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Skipper's licence requirement

Boat insurance term, area: Exclusions

Boat policies commonly tie protection to the person at the helm holding whatever licence the authorities require for that craft and that stretch of water. What counts is the official requirement, not personal experience: a sailor of forty years without the certificate the coastal state demands can still fall foul of the clause. Wordings differ sharply. Some bite only where the helmsman was both unqualified and unlicensed, others ignore competence altogether and look purely at the missing paper.

What to check: Which licence does the policy demand, and does it spell that out by craft, engine power and waters, or only by country of registration? And does a missing certificate alone trigger the clause, or must the person steering also have been unfit to handle the boat?

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