Roger Long
Senior Member
(Hoping for responses from any insurance professionals here.)
The Green Cove Springs fire thread has raised a question I've been wondering about. Here's my story:
I found a boatyard I liked very much. Got my waterpump rebuilt for $26.00 (yes, the decimal is in the right place, I had the rebuild kit). My plan a couple years ago was to haul out there for some work and leave the boat for a month to return north. The yard said I needed to have my insurance changed to put them on the policy. I called my company and they said they couldn't do that. I thought maybe something was getting lost in translation so I asked my agent to contact the yard and work it out. The agent called me back and said the yard was crazy and what they were asking for was illegal. (They were in Maine so insurance regulations may vary by state). She explained that, since the yard had no ownership or insurable interest in the vessel, they couldn't be a named insured. She said they offered a letter assuring the yard that our insurance would cover any damage to the yard or other vessels due to something like an electrical fire but the yard would accept nothing less than a policy that had their name on it somewhere. I found another yard.
After reading the GCSM thread, and learning that this is becoming common practice at many marinas, I called up that yard and was told their policy has not changed. I've never been asked for this anywhere else.
Can someone explain what is going on here? Can that yard, which is doing a booming business mostly for lower end boaters, really be getting all of them to have their insurance policies re-written before hauling? My company is a major one and made a good case why they couldn't write a new policy just to have a boat hauled. My agent said the yard probably was going bare without insurance and trying to get the customers to provide it indirectly.
The Green Cove Springs fire thread has raised a question I've been wondering about. Here's my story:
I found a boatyard I liked very much. Got my waterpump rebuilt for $26.00 (yes, the decimal is in the right place, I had the rebuild kit). My plan a couple years ago was to haul out there for some work and leave the boat for a month to return north. The yard said I needed to have my insurance changed to put them on the policy. I called my company and they said they couldn't do that. I thought maybe something was getting lost in translation so I asked my agent to contact the yard and work it out. The agent called me back and said the yard was crazy and what they were asking for was illegal. (They were in Maine so insurance regulations may vary by state). She explained that, since the yard had no ownership or insurable interest in the vessel, they couldn't be a named insured. She said they offered a letter assuring the yard that our insurance would cover any damage to the yard or other vessels due to something like an electrical fire but the yard would accept nothing less than a policy that had their name on it somewhere. I found another yard.
After reading the GCSM thread, and learning that this is becoming common practice at many marinas, I called up that yard and was told their policy has not changed. I've never been asked for this anywhere else.
Can someone explain what is going on here? Can that yard, which is doing a booming business mostly for lower end boaters, really be getting all of them to have their insurance policies re-written before hauling? My company is a major one and made a good case why they couldn't write a new policy just to have a boat hauled. My agent said the yard probably was going bare without insurance and trying to get the customers to provide it indirectly.
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