boat insurance

Can someone please help.

I am looking at updating my boat insurance and am having a hard time working through all of the options.

1)Do most of you insure you boat on book value or what you have in the boat?

2)Can someone give me an overview of a good general coverage policy.

My agent tells me I have my "old" boat over insured!!!

Thank in advance.



Shawn

your over insured until you have a problem,this is from personal experiences....the more popular the insurance company the more problems you will have, with boats i stray from the popular companies because they pro-rate everything and depreciate, hitting your prop or hitting the dock is considered an accident and most do not realize this and its the 2 most common things that happen to the boat, so make sure your coverage dictates that.

Riley wrote: Will the insurance company pay you more than book value, even though you know it's worth more and have more into the boat? My guess is that a lot of these older fiberglass inboards have pretty low book values.

They will if you have a declared value in the policy, if you havent specificially included a higher declared value then your still in decent shape as long as the damage doesn't exceed what would be the normal value of the boat. However in complete loss or theft scenarios you would be screwed.

I use Foremost and I have an agreed upon value for the boat and trailer. It cost a little more but it's well worth it. I haven't had a single claim yet in 5 years of boating so I can't tell you how good they are with handling claims. The agreed upon value is the minimum amount that I'd sell the boat for.

I agree with those above- go with an agreed upon replacement value if you can. Blue book is way low, IMO. I havent found that it costs much more for agreed-value. Dont forget to insure both the boat and trailer.

As far as coverage goes, you want a minimum of 100k/300k coverage for liability, just like a car. The liability portion of the policy will be the largest factor in the cost of the premium. If you can find a policy for ~$100, youre way underinsured, IMO. Dont skimp on insurance!

Ive found that insurance companies familiar with ski boats (Ski Safe, Global Marine, etc) have the most reasonable rates, because they realize that a 19' boat with 300hp is only going to go 45mph. I got a quote from Progressive for over $800/year.

My current policy is with Global- I liked the terms of the policy the best out all the companies I cross-shopped (comp coverage, agreed-value, etc). Their rates were reasonable and theyre endorsed by USA Waterski. You should be able to get a very nice policy on the range of $300 or so.

I have two cars a motorcycle and house through Allstate so like most people when I bought my 98 sport nautique last November I called my agent and they wanted over $700.00 after talking to three friends with nautique boats they told me about ski safe I got coverage on an agreed value (more than I paid for the boat and trailer!) for $290.00 a year and they have uninsured boaters liability coverage included that allstate didnt offer. In N.H. you are not required to have insurance.

   When I purchased my superair,I insured it for 10k over what I paid for it.It was only about $50.00 extra a year.I did this because I got a great deal on it,felt it was worth more than I paid for it and knew if it got totaled/damaged I would not be able to buy a replacement for the same price.I'm getting ready to take that extra coverage off now that it's 3 years old.I have ski safe and they were @ 550.00 a year for 65k worth of coverage....half what my regular ins.co(state farm) wanted.I recently price checked Boat US and the coverage and premium was comparable to within a few bucks.Be careful of the policy terms,after a certain peroid of time,alot of the policies change to actual cash value(acv)policies that can get tricky.Say you damage a prop...you get the actual cash value of the prop,which is USED,not the cost to replace it with a new one.If you have a major incident,this can really screw you when it comes time to collect.I also got trailer coverage(roadside)and equipment coverage of $2500.included with my coverage.My only hope is that in the event of a claim,Ski safe will be as friendly then as they have been so far.Good luck

     Mike

United Marine Underwriters
$486.00 for $50k coverage:
boat-$46k
trailer-$4k
+$2.5k gear

Ski-Safe has always quoted me higher then most.

I have been told the older the boat the higher the premium, they feel old=more susceptible to failure/sinking/etc.

I did have a major claim in 03' when my boat was destroyed in a fire while in storage. The only issue I had with that claim was they felt the trailer was not totaled so they only wanted to pay out on the boat, once I explained to them how difficult getting their boat off my trailer would be they paid for and took everything including $2.5k worth of gear.

    The problem with most insurance companies,as Tim stated,is that they can only relate to 10 HP per foot.If your boat has more than 10 HP per foot it must be a "hot rod" hence the higher rate.I had insurance on my Ranger bass boat for about $200 per year and it went 64 mph(gps),but it was 17.5 ft long and only had a 150hp outboard,so they saw no problem with it.



    "we qouted painting the complete side of the boat becasue the damage was in the center and being an adjuster that looks at cars all day cut a check for $700.00 and to only spot in the area 2x2, down from 2800.00 and there is nothing you can do...try matching the center of a boat for color"

    Eric,in that situation,I just tell the adjuster to call the customer and tell him he needs to pick up his bike because the insurance company doesn't wan't to have it fixed properly.Usually the adjuster will bend if you make him be the bad guy.I've done it many,many times

    If I feel a part has been damaged through an accident and can justify my notion,I will refuse to do the repair until the insurance company signs off on the liabilty.Well, they won't do that.So when they say "ah,we can't do that" I say well "why the hell should I?" I'm the one ultimately responsible,so you fix it right or sign off or call the customer and tell him he has to take it somewhere else(and tell him WHY).
   Another good one is "well,I see you get $72.00 per hour and we only pay $60.00 per hour.......well,I guess you can haul it out of here and take it to a shop that only gets $60.00 an hour.Have a nice day .
   Sorry I turned this into a rant,It just aggrevates me that nothing in the insurance world is negotiable until it comes time for them to pay.

      Mike

just got off the phone with skisafe. 87BFN was right. They will not do an aggreed value for the older boats. He said NADA on my boat was 6,000 dollars, so if it is stolen today they would only replace it for that.

I am going to try Global next.

thanks!!

I had Boats US in the past with no trouble,but no claimes either.I went to go back with them last year but now,because it's an inboard,they wanted a marine survey done.I asked what was the difference between an IO which did not need one and inboard.They couldn't tell me.So with help like that what would happen if I had a claim? Everything I still get from them goes in the trash.