Stone Skimming Hi Jinx Raises Public Liability Insurance Concerns
The organisers of the World Stone Skimming Championships have got caught up in a bitter feud with the owner of the land on which the event is held, and it is partly to do with public liability insurance.
The event has been growing stronger and stronger over the last 15 years. But, as a consequence of avarice, it would seem, on the part of Jonathan Feigenbaum, who owns the disused quarry in Easdale, where the event takes place, a land use fee is now going to be applied to the competition.
Feigenbaum has said that he is going to be taking legal action against the organisers of the event, the Eilean Eisdeal Community Trust, if they fail to stump up the money he has demanded for allowing them on his land.
As an aside to the debacle that Feigenbaum has initiated, it has been decided that the event is dangerous enough to warrant the purchasing of public liability insurance, given that there is quite a realistic chance that participants and spectators could get hurt during the event.
The fact of the matter is that it is more than just slightly conceivable that someone could get hurt. Stones are hurtled across the water at a rate of knots, and due to the nature with which they skim off the water, often pick up speed.
Give the flattened shape of the ideal skimming stone, there is no denying that, inadvertently, anyone caught in an accidental collision is likely to be severely injured, given that the stone is, in fact, similar to a sharpened object. Whilst there is a certain amount of ambiguity, in terms of whether or not Feigenbaum should be charging for the use of the land, it does seem right and proper that some sort of public liability insurance should be purchased, in order to make sure all present are sufficiently protected against accidents.
