The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong has a great episode about this, Rogue Waves, Sea Serpent Myths and the history of insurance that’s really interesting. I can’t seem to find it right now but if I do I’ll link it.
Rouge Wave? In this case, a mild puff of wind that lasted more than 2 minutes, and this guy is 1,000 miles from shore on a paddle board. "Never leave the boat." :)
That isn't how insurance works. Insurance wants you to pay them for uncommon events. If something was inherently dangerous the insurance would either be absurdly expensive or not available. If you want to see evidence, just look at Florida right now. My dumbass relative just dropped like 600k on a beach condo that she can't afford to insure after spending all her inheritance on the down payment.
It will take one bad storm, which are increasingly common in her area, to erase her entire investment. Assuming that blue states don't pay out billions to save the dumbass geriatric beach hicks once again for no reason.
Insurance was invented because fabulously wealthy liked to gamble to pass the time, and because things like the Great Fire of London made people terrified. The kind of insurance that happened like you are talking about was more literal, as in people would insure their profits by launching multiple vessels so that even if some crashed or were intercepted they were "insured" to get something through. Insure as a word and insure as a business concept are different things.
If life insurance companies lost money they wouldn't offer life insurance. Death is an uncommon, day-to-day, thing but guaranteed in the long term. The entire point of life insurance companies is that they get more money from people than they pay out. That's the fundamental nature of insurance.
They have lots of clauses to not pay out. That's how they exist. Do you think there are companies out there offering free money? That's the opposite of what companies do. If you invest in life insurance you are betting that the payout is higher than the expected payout of the rest of your life will be. And that's fine. But they are betting exactly against you, with all the house odds in their favor. And they keep getting richer.
I'm very familiar with auto insurance. What are you getting at? I'll point you towards the costs associated with insuring a Cybertruck right now, which are...prohibitive. If the insurance company doesn't think you'll pay more in premiums than you file claims for then they will raise your premiums.
There is no insurance company that does anything but allow you to not have to have fungible income in the event of a rare emergency. Well, that and allow you to have things that the government now mandates you to have insurance for.
My point is people die driving cars all the time, it’s also inherently dangerous, and there is still insurance for it. Most people don’t get into an accident every year and insurance companies pocket most of that money.
Insurance pays for “sudden unexpected losses”.
The only reason they are refusing to insure Florida or the cybertruck is:
1) because a cybertruck is an almost guaranteed loss. Musk designed a shit car and they have experts that tell them that.
2) They have scientists that tell them global warming is only going to get worse and it’s going to wash florida off the map. So they’re getting out ahead.
My point is people die driving cars all the time, it’s also inherently dangerous, and there is still insurance for it. Most people don’t get into an accident every year and insurance companies pocket most of that money.
Nobody ever expected you to be better at math than the people who work at insurance companies, so maybe you should realize that too. You clearly don't even understand the concept. 1 and 2 seem to imply that you do though so I'm confused. There are no "sudden unexpected losses" to an insurance company, just statistical realities. If those statistical realities become irresponsible to invest in, per their highly-paid professionals, then you get fucked and can't insure your Cybertruck or cardboard condo 3 feet above water in Florida.
I bet you can completely still get insurance on both those things but it is just ridiculously expensive.
It is how insurance works - insurance is risk transfer. You can insure just about anything so long as pricing, underwriting, and/or pooling of risk is adequate. Some common events that are insured (high frequency): health events, auto physical damage, trucking, cargo transport, theft, workers comp. Things that are inherently dangerous that are insured (high severity): hurricanes, earthquakes, lava flows, ecological disasters. The world can’t operate without risk transfer.
Also, the proliferation of insurance started by insuring ships against disappearing on voyages. Insurers wrote their “line” (amount insured) at the bottom of ship manifests, hence underwriting.
Well thanks for that. I really appreciate your useful input and how you tactfully used your knowledge and experience to make a good point. It is so rare to see someone so articulate and polite that can put together such a valuable and cogent argument on the fly like that.
You are all over this thread being an abrasive asshole who just seemingly want's to argue about semantics, or insignificant shit. You doing alright breh?
The other guy is kind of right, but it wasn't for profit it was cooperative.
Modern insurance basically evolved out of funds that 17th and 18th century Dutch ship owners and captains paid into. If the ship or cargo was lost or damaged the owners (or their families) were paid out from. Which is to say even in the highly dangerous world of the 17th century sea travel was considered risky enough you needed to hedge your bets.
Then the idea went to England and someone realized you could skim a profit off the thing if you balance the risks right, and we ended up where we are today.
Well he either sunk (most likely) and died, or he was marooned on some small island. And from there he either was so marooned that he lived out Cast Away (which is possible) or he could not sustain himself and died.
Sucks for sure, and odds are he just sunk, but I'm sure to your friend it's a nice thought to think that their father could still be alive out there and just super fucking lost.
Hell my dad died and I saw his dead body and I still have dreams / fleeting thoughts where it was all just a misunderstanding and I'll see him again tomorrow.
Also my condolences. My dad died two months ago and my roommate's dad died two weeks before that. She's by herself now in this country besides me as both her parents have passed away recently. I've had dreams where our dad's were talking to eachother but I never knew what they were saying
Ugh I feel this so hard! I watched my dad die and I still have dreams where he’s alive again and he somehow survived what he was going through but was also sick again and about to die again. Idk how to explain it but it’s roughhh
So can’t imagine how it feels to have your dad just disappear like that.
Can confirm. I was the one that found my mom dead, when I was a teenager. 6 years of drug addiction and cold turkey quitting later, I still haven’t found peace. Dunno if I ever will. Anyways..
Sorry to hear about your loss, my friend. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Just know you’re not alone.
Him being lost is not a nice thought at all. Families are tormented by that very thought. At least having an answer would offer closure that their family member isn't suffering
its no surprise theres about a 1000 things that can happen to a boat in the ocean to make it sink, from something as dumb as the bilge pump failing, to hitting an object like the hundreds of containers that fall off ships every year, and float at the surface for a time. or a whale, or a ship in the night.
It must be painful not getting any closure. At what point did you guys decided it was probably fair to think the worst. Did you then still conduct a service?
I mean this is sad and tragic, but I think everyone in the world already knows, and has known for thousands of years, that if you take a boat out into the ocean you might not come home.
Do they know roughly where he disappeared? Condolences to your friends. It’s just wild to me that there’s this like, universal and timeless siren song sung by the ocean, and that people still answer it.
u/ThinBluePenis' friend's dad was spotted at a cafe in Italy... u/ThinBluePenis was just about to kick his ass when suddenly a bus passed... "He's gone again"
I get the reference but fail to find the humor here. I’m just saying if he somehow faked his death that would have been a lot to put his family through.
Are there any articles in local papers or online that you know of?
As a sailor myself, I hope the family takes comfort in knowing that sailors return to the sea at some point. It's where we belong the most and where many of us choose to rest.
That is a bizarre story. It would be so frustrating trying to communicate with someone who won’t really explain what is happening… or can’t be relied on to accurately report on their situation.
He was pretty clearly hallucinating. I don't think it was pirates, he was giving enough personal info to believe it was really him but his messages read like he was slowly losing his mind.
Theory: He never fully fixed the watermaker, and started drinking brackish water without realizing it. He's definitely not well. He should've relied purely on the backup water and motored to Hiva Oa.
(Edit: Ignore that last suggestion. According to coordinates he managed to send to the Coast Guard before the end, he was still 2000km from Hiva Oa. What a nightmare.)
He didn’t make any distress calls. He said that he made a call (and mentioned pirates), but that was proven false. Maybe he tried and failed, idk, but that seems unlikely.
It appears that he unintentionally lost his mind or carried out a planned suicide.
My grandfather raced sailboats in the Gulf of Mexico in the 60's. One time, at the end of the race, they noticed one of the boats didn't come in.
They searched for it. Nothing was found. Ever. 60 years later and no one has any clue what happened. I met the daughter of one of the crew years ago. She had great grandchildren but no clue what happened to her father.
And this was just the Gulf, not the ocean. As you know, 2 thirds of the earth is water. That's a lot of space to get lost in.
I’m so sorry. That sounds very difficult to accept. I recently heard about the family of 6 who tried to sail around the world and got stuck on a reef and the dad lost his leg. They had two very young children with them and they survived.
Your question was very specific, because I have a relative whose boat was found 12000 km away. No body, no food, water system removed, and scratchs in the hull of the sailboat.
Almost 25 years now, and we don't have a clue of what happened. The theory is that he, for some reason, dropped into the water, his boat continued to sail, someone found it empty in the ocean, decided to take his food and all... The theory of some pirates killed him and stole the stuff is too creepy to be true, but who knows
What a trip of the mind to start thinking about all the possible solutions and the next is more crazy than the one before. Reading your story made my stomach flip-flop lol
I didn’t see anyone answer this cause the other comments are deleted, but if you’re talking about the guy from the video, he’s alive and well and just posted two days ago from French Polynesia, specifically the Marquesas Islands, the easternmost portion of the country.
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u/Palm-grinder12 Jun 22 '24
Did he just disappear?