Why Your Flood Model Might Already Be Out of Date | Fathom | Ep. 409

How often should you update your flood model? More often than most insurers think. Harry Vardigans, Head of Insurance at Fathom, joins Matthew Grant for a conversation that covers rather more ground than most. Harry is preparing to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean later this year — and it turns out that navigating an ocean crossing and navigating the flood modelling market have more in common than you might expect. From route optimisation and weather forecasting to the data gaps that make flood one of the hardest perils to model consistently, Harry draws on both his upcoming expedition and his work combining Fathom's hazard data with Swiss Re's 170 years of claims experience. In this episode: What it takes to prepare for a 3,000-mile Atlantic rowing race Why ocean rowing went from uninsurable to mandatory-insured and what that tells us about emerging risk markets How regulation creates insurance opportunities rather than just constraints Why flood modelling needs more frequent updates than almost any other peril How Fathom and Swiss Re are combining expertise to rebuild CatNet and develop Swiss Re's internal flood catastrophe models Why a global-first modelling approach beat building market-by-market What the "will it make the boat go faster" philosophy looks like in practice at a specialist insurtech 👉 Listen on your preferred podcast platform: https://www.instech.co/knowledge-cent... 📌 Subscribe for more episodes:    / @instechofficial   🔍 Explore the InsTech podcast archive: https://www.instech.co/item-type/podc... ---------------- If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn -   / matthewjggrant   Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning - https://www.instech.co/sign-up-to-the... Leave us a message! Want to leave a message for the InsTech team? Drop us a voicemail with questions for guests or hosts, ideas for next episodes or just general musings - https://www.speakpipe.com/widget/inli... ----------------- 00:00 Introduction: Harry Vardigans, Fathom 00:37 Rowing the Atlantic: how it started 01:39 The route: Canary Islands to Antigua 02:35 Risk planning: weather, injuries and sharks 03:56 Shipping lanes and night watches 05:10 Weather forecasting and El Nino 07:02 How ocean rowing became insurable 08:40 How regulation creates new insurance markets 10:53 Fathom, Swiss Re and the CatNet rebuild 13:21 Why flood models need regular updates 14:38 Will it make the boat go faster? 17:06 Packing light for a fast crossing 18:05 Book and podcast recommendations 20:13 Final thoughts and sign off