We like responsability and we like to be able to stand together. The laws are written to allow that.

Posses. Good men standing together. Barn raisings...etc...

So the result.

When you sign up to stand with that host club, and that host club screws up, you have put your entire life on the line and you may end up losing lots and lots of your stuff.

You can cross out the word indemnify and sign the statement and generally it is fine.

Be careful.
 
Good regatta, the Open Orange Bowl. 22 boats. Breezes a low of 8, high Saturday perhaps 18 in gusts.
Clay Johnson won it.
As expected after a very long Laser absence I started out 13 and 11 in the first two races. By the end of the event I was far enough up in the fleet to have GGM Dave Hartman grouse at me a couple times for being where he didn't want me to be. I took that as a compliment!
I struck out the words "and endemnify" on the form. Nobody noticed or didn't care.
As a certified race officer we have a rather thick spiral bound US SAILING book in which is a strong policy of not having the sailors sign any endemnify clause.
I'll approach Coconut Grove SC again. No answer to my first inquiry.
 
Hi Cindy,

Masters/Open results are not posted yet but might be soon at http://www.cgsc.org/index.cfm?menu=6494

I can tell you what happened: we had gorgeous weather all 3 days and conditions ranging from pretty light to med (why oh why did I go with a radial today???-James) to starting to blow (15-17ish) on the last day. 70-80 degrees all days. We had 21 boats show. Top 10:
1.Clay Johnson, 9 pts.
2. Ernesto Rodriguez, 15.
3. Anthony Boueilh, 17.
4. Augie Diaz, 28.
5. Leigh Savage, 39.
6. J Liebl, 45.
7. Michael Kiss, 47.
8. Dave Ellis, 59.
9. Michelle Davis, 60.
10. Dave Hartman, 60.

Happy New Year!
 

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