Insurance for bluewater sailors: six clauses to read before you leave

Bluewater sailors spend months preparing a boat: rigging surveyed, a watermaker fitted, spares stowed, the route laid around the storm seasons. Insurance tends to sit at the very end of that list, somewhere between visas and vaccinations. That is the wrong place for it. A policy that worked for a Baltic or Mediterranean season can stop working offshore at points nobody notices in the marina, and the gap usually shows only after a claim.

The first sentence to read is the one that names the navigational limits. Wordings usually describe them as a scale, from inland waters through named seas to ocean areas fixed by latitude and longitude, with worldwide at the top. Some allow a short extension for a few weeks per contract year, others require an agreement in writing before every crossing of the line. Worldwide cover often carries a reporting or logbook duty once a vessel moves a set distance, and a missed report is usually answered with a reduction of the payment.

The second sentence is the hurricane clause, and it is the most expensive one of the whole voyage. Common market practice is a laid up period, for example from 1 July to 15 November between 10 and 37 degrees north, or a long list of conditions: mast down, sails off, mooring lines tripled, a hurricane hole reached in time. An owner who missed one of those conditions argues about a reduction or a refusal after the storm. Some wordings contain no such clause at all, and that is worth asking for explicitly.

The third point is salvage and wreck removal. When a sailing yacht or a catamaran sinks in a foreign bay, the authority orders raising and removal, and the invoice quickly reaches six figures. Wordings differ widely here: some pay salvage on top of the sum insured, some cap it at a fixed amount, some only up to the sum insured itself. Check the amount and the trigger, which is often an order by a state or a competent authority. Rescuing people costs nothing; recovering the boat does.

The fourth point is liability abroad. If a yacht is provisionally detained in a foreign port after an accident, providing security or bail is normally left with the owner. Some contracts offer a capped short term loan for it, others offer nothing, and a legal expenses policy can sometimes fill the gap. Many countries along a typical route make third party liability compulsory, among them Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia from 15 kW of engine power, so the certificate needs to be on board and readable.

The fifth point covers the questions where older cruising yachts and small crews fail. Many schemes accept boats over 25 years only with conditions, or exclude the rig. Single handed sailing is left unanswered in many wordings although it inevitably means hours without a manned watch or lookout. Leaving a boat unattended at anchor off an open coast is one of the sharpest exclusions in the market. All three questions deserve a written answer in the quotation, not a verbal one.

The sixth point is missing from every boat policy: your own health. On an ocean voyage the medical risk is the largest one a bluewater sailor carries. State health cover rarely reaches far outside Europe, and repatriation from an anchorage in the South Pacific costs as much as a lost rig. Check with a specialist in long stay travel cover whether a maximum trip length applies, whether offshore passages are excluded and whether repatriation starts on board or only at the nearest hospital.

In short, bluewater sailors do not need a more expensive policy, they need one whose sentences match the route. The question concerns sailing yachts and catamarans on an Atlantic circuit, a Pacific crossing or a circumnavigation, occasionally a trawler. Lay the contract next to the passage plan before the lines come off, and ask for every answer that matters in writing. Questions in English are welcome on +49 3375 566 75 05.