Stallion wrote

It's because we are becoming the land of the Sue (like our American cousins) had the coastguard broken the procedures and the person had died and or himself had died the coastguard service would be open to hefty compensation claims.

And if he had followed procedures and the person had died, they would still have been sued for allowing it to happen.

This is driven by the insurance companies who will try anything to wriggle out of stumping up even blaming God for some stuff and refusing to pay up.

On the whole I agree with you having had experience of wriggling by insurance companies to avoid paying out. On the other hand, "Acts of God" have long been a standard insurance exclusion unless you specifically insure against the "Act" concerned.