Boat Insurance in Canada

Hello fellows TFers,
I now own my boat for the 4th season and yesterday received my insurance renewal notice. First year I got my boat the insurance bill was around 700$, last year it climbed to 900 and this year they ask me 1112$. I never had any claim on insurance and I don't understand this fees increase. I am going through a broker that tells me it is the insurer that increases the cost. The insurer is named pacific marine and the insurance cover is nice, like towing included etc but I cannot swallow this yearly increase when I never had any claim.
I am looking at alternative so that question to my fellow Canadians, who is your insurer and are you happy with it?

Thank you for your input.

L

I use Skippers Plan. Very happy.

I am looking at alternative so that question to my fellow Canadians, who is your insurer and are you happy with it?

Thank you for your input.



Aviva for me and well under 1000.00. I don't know how they would handle a claim since I never had one ..... Someone in the biz. told me that a slick Broker will throw a wide net to several Insurers, which in turn may shut out a competing broker from going to the same companies ie. ( Insurers may not quote to different brokers with same client ) fb

We use Dolphin out of Vancouver. Very happy with them - they are very good at handling claims - I've needed tows in the past unfortunately.

They did raise their rates significantly this year, but my understanding is that it was an across the board thing with all insurers.

Jeff F said:

I use Skippers Plan. Very happy.

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We also use Skippers Plan but they are a broker, not an underwriter. Our policy through them is underwritten by Aviva.

When this happens, I have a chat with the insurer. Why is the premium increased, I`ve had no claims and the value of the boat has reduced. Work out the % increase. Hit them with the premium increasing almost 40% in 4 years, ask how they justify it. If you can get a competing quote to wave about so much the better.
I think insurers depend on the insured grudgingly paying the increase without protest. It costs nothing to chat with them,they often have fallback positions, maybe a series of them. Recently I confronted a car insurer with a competing quote I got online,of 20% less from a reputable insurer,they matched it immediately. You`ve had no claims,barring an underwriting practices change, they`ll want to keep your business.

Thank you all for your input, I will ask for explanation about the increase even if I doubt I will receive any real one and will request a quote from skippers plan to compare.

L

Skipper's Plan/Aviva. I found them relatively easy to deal with when I had to make a claim in the summer of 2017. (A PWC hit my Boston Whaler style tender.) So far the rates have been reasonable.

I was elegible for a 10% discount this year and my insurance went up 22%. My broker explained that because or all the costly stom damage occurring in the USA some insurance compays are dropping Marine coverage completely and the rest are raising their premiums. I askked them to shop around and they obtained comperable coverage to last years policy and saved me about $200 . I believe the Underwrires name is Chubb

Sent a request for a quote to Skippers Plan today. They asked me some info about the boat and the last survey, then they declined to provide me any quote. Maybe being a custom built boat make it risky to ensure for them not sure as they provided me no reason why.
I will check for alternatives.

L

Dolphin Insurance. http://www.dolphininsurance.com/

My rates have been going up too. Might shop around as well this year.

Lou_tribal said:

Sent a request for a quote to Skippers Plan today. They asked me some info about the boat and the last survey, then they declined to provide me any quote. Maybe being a custom built boat make it risky to ensure for them not sure as they provided me no reason why.
I will check for alternatives.

L

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How old is your boat again?

Lou_tribal said:

Sent a request for a quote to Skippers Plan today. They asked me some info about the boat and the last survey, then they declined to provide me any quote. Maybe being a custom built boat make it risky to ensure for them not sure as they provided me no reason why.
I will check for alternatives.

L

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It's quite possible they didn't like your survey report or surveyor. Drew is one of the very rare ins. brokers that actually knows boats and every surveyor in the province.

boatpoker said:

It's quite possible they didn't like your survey report or surveyor. Drew is one of the very rare ins. brokers that actually knows boats and every surveyor in the province.

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Maybe this is the case, I don't know as they did not give me any details.
If it is the case I would have expected them to say that they need a new survey for the least not just "Our underwriters have advised they do not wish to quote on your custom built trailer". For me this sound a bit like "your boat is a piece of crap that we don't want to ensure". But maybe I am taking this too much to the words and this is the usual business reply in English ( English is not my native language so may misinterpret things).
Anyway I will continue to look.

Thank you!

L

Jeff F said:

How old is your boat again?

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The boat has been built in 1994 so it makes it 25 years old this year.

L

Lou_tribal said:

Maybe this is the case, I don't know as they did not give me any details.
If it is the case I would have expected them to say that they need a new survey for the least not just "Our underwriters have advised they do not wish to quote on your custom built trailer". For me this sound a bit like "your boat is a piece of crap that we don't want to ensure". But maybe I am taking this too much to the words and this is the usual business reply in English ( English is not my native language so may misinterpret things).
Anyway I will continue to look.

Thank you!

L

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Give Drew or Petra a call, they are both pretty good people and both are boaters. You might have been bounced by a junior underling.

boatpoker said:

Give Drew or Petra a call, they are both pretty good people and both are boaters. You might have been bounced by a junior underling.

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Ok will do for sure, thank you very much for the advice.

L

Insurance: BE ALERT!

A new insurance gimmick may be hidden within the latest boat insurance policy wording. SO be ALERT,PLs!

AS an Example: The coverage for a 30 year old boat valued at $35m--should mean that if the boat sinks or any TOTAL loss; you are covered in full. Of course!

HOWEVER, hidden in plain sight, within the wording of some policies now (Like BOATUS and GIECO ) is a difficult to decipher 1-liner paragraph that basically deletes your insurance coverage for a PARTIAL claim ( anything but a total loss.)
How do they get away with this?
Simple, they hide a statement directly right in front of the the boat owner; called, among other things "depreciation" deduction ( or other wording-- to be less alarming).
So, what does this mean to you? It means this: if you have a claim for a PARTIAL loss, let's say a $ 5,000 claim, as estimated by a yard, the insurance company can (AND DOES) discount it to $"0" because the boat has aged and as they qualify it---it has depreciated, therefore the value of the claim has bottomed out to "0". The owners were shocked, but contractually disadvantaged.

Be Alert. This actually occurred to a dear friend in December on a 1985 Tollycraft insured for many years with a BOATUS carrier. However, the renewal from the previous year had this depreciation clause they couldn't even read. They showed it to a number of us and we were all surprised. I think it now is also hidden in some of the Geico policies. Not all policies are the same. So challenge them to drop these unreasonable coverage exemptions.

There is 1 more variable they have "crafted" to reduce their claims payouts (make THEM more $$$) without alerting the boat owner: Navigation / geographic cruising coverage. Example: some policies may ARBITRARILY limit your insurance coverage to cruise in selected areas and at selected times of the year. Such as; Cruising is limited to SOUTH of CAPE SCOTT ( Vancouver Is. on the inside passage ). To go farther North--you need an additional rider at an additional cost, etc, etc. You get the picture.

At the urging of wise boaters, I was directed to switch to Chubb Marine underwriters insurance for a very competitive premium and much better coverage and navigate north through Alaska.

I am not selling Chubb. I am saying there are policies available that are not as limiting as some of other insurance products.

Any comments are graciously appreciated. Steve....

Our broker, who is also a friend, just changed us over to Chubb. Better coverage at a slightly cheaper cost than we were paying for Travelers.

We were with Dolphin for the first year and then they hiked up the rates (last year) for no apparent reason. We shopped around and were able to get a policy for the same price as previous years with Western Financial Group.

mailto:marine@westernfg.ca

Rob

I switched from Aviva to Travelers, through Portside Insurance | Your provider of carefree boating. The reduction of premium was substantial!! I had also arranged my auto and home insurance through them for an additional discount. Definitely worth investigating.

We have always used Intact Insurance need a survey every 5 years Boat is insured for 180K and no depreciation causes. Premium is $976.00 per year