T&T: towing rates

[Peter Bennett]

Saturday, February 24, 2007, 5:59:57 PM, Douglas wrote:

DG> Al Golden wrote: "It absolutely boggles my mind that
DG> otherwise intelligent people are actually willing to
DG> BUY towing insurance! Folks, insurance is supposed to
DG> protect you against a financial catastrophe, not a
DG> $500 towing bill..."

DG> hmmm...current towing rate for non member tows from
DG> Block Island (by the BI TowBoat/US tower) start at
DG> $250/hr. Add $30/hr for fog, night or SCA. Time to tow
DG> the average 40' trawler from Block Island to Newport,
DG> RI: about 4.5 to 5 billable hours (you pay for the
DG> twoboat to get back to BI)- figure $1250, or closer to
DG> $1500 if its foggy. Ok, so not a financial
DG> catastrophe, but $500 ain't what it used to be.

In 40 years of boating, I've had one (1) commercial tow, and two (2)
tow from another pleasure craft.  I'm certain that what I would have
paid for SeaTow or similar coverage/membership in that time is many
times the Can$100 that I paid for the one commercial tow (however, for
most of that time, I was a raghanger - don't know if the statistics
change _that_ much for stinkpotters - haven't needed a tow in the ten
years since I changed to powerboats... correction - I did take a tow
last year, when the bracket for the shutoff solenoid on my Lehman
broke, and the engine shut down as a result - I found and bypassed the
problem shortly after a sailboat took me in tow - I was able to drop
the tow and continue on my own to my destination.)



-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lien Hwa 28 (AKA Polaris 30) "Sea Spray"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca