Cost Of Insurance On Your Boat

Reading on other forums the cost of my insurance seems to be high. I have an agreed value of $45,000 on my 45 ft. 1985 BlueWater Coastal Cruiser. The policy has all the bells and whistles, and coastal waters only. I pay $1400.00 annual, is this high or the average, it is with Boat US.

Yea... That seems high to me, but I am not in Louisiana, so don't take my word on it. Here in NC and with a value of $140,000, our premium is about $1200. I think it is thru AIG. Keep this in mind though, much of your premium is now based on your credit score! So even the same policy to someone else will be a different rate if that number is different.

It has been my experience that BoatUS is always more expensive by a wide margin. I have found a very good BROKER in Wilmington, NC that deals only in marine insurance and he will always find the best fit for us at the lowest price.

Here is the binder for our policy for you to compare.

We have a policy with Traveler's with an agreed value of $165k with all those bells and whistles with a premium of $1,200. Boat US gave us a quote last year of about $2,400 for the same coverage.

My 1936 woodie is insured by AIG private client group. I pay $622 for $35K agreed value with half a million liability. So yes your cost to insure a $45K boat seems high to me.

Navigation limits will affect your premiums. When we were in the PNW full time, we paid 1/2 of what we're paying for coverage from TX, Bahamas and SE US. The OP is in Louisiana which does have a history of hurricanes.

When a hurricane gets into the northern Gulf of Mexico it will invariably hit land. Louisiana and the whole coastal area there has a target on it. Boat insurance in hurricane areas is very expensive. My boat is in South Florida, and it is very expensive.

In my experience insuring a boat in the hurricane belt costs about double what it costs to insure the same boat in higher latitudes.


So for Louisiana, you are in the ballpark.


David

Tom.B said:

It has been my experience that BoatUS is always more expensive by a wide margin.

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My experience has been just the opposite w/ Boat US... but we are Inland / Great Lakes coverage...way different than coastal in hurricane area I'm sure.

I have others re-quote boat + car + home periodically and none have been able to come close for lower coverage.
Our Boat US Premium is $853 for $175k agreed value 1% (effective) deductible.
Boat US has both no-loss credit and declining deductible w/ no claims...let's you up the policy deduct and save money as they reduce the actual deduct 25%/yr for 4 yrs (nothing after that)

I can't quote current rates on insurance, but I have nothing but praise for BoatUS service and their professional response.

In September, 2004, BoatUS had processed my claim and sent a check for the damage to my boat from Hurricane Frances (9/5) even before Hurricane Jeanne sunk her three weeks later (9/26).

I'm with Allstate. Boat US quote is more than triple.

All boat insurance is not the same. Liability coverage is very important and that wasn't mentioned.


My boat is insured with Nationwide, the same company that insures my home and vehicles. This allows me to have an "umbrella" policy which covers excess liability over my standard insurance.


A BoatUS quote was much more than I pay and excluded certain areas including Florida during certain seasons.

It is fine and may even be preferable to have one company provide home, boat, car and umbrella insurance, but it is not necessary.


We have State Farm cover cars, Farm Bureau (a NC coop) provide home owners, Ace covers the boat and an umbrella from State Farm extends all of the others. You just have to meet the requirements of the umbrella- $300,000 primary coverage for the boat for example. Each area of risk needs to be explicitly listed in the declarations of the umbrella, ie car, boat, etc.


David

My quote from BoatUS was more than double all three other quotes from other companies. Same terms for all so not a case of more coverage.
And yes, I am based in New Orleans with coastal navigation coverage all the way to Key West.

My BoatUS policy is half the price of what my home/automobile insurer offered to cover the boat.

Tom`s low Public Liability cover of 300K is astoundingly low but I gather the norm in USA. Here the standard amount is $10M, and we are a lot less litigation prone.
FWIW for Aussies, friends whose boat was a total loss in the April east coast storm were paid out in full by Club Marine(part of Allianz) in a week. The insurer set up a temporary claims office in a yacht club in their badly affected area. I`m insured with them, no claims yet, let`s not tempt fate, but my friends experience is comforting if I do.

Bruce: What does OZ do for fuel/environmental spills? Our insurance has a statutory limit of $854,400 for fuel and other spills as a separate line item which is included in the premium.

Larry M said:

Bruce: What does OZ do for fuel/environmental spills? Our insurance has a statutory limit of $854,400 for fuel and other spills as a separate line item which is included in the premium.

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Not a specific item, it comes within Liability to Other People, limit is 500K per event. In that respect your Policy is certainly superior.

I'm with Club Marine, via a Broker who handles other insurances for me as well. Cost is very close to 1% of market value. In the event of a total loss payout is for lower of insured value or market value. The main reason I'm insured is for the Third Party Liability aspect noted by BruceK above. Geographic limits are Australia and New Zealand + 250nm offshore. Other areas such as Fiji may be included by agreement in writing, but may well incur an additional premium.

Surprisingly there is no blackout for cyclone season in North Queensland which some other insurers specify. Although I suspect that home port/normal dock location would be a factor when premium is set.

Last time I asked BoatUS, their quote was essentially twice the premium quoted by several others for comparable policies in the PNW. And insurers had not discovered credit scores then.

Boat US, $3,200 a year on 80K agreed value in FL, absolute ripoff! Haven't shopped around in a couple of years, think I may need to.

Once your boat is older than 20 years, insurance becomes a little more difficult to place. I think that's reflected in the BoatUS quotes. They consider them a higher risk.

Yeah that sounds high. I'm in Tx and I pay $2000.

Call or PM Peter Ricks (Pau Hana), our resident insurance broker. He's good.

I asked the agent about it when renewing my policy this year and was told due to the hurricanes? I reminded her that Florida hasn't had one make landfall since 2005 and Jacksonville hasn't been hit since DORA in 1964. Crickets on the other end.

Even though two policies list the same limits on coverages, it doesn't mean the policies are equivalent. For example, some policies cover machinery breakage where others only cover subsequent damage. And some policies are all-risk where others are specific risk. All-risk covers everything not specifically excluded, when other policies only cover things specifically listed in the policy. There is a big difference between the two. And of course some carriers pay promptly without a fuss, where others say no to everything initially and leave it to you to fight for as much as you can get.

State Farm, $42 a month (year round even when the boat is on jack stands and covered with snow). Granted our boat is home-ported in South Dakota on the Missouri River most of the time but they did still pay a small claim in Massachusetts when we were motoring the boat through there last summer. (We grazed a sailboat's pointy transom in a very tight marina.) We're pretty happy with them.

cardude01 said:

Yeah that sounds high. I'm in Tx and I pay $2000.

Call or PM Peter Ricks (Pau Hana), our resident insurance broker. He's good.

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A huge second for Peter - My quote from Boat US for coverage that was not nearly as good was 60% higher than what Peter was able to get. I am in Southwest Florida.

John

kartracer - that's about what I'm paying up here in NOLA. I've made two approaches to BoatUS about 4 and then 2 years ago. The first time they blew me off due to age of the vessel, the second time it was so eyewatering I couldn't read all the trailing zeros. The liability caps at $300k because it's coordinated with my umbrella coverage. I have a renewal coming up - think I'm going to give Peter Ricks a call this time around.

Hi, all,

Just reviewed this thread; some good info, some bad.

The last thing you want to do is compare policies by the premium (cost per year)- unless you really like to roll the dice and bet nothing will never happen to you. Each policy is customized based on the specifics of a risk (boat owner (experience, credit history, loss history), vessel (sail or power, diesel or gas, single or twin engine, hull material), navigation area, and more.

Coverage is the name of the game here- how strong the policy form is should be the main factor in selecting a policy.

More later.....need to sleep....

It may be the "last thing" in your eyes, Peter, but for most of us the real world intervenes in these decisions. The extreme opacity of the insurance business requires a team of Philadelphia lawyers to decode the tiny type word-salad terms of a policy. It is fascinating to me that the so-called underwriters will take all of the information you listed (and sometimes more), apply their scientific risk analysis, and come up with (in my case) quotes that vary by a factor of 5 (top to bottom) for the "same" coverage.

With your expertise, you can probably spot these disparities a mile away. For nubs like me, it may not be so obvious or even evident. Professionally, I sometimes become peripherally involved in insurance litigation - funny how the lawyers for a megacorp insured and the lawyers for the megacorp insuror can read the same words on the same piece of paper that they both agreed to the year before and come to 12 figure disagreements. Not sure the average boat owner has a real basis for comparison other than the basic (policy professed) coverage numbers and cost. Agree that there are quality factors in insurance, but it's a challenge to figure them out.

For over 50 years I have "self insured" at $1000 to $3000 per year for a policy the savings (plus interest) leaves a nest egg to pay for minor damage.

The biggest fear is a drop if diesel in the water and "expert" clean up pirates showing up for a free lunch.

With no loan , an inexpensive boat can be walked away from.