Adventurer Sarah Outen gets unique insurance coverage for around-the-world trip
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Twenty-five year old Sarah Outen is no stranger to adventure. The British woman was the first – and only woman – and the youngest person to row solo across the Indian Ocean. On April 1, 2011, she embarked on a new adventure – “London to London: Via the World.”
For the next two and a half years, Sarah will row, cycle and kayak her way across Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States.
The first leg saw her kayak from London’s Tower Bridge, across the Channel to France. Then she’ll then cycle through France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and back into Russia before kayaking to Japan. From there she’ll row across the North Pacific to cycle from Vancouver to New York. In the final leg, she’ll row across the North Atlantic back to London.
A journey like this takes a special sort of insurance coverage. Lloyd’s has written one of its most complex policies for Sarah, covering the voyager for 1.25 million pounds.
The insurer said Sarah’s journey posed some unique underwriting tasks, having to value a person enduring a physical and mental battle for an exceptional length of time.
Jonathan Thomas, they Lloyd’s underwriter at Watkins syndicate designed the policy. He said that one of the risk elements considered is whether the muscle wasting that will happen while Sarah is cycling will leave her able to row the oceans safely.
