If a ship doesn't have insurance it should not be allowed to dock.
It's not that complicated.
When driving into Saudi Arabia in your own car, you are required to show proof of insurance (or can purchase travel insurance at the border).
It's not that complicated.
When driving into Saudi Arabia in your own car, you are required to show proof of insurance (or can purchase travel insurance at the border).
That's already the case in the vast majority of ports to pay for situations like the Baltimore bridge collapse, although most damage is a lot smaller and more pedestrian like scraping the dock on approach.
Ports generally require protection and indemnity insurance to pay for damage to third parties and the port, hull and machinery insurance so the boat doesn't get stranded in the port, and wreck removal insurance to remove it if it does. Anyone going through the Panama or Suez canal has to have even more insurance to cover the extra risk of blocking a major global shipping channel.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/12/a...
It's not too hard to get a small boat to rescue them and be shepherded to the airport. The Saudis aren't doing it because they are owed port fees.
Negligent boat owners should lose their property just like negligent land (real property) owners do.