Since we've started boating full-time, we've had a total of 3 different insurance companies.
First, the Lazy Gecko was insured by Geico. The boat was paid off so we were able to have liability coverage only which was seriously like $96 a year...Yes, $96.00 a year.
Then we purchased Calypso and with her came a big fat mortgage! So of course that means full coverage insurance was necessary. We won't get into all the requirements here as far as surveys and all that, let's just talk cost. However, an important fact is that we insure Calypso for $800,000.
We used a broker for the next two insurance companies which made it simple. The first company we used was Yachtinsure. They were easy. It was about $12,000 for the year and that allowed us to cruise anywhere except for between 12deg and 23deg between July-Nov. Basically a box from the Grenadines to Turks. We couldn't be there during hurricane season or we wouldn't be covered for a named storm.
They were great until last hurricane season when they had a ton of claims which caused them to make the decision to not renew the more pricey policies, ours was on the list of non-renewal.
Next up was Concept Special Risk. They were about the same at $12,500 for the year. But anything we did caused them to ask for more money. For example: There was a moment where we were stuck in Fort Lauderdale for some maintenance. This wasn't the "home" marina of Palm Coast, Florida so they asked us for $2000 more to cover us even though we had already had them active for about 6 months. We told them no and we moved Calypso up to her home marina for the season instead. We didn't like the way they did business so we dropped them at the end of the term.
This year we made a change back to BoatUS (basically back to Geico). The policy isn't a worldwide policy but we can cruise the U.S., Bahamas and the Caribbean with it. If we decide to push further, we will simply grab another policy and drop this one. The premium for the Geico policy this year was $11,000.
Boat insurance can be a pain. Especially when you're coming up on a termination date and you need a survey to lock on new insurance. We just had Calypso surveyed two days ago while she is on the hard just so next November (when we renew), we will have a survey that's less then 2 years old. Usually they want one.
If you have any questions about the hemorrhage that is boat insurance, let us know!
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