Last week entrepreneurs Patsy Bloom and David Simpson walked into the sunset

Last week, entrepreneurs Patsy Bloom and David Simpson walked into the sunset with pounds 32.5m after selling their company, which had successfully pioneered - wait for it - pet health insurance. Only when the ball falls in the zero slot, on average once in every 37 spins of the wheel, does the casino scoop the pool. Insurers do the equivalent of scooping the pool once in every three spins.There has to be a more efficient way of pooling risk. Insurance as it is presently structured is a monstrous racket. And the reality is worse even than I've described because of invented and inflated claims - fraud, which the cosy club of insurers does little to stamp out and in some cases positively encourages.

I'm guessing, of course, but I'd hazard that honest policyholders are lucky to see more than 50 per cent of their premiums returned to them.You might tolerate this rip-off if insurance companies handled your custom efficiently, quickly and politely But their record here is atrocious. Roulette tables stand to pay out exactly as much as they take in 36 times out of 37. A thumping 30 pence in the pound, plus the interest earned on that 30p, goes into the maw of the insurance company and its brokers.Of course there has to be a charge for pooling premiums and paying out claims, but when it reaches 30 per cent of the money pooled, something has gone drastically wrong with the system.Casinos work on exactly the same lines as insurance companies, yet they are models of efficiency and propriety by comparison. But one fact about the industry is incontrovertible and I like to repeat it to every insurance executive I meet: for every pound they are paid in premiums, they pay out only 70 pence in claims. Clearing banks or estate agents or management consultants may be your bugbear; insurance companies are mine Of course, I'm speaking as a customer.

Shareholders, who have seen profits soar over the past couple of years, doubtless see insurers in a kindlier light. Insurance companies love to hide behind actuarial gobbledegook. Was there ever such a greedy, inefficient, incompetent bunch as the insurance companies? The proposed pounds 6bn merger of Sun Alliance with Royal Insurance has got me pondering this most infuriating of industries Just thinking about insurers reduces me to gibbering rage. Despite its futuristic look, the HSS is far less complex than a hydrofoil or a hovercraft.Fast car ferries in serviceRoute Craft Introduced BuiltStranraer-Belfast Stena HSS July 1996 FinlandCairnryan-Larne P&O Jetliner June 1996 NorwayStranraer-Belfast Sea Containers 1993 AustraliaSeacat (Incat 74m)Holyhead- Stena HSS April 1996 FinlandDun LaoghaireFishguard-Rosslare Stena Lynx May 1996 Australia(Incat 75m)Weymouth- Condor 12 1996 Australia Channel Islands (Incat 81m)Newhaven-Dieppe Stena Lynx April 1996 Australia(Incat 75m)Dover-Calais Stena Lynx July 1996 Australia(Incat 81m)Dover-Calais Sea Containers 1966 UKHovercraftFolkestone- Sea Containers 1990 Australia Boulogne Seacat (Incat 74m)Harwick-Hook of Stena HSS early 1997 Finland Holland. A thought to ponder as we skim across the water in our Scandinavian, Australian or Italian high-speed ferry.Strangely, the technology has been becoming less sophisticated. But then it is odd that many things that should be built in Britain are not. Post-privatisation restrictions by the EU made a move into commercial ships difficult, he says, because Vosper was not allowed to pick up subsidies as other yards were Now the shipbuilding subsidy scheme is being scrapped.

"We are always reviewing the options," he says.Meanwhile, the modest British flag is being flown by FBM Marine of the Isle of Wight, which has just delivered five passenger-only catamarans for the Hong Kong to Macao route. Now another five are being built."We just haven't got the space to build anything bigger but we have been talking to various yards around the world," says chief designer Nigel Warren It is odd, he agrees, that none have been built in the UK. Some, such as Royal Schelde in Holland, are building catamarans. Most have built on their traditional expertise, constructing ferries that owe much to destroyer design.P&O, which has been watching fast ferry developmentsfrom the sidelines, will introduce a 310-foot monohull on its Scotland to Northern Ireland route this summer.