Insurance

[Star of the Sea10827]

Dear members, I am retiring september 2009, I am trying to find boat insurance that would
cover an Atlantic Crossing, please advise and suggest questions I should ask?
Star of the Sea

 

[Ross]

I can't advise about insurance but I can offer a bunch of questions you need to ask yourself.
Do you know the location of every seacock on your boat?
Do you know the location of the plugs for all of the thru-hulls on your boat?
Do you have an emergency tiller?
Do you have a suit of storm sails?
Do you have back up equipment for the high tech equipment that may fail and cause you grief?
Do you have extensive off shore experience?
Can you navigate without GPS and its cousins?
Do you have a large manual bilge pump?
Will your boat still function without electricity?

 

[sailingdog]

How many crew will be aboard for your Atlantic crossing? IMIS might sell you a Jackline policy, but you need to have two crew minimum for that.

 

[Star of the Sea10827]

I can't advise about insurance but I can offer a bunch of questions you need to ask yourself.
Do you know the location of every seacock on your boat?
Do you know the location of the plugs for all of the thru-hulls on your boat?
Do you have an emergency tiller?
Do you have a suit of storm sails?
Do you have back up equipment for the high tech equipment that may fail and cause you grief?
Do you have extensive off shore experience?
Can you navigate without GPS and its cousins?
Do you have a large manual bilge pump?
Will your boat still function without electricity?

Yes to all questions

 

[Star of the Sea10827]

How many crew will be aboard for your Atlantic crossing? IMIS might sell you a Jackline policy, but you need to have two crew minimum for that.

Currently the two of us have uscg 100 ton, with any average of 200 day per year, hopefully I will line up one or two additional persons.

Star of the Sea 432

 

[Roger Long]

Currently the two of us have uscg 100 ton, with any average of 200 day per year, hopefully I will line up one or two additional persons.
Star of the Sea 432

If they won't insure you, who will they insure?

Please be sure to come back and tell us where you obtain your insurance and what hoops they make you go through.

 

[Hermit Scott]

I haven't bought regular insurance yet. I think I will need it before I can go to a marina. I am just going to get liebility. Does anyone know the cheapest out there?

 

[txjim]

I haven't bought regular insurance yet. I think I will need it before I can go to a marina. I am just going to get liebility. Does anyone know the cheapest out there?

Try Progressive.com. They may not be cheapest (although I suspect they are pretty competitive) but you can get quotes online for comparison. Lost of coverage options beyond the standard Marina requirements.

 

[Bad Obsession]

My experience with progressive was that it was for newer boats and the policies seemed to be more towards PWCs and Powerboats. They didn't even ask for a survey when I had a policy through them. After checking the policy through them, there were a lot of gaps in coverage.

I went with Boat U.S. just because I know that they are okay for coverage. I only pay $350 a year.

I am wondering if you can get a write in for the atlantic crossing through your regular insurance.

 

[Hermit Scott]

Bad-is that full covereage or liability?

 

[Roger Long]

Does anyone know the cheapest out there?

The cheapest I found (and still have) is Liberty Mutual. They don't advertise it and will only give it to you if you have your auto and homeowners with them. It was half the price of anything else I had quoted for the same coverage. I also got it with a survey done before I bought the boat which no other company would do saving me another half grand that first year when money was tight from the boat purchase. I'm covered around Nova Scotia to P.E.I. athough I have to take the inland passage at Cape Breton. I'll have to get something else when I go to Newfoundland.

Questions have been raised about how well they will treat me if I have a claim. Frankly, I don't know. It could go either way. They don't have a marine staff whose job it is to nickle and dime every claim. From the way they have treated me on auto claims, I think they would probably pay anything reasonable just to not have to deal with it. Insurance is always a crap shoot. Compare the TV commercials with the way the same companies treated people after Katrina.

 

[Bad Obsession]

My boat US is full coverage. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Hermit Scott]

Bad-did you have to get a survey done before you could get full coverage?
The boat has to be on the hard when surveyed?

 

[Bad Obsession]

I had a full survey when I purchased her. It was in excellent shape and I used that survey for the insurance company.

 

[Lee Coller]

With a thirty year old boat you will find that none of the major consumer insurance companies (Allstate, State Farm, etc.) will insure you, even for liability only. Check boatus.com.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I'd be very leery of any underwriter who would insure a boat without a survey, regardless of cost. They are not that stupid, especially for an old boat!

And if one did, I'd suggest you first carefully read and understand precisely what it is they are insuring and also get to know a good litigation attorney in case you ever have to file a claim.

 

[Bad Obsession]

I agree. I wouldn't buy a boat without a survey either! Just so many things can go wrong with a boat and there is so much to look for why not get another opinion. It also gives you a tool to bargin with.

Insurance is very important too. A boat is a big investment and if you plan to hold onto it then you should protect yourself. I own my boat (no loan, lien, etc) but I would hate to loose it and not be able to replace it.

 

[Hermit Scott]

When I bought my boat a survey would have cost 15% of the purchase price. If my boat was as nice as yours and if I spent as much as you did for your boat, I would have insurance also.
Bad-I had to laugh when you said a boat was an investment.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

This isn't an issue of boat cost or survey cost.
Insurance protects you against liability from damages attributable to you or your boat. It will protect you from environmental liability, personal injury to people either on your boat or another boat involved in an accident, it will indemnify the marina at which you store or dock the boat (often a prerequisite). I also provides financial assurance such that you can replace stolen or damaged equipment, personal effects, outboard, dinghy, etc... then there are worker's comp claims and medical payments for which you could be liable as well as uninsured boats. Most of these are not covered by simple liability insurance.

Both in terms of your own interests as well as protection of the rest of us, it is almost irresponsible to not have insurance which almost always requires a survey as a prerequisite, regardless of how much or how little capital you have invested. The good news is that, if the boat is not that expensive, neither will adequate insurance.

 

[Steve Dion]

No survey, probably no insurance!