BOW WAVE 310

Bow Wave Issue 310--Windy Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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(c)2005 WavyLine.com	Issue No 310 31 Oct 05
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Early Sift on Hurricane Wilma not Good
3. Ecumenical Assistance for Seafarers
4. Shiptalk
5. Scooter Libby's Client Mark Rich
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Instructions on how to wake up:

Lie gently in your so still sleep
Before the stirring World awakes
Feel the surge of your heart beat keep
Time with the morn before she breaks.

In this time you prepare yourself
Pre morning with its falling dew
Before the birds sing songs of wealth
You must compose yourself anew.

Gently awake as in your sleep
As waking is so gently done.
In that waking moment await
Singing birds and the rising sun.

Focus your eyes as far ahead
To grasp at the shimmering light
Within the eyelids in your head
As they dance with you in delight

And then again with gentle ease
Embrace and hold the coming day
For grace you have and grace receive
From all to all without delay.

Patrick Moore (aka Mr Lisan)

New Readers this week include:-

Robin Lee of Atlantic Fiduciaries in Canada
Capt. Dhanvinder Singh of Marine Consultants Red Star in Singapore
A Moir and R Benjamin of Messrs Tindall Riley
Andrew Yeo of the Canadian Chamber of Shipping

News of Readers

Ian Clarke has moved from Gard's London office to the West of England Club.

Contact him at:-

ian.clarke@westpandi.com

Alex Davey, who recently joined Birketts in Ipswich has a degree in engineering, but went on to qualify as a lawyer with Ince & Co. where he worked for about 6 1/2 years. He left Ince & Co last year to sail around the UK in a small yacht with his wife, and then to teach English, first in rural Sri Lanka and then, for 5 months in Luzhou in South West China. On their return, they decided to move out of London, and he has now joined Birketts' Shipping and Logistics team.

contact him at:-

alex-davey@birketts.co.uk

Readers Write

A Reader in California who works in ocean marine claims adjusting (with a broker) understands that he is exempt from the need to obtain a license. But he cannot find the rules that say so. Do any of our distinguished readers in the Golden State know where he can look?

From Peter Taylor of ISL

I thought some of your Readers might be interested in this mainly marine conference, the Russian Insurance & Reinsurance Rendez-Vous which will be held in St. Petersburg on 13-15 November 2005

http://www.rv.oslo.ru/eng/main/

From Detective Inspector Paul E Douglas of Operation Grafton

With regards to enquiries being conducted by Operation Grafton into the recent spate of robberies that have occurred in the areas around Heathrow (but not within it) BBC TV's CRIME WATCH will be televising a reconstruction of one of these offences in a programme which is to be broadcast on 2nd November 2005. During this programme DI Jill Wootton from Thames Valley Police will be making an appeal on our behalf for information which will assist us to identify, arrest and convict those responsible for ALL of these offences.

Operation Grafton can be contacted on the night of the broadcast on its usual telephone numbers 0208 246 9972 /3. Alternatively any body who believes that they may have any information that may assist us with this enquiry (however small) can contact CRIME STOPPERS on 0800 555 111.

A £50,000 reward has also been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for a s pecific offence within those under investigation

Contact him at:-

PaulE.Douglas@met.police.uk

From Maryam Taher:

M. Taher & Co Solicitors have moved their Head Office to the Lloyds Building. The firm specialises in all aspects of Marine and International Trade. They can be contacted at:-

Telephone No.: +44 (0)20 7929 7600
Fax No.: +44 (0)20 7691 7141
E-mail:.com

Greetings from London during what is traditionally thought of as the windiest week of the English autumn calender. Well, locally one day last week was as balmy as summer and as for the rest, nothing special to report.

Plenty of winded underwriters all the same. Seems only yesterday that voices were heard saying the easiest killing in insurance was to set up a new fund in Bermuda-- sans legacies--dedicated to the reinsurance of catastrophic lossesof property insurers.

Enjoy.

2. Early Sift on Hurricane Wilma not Good

Within hours of Wilma passing over Florida on Monday afternoon, specialist extreme risk modelers EQECAT were estimating insured losses in Florida as thinkable within the range of $4 Billion To $8 Billion

The firm says:-

Higher Estimates Include Analysis Of Newly Available Data From Storm’s Impact On Florida East Coast

Initial Estimates Of Insured Losses In Mexico Range From $1 Billion To $3 Billion

Based upon analysis of newly available data provided by the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program as Hurricane Wilma completed crossing the peninsula, estimated insured losses in Florida could range from $4 billion to $8 billion.

The increased range of the insured loss potential from the storm incorporates analysis of newly available windspeed observations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. EQECAT incorporated wind measurements of 100 mph in Miami and more than 105 mph in some areas in Broward county. The very large accumulation of insured assets in the counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach make the loss estimate very sensitive to the observed windspeeds in these areas.

Overall, the latest available data show that the forward speed of Hurricane Wilma was faster and wider than typical storms for this region.

Separately, EQECAT said its preliminary estimate of potential insured-losses on the Mexican Yucatan peninsula from the earlier landfall of Hurricane Wilma at
$1 billion to $3 billion.

Beyond wind damage to commercial and residential fixed structures, such as office buildings, factories , warehouses, and homes, EQECAT’s insured loss estimates include business interruption, which covers loss of earnings as a result of the destruction of property; and demand surge, which occurs when the demand for products and services to repair damage significantly exceeds the regional supply. Thus, these products and services may have to be brought to the region quickly from distant points, resulting in additional costs for transportation, packaging and manufacture.

Excluded from EQECAT’s current estimates are insured losses related to offshore platforms, commercial flooding, private and commercial automobiles and similar vehicles, and marine assets, such as boats.

http://www.eqecat.com/news/2005/Wilma_Oct24PM.htm

By the end of the week the catastrophe modelling firm Risk Management Services (RMS) increased its estimate for insured losses caused by Hurricane Wilma to a range of $8bn to $12bn.

The revised estimate covers onshore damage caused by windstorm and coastal surge as well as business interruption losses. RMS's new figure comes after the analysis of Miami and Florida's east coast, which the storm hit as a category two hurricane with wind speeds of 80-100mph.

Nervous reinsurers need no reminding that the Atlantic hurrican season is traditionally reckoned to run to November 30th.

3. Ecumenical Assistance for Seafarers

Dominic Baster of the Apostleship of the Sea has sent in the following notice:-

The Christian Ecumenical Covenant for Maritime Ministry in the UK and Eire was signed today (Tuesday 25 October) in a ceremony held at St Columba’s Church of Scotland in London by the Apostleship of the Sea (Roman Catholic), the British & International Sailors’ Society - BISS (interdenominational), and the Mission to Seafarers (Anglican).

Commodore Chris York, National Director of the Apostleship of the Sea (Great Britain), said: "The signing of this Covenant is a radical, groundbreaking step, and the dawn of a new, collaborative era in our care for seafarers. For the first time, the Christian maritime societies are coming together in an unbreakable partnership to respond more effectively to the needs of seafarers. We are announcing to the entire maritime industry that we are united in Christ, and that the days of division and suspicion are well and truly over.

Ninety-five percent of all the goods we use and consume every day are brought to us by ship, but the conditions of seafarers are often hidden from us. Away from homes and family for a year at a time, they often suffer loneliness, depression, dangerous working conditions, low wages and exploitation. However, as Partners in Mission, we are saying to them loud and clear that we are alongside them in their work. Seafarers themselves are the most valuable commodity in the maritime industry and, by recognising and promoting their human dignity, we work towards the wellbeing of the industry as a whole."

The Covenant deals with the day-to-day ministry of the three maritime welfare societies in ports up and down the British Isles, where port chaplains and volunteers from each of the three Christian societies provide pastoral and practical support for seafarers visiting our shores. Ecumenical collaboration is already a reality in most ports, but the newly signed covenant commits the societies to re-dedicate themselves to foster closer communication, avoid duplication, respect the denominational traditions of seafarers and encourage professional collaboration.

The document recognises that the three societies "have much to offer and receive from one another in the rich diversity of our traditions" and explores the implications of their common calling to care for seafarers regardless of nationality or creed. It also stipulates that effective ecumenical collaboration is conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect for each others’ traditions. Accordingly, it commits ecumenical chaplaincy teams to "share in the pastoral care of seafarers" whilst allowing for individual seafarers to receive ministry of his or her choice" and to "acknowledge the particular service each chaplain brings to seafarers of their own denomination".

Commodore Chris York added: "Together, in the name of Christ, we provide vital assistance to seafarers who may be many miles from home, and I am delighted that this aspect of the Church’s outreach is now a shining model of ecumenism working effectively in practice".

londonoffice@aposmar.net

4. Shiptalk

It has been some time since we last paid a vist to the site of Shiptalk, the mariner's portal, and the latest newsletter for November catches the eye very well. Well worth a visit across its various categories, the newsletter's lead article concerns research carried out on the needs of mariners and their telephones at sea:

" When Inmarsat launched their Crew Calling initiative back in 2001 established wisdom held that the people crew wanted to telephone didn't have one, they can't afford it and anyway, they knew what it would be like when they joined.

Instead of opinions, Inmarsat needed facts reliable enough to support a multi-million pound business initiative. They turned to Gilmour Research, the dedicated maritime business research agency..

Over 600 interviews later, Gilmour Research interviewers had been onboard deep-water vessels from Southampton to Singapore. With firm instructions to wear trousers and not look down, interviewers grabbed their clipboards, walked gangplanks, sipped condensed-milk tea, scaled external ladders, met a man who sold flick-knives and some women who helped-out lots of seafarers, then got arrested as stowaways in Singapore.

Just as Inmarsat suspected, established wisdom was wrong. Crews could afford to call home. Each spent around US$90 a month doing it. Sometimes families back home didn't have a phone, so seafarers bought them a mobile and borrowed someone else's onboard.

Everyone wanted to phone home. And they did, but not using ship's equipment. The real problem was where it was - where it was supposed to be, on the bridge. Inmarsat developed a new low-cost dedicated Crew Calling solution relying on the solid information from the survey. Drawing on Gilmour Research data Inmarsat not only assessed the market but turned it around. Today, maritime voice revenue is rising and the Crew Calling initiative continues to grow.

http://www.shiptalk.com/newsletter.html#Competitive

5. Scooter Libby's Client Mark Rich

An unusually informative article by Linda Minor on the origins and scope of the activities of Mark Rich has appeared on the Sanders Research site. Rich of course is also known to (oil) shipping folk.

http://www.sandersresearch.com/Sanders/NewsManager/ShowNewsGen.aspx?NewsID=1102

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to Steven Jones, the editor of Shiptalk for these terrible notices taken from the hotels and bars of many nations. International understanding is a wonderful thing--when it happens.

In a Nairobi restaurant:

Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the Manager.

Hotel elevator, Paris:

Guests are advised to leave their values at the front desk.

In a Tokyo bar:

Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.

Hotel room notice, Chiang-Mai, Thailand:

Please do not bring solicitors into your room.

In a Bangkok temple:

It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.

Hotel, Zurich:

Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.

Cocktail lounge, Norway:

Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.

Hotel, Vienna:

In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.

In a Hong Kong restaurant:

'Open 7 days a week - Closed Sundays'

Outside a McDonalds restaurant in Florida:

'Parking for drive-through customers only'

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:

'Our wines leave you nothing to hope for'

Hotel, Yugoslavia:

'Here you are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.'

Taken from a restaurant menu, Poland:

'Limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger' 'Roasted duck let loose'
'Beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion'

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