Grounding
Boat insurance term, area: Hull
A grounding is contact between the hull, keel, rudder or drive and the seabed, a rock, a sandbank or an uncharted obstruction. Many groundings end without visible damage: the boat floats off, the passage continues, and only weeks later does a crack in the laminate, a weeping keel bolt or a vibrating shaft appear. Sound practice afloat is therefore a lift-out and a yard inspection after every touch of the ground, however gentle it felt. The awkward part is the bill for that inspection when the yard finds nothing at all, because wordings differ widely on this point.
What to check: Two questions for your own contract: does running aground count as an insured accident in its own right, or is only the damage that follows from it paid? And is a lift-out and survey after a reported grounding paid when nothing is found, and does that report affect your no-claims discount?
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A general explanation in our own words.
What applies to you is set only by the wording of your own policy.
