The words a claim turns on

Boat owners are often told never to admit fault after a collision.

An agreed value is a sum fixed in the policy that counts as the boat's value if she becomes a…

All risks cover protects the boat against any accidental loss or damage unless the wording…

Assistance is the organised help around a boating incident rather than payment for the damage…

After a collision in foreign waters, a harbour authority or a court can hold the boat and…

The bora is the cold fall wind of the Adriatic.

Break-in theft means someone forces a locked boat and takes what is inside, or unbolts fitted…

A boat capsizes when it heels so far that it turns over and lies on its side or upside down.

Cavitation occurs when vapour bubbles form around a turning propeller and collapse again…

A CE marking is the builder's declaration that a boat, and the engine fitted to it, meet…

Letting other people use your boat for money, through an agency, an online platform or…

A collision is any impact between your boat and another vessel, a fixed object such as a…

A marine casualty is an incident on the water, usually a collision or a grounding.

Owners usually sort hull cover into two levels.

The cruising area, also called navigation limits, is the stretch of water agreed in the…

Every hull policy names the waters it applies to, and a cruising limits extension lifts that…

Liability wordings for boats usually exclude damage to property that the owner has rented…

Deliberate damage means a loss the insured person wanted to happen, rather than one caused by…

Dismasting means the mast breaks or buckles, often because a shroud, stay or fitting gives way.

Double insurance means that the same risk is covered by two or more policies at the same time.

The excess, called a deductible in some wordings, is the part of each claim you pay yourself.

Gross negligence is a serious failure to take the care any reasonable skipper would take…

A grounding is contact between the hull, keel, rudder or drive and the seabed, a rock, a…

A helmet bonus is a clause in personal accident wordings that raises the amount paid if the…

A home port is the berth where a boat is kept between trips and the place it returns to.

A hurricane clause narrows hull protection during the tropical storm season.

An increase in risk means that circumstances change after the contract is signed, so that a…

A multilingual document proving that insurance is in force.

Protection depends on the premium actually reaching the insurer on time.

Launching means putting a boat into the water down a ramp, on a trailer or a slipway cradle…

Legal expenses insurance for boat owners pays for the dispute, not the sum in dispute…

A confirmation to a bank or finance house financing the boat that it will receive the…

The limit of indemnity is the most the liability section will pay for damage or injury you…

Owners tend to sort hull cover into two levels, and the narrow one is what a cheaper policy…

Hull wordings almost always exclude mechanical breakdown: wear, a seized bearing, a short…

Market value is what the boat was worth on the day of the loss: the replacement cost less…

The meltemi is the summer north wind of the Aegean.

Misappropriation means that someone who was lawfully holding the boat decides to keep her.

A named perils policy contains a closed list of insured events, such as fire, storm, sinking…

When a repair puts a new part in place of an old one, the boat is worth more afterwards than…

A restriction that limits theft cover at night or ties it to the boat being kept in a locked…

A no claims discount reduces the premium for years without a claim and can be cut back after…

No claims discount protection is a clause that keeps the discount in place after the first…

Osmosis is water absorbed into the laminate of a GRP hull, leading to blistering.

Cover is contingent, or excess of other insurance, when it only applies to the extent that no…

A partial loss is damage that can be repaired, as opposed to a total loss where the boat is…

Personal accident cover for occupants pays when people on board are injured or killed in an…

Items on board that are not part of the boat: clothing, binoculars, tablets, fishing tackle.

Obligations the policyholder must meet to keep cover intact: giving accurate information when…

Spilled fuel, oil in the marina basin, a clean-up of a harbour or river ordered by the…

Before a policy is issued, the proposer has to answer the insurer's written questions fully…

A premium adjustment is a change to the price of a policy that is already running, while the…

Provisional cover, also called interim cover, is protection that applies before the policy…

Repatriation is the question of who brings a boat home after damage has left it behind…

Replacement as new means a loss is paid at what an equivalent new item costs today, without a…

A replacement skipper is an experienced hand sent out to bring a boat home when the owner or…

In insurance law a representative is not every guest at the wheel.

Selling an insured boat raises a question many owners ask too late: what happens to the…

Salvage and towage cover the cost of recovering, towing and securing a boat after a casualty.

Salvage means lifting or pulling free a boat that has sunk, gone aground or lost all steerage.

The cost of searching for and helping people in distress: lifeboats, helicopters, other…

Seasonal cover insures a boat only for the months it is used and switches off for the rest of…

Conditions that must be met for theft to be insured: a locked building, a fenced compound, a…

Skipper's liability is the third party cover that applies to a person in charge of a boat…

Boat policies commonly tie protection to the person at the helm holding whatever licence the…

A boat is stranded when it runs aground and stays stuck, on a beach, a sandbank or rocks…

Subrogation is the insurer's right, once it has paid a claim, to recover the money from…

Sue and labour costs, also called mitigation costs, are what you spend to prevent or reduce a…

The value you declare for the boat and her equipment.

After damage to a boat, someone has to establish what is broken, what caused it and what the…

A tender is the small boat that a larger one carries: the dinghy towed astern, the RIB on the…

Many owners assume a boat contract can only end on its renewal date.

Theft of individual items rather than the whole boat: outboard engine, electronics, tender…

A total loss means the boat is beyond saving, or that repairing it would cost more than the…

A tracking device is a small transmitter fitted on board that reports the boat's position…

Underinsurance arises when the sum insured is lower than the boat's real value.

An underwriting agent (often called an MGA or coverholder) is an intermediary holding wide…

Uninsured third party cover, sometimes called default cover, helps when you are the victim of…

Almost every marine wording sets aside a group of catastrophe risks that no premium can…

Harbour authorities and other public bodies can order a wreck to be removed.