IT'S BLOWING SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A 5 AND A 6 out of the south-east and chucking it down. No, it's not the Channel in June but Rangali Island, Indian Ocean, in February.
     To be fair, yesterday was all the shades of blue with a gentle breeze and three new species of fish plus a turtle to see, so today is the day to unburden myself.
     I am skipper of a commercial hardboat. A few months ago, a club contacted me about bookings and asked, among other things, if the boat was insured. Curious, I thought - my mind turning to nuclear-powered rebreathers made in the Ukraine - and asked why.
     The club turned out to have had a bad day last summer when its charter boat sank and it lost a lot of expensive and uninsured gear. To my knowledge, no legit charter boat had sunk last year, so it was probably a "pirate". It then occurred to me that there is a gap between what skippers know and expect and ditto their customers - you the divers.
     Hands up those who have heard of the Athens Convention. You've been subject to it if you have travelled on a commercial ferry or cruise-liner or chartered a diveboat. It limits the financial liability of a carrier at sea for loss of life and loss or damage to baggage - your gear.
     The limits at the moment are modest, too - about £200 for baggage, £40,000 for loss of life or injury, and then only if the carrier was negligent. So if you toss your new dive computer nonchalantly over the side, expect little but sympathy from your friendly skipper or the boat's insurance.
     You can read all about it on www.imo.org (the IMO is the UN of the sea and runs all this stuff) under Legal and then Conventions. The convention has consistently been upheld by the courts.
     What a con, you might think, but then, insurance costs money and the cost goes up with both the risk and the amount covered. The higher the liability, the higher the premium, and if liability is unlimited, insurance becomes impossible.
     Where does that leave you and your gear? Both are exposed to all manner of risks. I don't know about your lifestyle, but your gear could get nicked at home or from your motor. It could get struck by lightning or smashed up in your car. You will probably find that personal effects cover on the average car policy is limited to a couple of hundred quid.
     You should insure your gear for what it's worth against any risk to which it may be exposed. But then I, as boat operator, would also have to think of insurance cover for my maximum potential risk.
     Think of 12 US diving lawyers, each with a rebreather and all the toys. The premium would be a zillion bucks and I would have to pass it on to all my customers, not only the high-risk ones.
     Much the same principle applies to your little pink body, so you need to ensure that things like your mortgage-protection and life policies cover you while diving, free-fall piano-playing and anything else you may get up to.
     Now for what might become seriously bad news. Last November IMO drew up a new protocol to the Athens Convention proposing (nobody has yet ratified it) a large increase in liability limits. A chain of pessimistic assumptions could mean the premium for charter-boat insurance going up by several thousand pounds a year which, when passed on to daily charter rates, would give a £30-50 price hike.
     This is unlikely to happen immediately or to that extent, but the eventual change will certainly be in the direction of up.
     I mentioned pirates - illegal operators of charter boats. A legit vessel will be licensed by the MCA under its codes of practice and the skipper will have a licence. This is a legal requirement but also means that the boat carries suitable safety equipment (not necessarily diving-specific), is properly built and maintained and there is a sporting chance that the skipper knows how to drive it.
     The annual cost is north of £1000 a year for an average 10m boat, less for a RIB, more for a liveaboard. There is an obvious temptation not to bother - more profit, less paperwork and the chance to charge a bit less than the competition.
     That's great until something goes wrong and, with maintenance at the owner's whim, there is a good chance of that happening. As the operation is illegal, insurance, if any, will probably be invalid.
     Nearly all policies have a "warranty of legality". It is part of your duty of care as a club or group organiser to ensure that any boat you book is safe and fit for purpose. Licences go a long way to satisfying that.
     Ask when booking. If you get a load of waffle, the boat is probably unlicensed. Visit www.mcga.gov.uk/survey/code.htm, where the MCA lists vessels by port or boat name. If the boat is not there, it may be a pirate or the skipper has not bothered to register it - again, ask.
     Once on board, a certificate should be displayed to tell you when the boat was last inspected and for how long it is licensed. If you can't see one and want to appear knowledgeable (or invite a knuckle sandwich), ask to see the SCV2.
     It may look boring but it pays to get it right before things go wrong.