Does all appliances in boats need ABYC certification to pass an insurance survey?. I also installed a Attwood 3 burner propane stove top designed for RV use.
If you carry insurance any upgrade should ideally be done to ABYC or as close to it as possble. It is getting harder and harder to find a "Lick & Stick" surveyor these days due to liability.
Fuel systems
LPG systems
Bilge systems
Electrical
Are the big ticket items for failing surveys these days. There is no such thing as being "grandfathered" when a boat is to be insured though many assume their boat should be grandfathered.. The insurance company wants to know they are insuring a boat that is "safe" and "safe" to insurance companies goes by the surveyors finding report. The surveyors survey to ABYC standards. It is a simple Catch 22...
The real crux is that insurance companies and their surveyors follow the current acceptable safety standards whether we like it or not. I realize most don't like this, so I suggest taking it up with your insurer. BTDT.....
I would strongly urge anyone reading this thread to call your insurance company and simply ask them if a non ABYC or ANSI compliant water heater is okay for you to install, and if so, are you covered in case of an accident with it.? This should be sqaure #1!!!!
Regardless of whether something is
perceived by the public as safe,
economical or the law the insurance company is usually the final word if you want to retain coverage.
The ABYC and USCG will not come banging on your door but the insurance company may just drop you if you don't bring your survey findings in line. If you've not had an insurance survey in a while, DON'T CHANGE INSURERS!!!
In the last few years, from insurance surveys alone, I have had to:
*Bond a keel stepped mast to external ballast (after a strike claim & this is NOT a standard)
*Bond numerous boats for AC Grounding to DC Grounding
*Add over current protection where it did not exist (house banks for example)
*2 Boats for the 10' rule (AC shore power inlet rule)
*1 Boat for an improper AC main breaker (not double pole)
*Multiple boats for GFCI outlets
*Multiple boats for lack of DC over-current protection
*Multiple boats for LPG system issues (too many to list)
*1 Boat for AC/DC isolation (cover for AC) behind AC/DC panel
*Multiple boats for fuel system issues (too many to list)
*1 Boat for lack of a reverse polarity indicator
*Approx three boats for non compliant battery chargers
*2 Boats for ignition protection issues on gas boats.
*1 Boat for lack of a bilge blower
*Improper bonding of chargers and inverter/chargers
*2 Boats for a bilge pump alarm
*Multiple boats for deteriorated below waterline hoses (one just last week)
*Remove a non compliant on-demand water heater (Excel)
*Multiple battery system compliance issues including venting, acid containment, over current protection etc..
*Multiple unsafe termination issues (solder, wire nuts, tape etc.)
*Steering system failures (meat hooks etc.)
I had one boat, a Pearson 30, condemned by water intrusion into the decks and around the chain plates. The fix to the boat was more than the boat was worth. No one would insure it. Boat is now a derelict. If anyone thinks the ABYC safety standards don't have any
weight on your recreational, insured boat, this would be wishful thinking. I get to fix this stuff regularly including items that are not even
required under the standards...
There are many more that I am just forgetting... Insurance companies and surveyors today are playing a CYA game. In today's day and age it does pay to use the available safety standards as a solid guideline for boat upgrades. The survey industry uses them so the closer your boat is to those guidelines (ABYC) the better chance you will have at skating through clean on an insurance survey. A number of people died years ago due to on-demand water heaters and since then this has been a big red flag for insurance companies. It is getting tougher and tougher to find a "lick & stick" surveyor these days due to the litigious nature of our society.
NOTE: "Lick & stick" is a term for those of us in states that require State inspection stickers on cars. Anyone who's ever owned an old car knows what a "lick & stick" garage is..... A few extra dollars and the problems just go away and he licks the sticker and slaps it on... (wink)
