Etap 22 insurance check: setting the value of an older sailing boat

Part one of this series looked at what a policy for the Etap 22 should say. Part two of the insurance check deals with the number that carries most weight in it: the sum insured. As throughout the series, nobody sailed the boat and nothing here judges its quality. There are also deliberately no prices and no market values. What a sailing boat of this type is worth today depends on the condition, equipment and care of the individual boat, which is exactly why setting and proving the value is the owner's job for each boat.

First, what belongs in the value at all. Good hull wordings define the insured object broadly: the vessel with its permanently installed parts, the navigational equipment, the accessories and inventory, and explicitly masts, booms, standing and running rigging and sails. Where that definition exists, the rig and sails of a small cabin sailboat are part of the boat's sum and need no separate line. Tenders, trailers, outboards and water sports gear are a different matter in many wordings: they are only covered when declared with their own sum insured on the schedule.

Next, what the sum actually means, and here wordings differ widely. Under an actual cash value basis, the insurer pays what a comparable item would cost on the day of loss, minus an amount for age, wear and use, with the sum insured only as the upper limit. Under an agreed value, the sum on the schedule is fixed in advance by both sides as the value of the boat. For an older sailing boat this is the heart of the matter, because the cash value of a boat with many years behind it is easy to argue about after a claim. Read in the policy which of the two applies.

Because the sum carries so much, valuing the boat correctly matters. If it is too low, money is missing after a total loss, because payment is capped at the sum insured. At the same time the sum drives the price of cover. For an older boat the original purchase price is rarely a good guide, since sails, rig, outboard or electronics have often been replaced since. Many wordings let the owner raise the sum at any time on presentation of invoices or a survey report, and some require any increase in value through refits to be reported before it counts.

A valuation survey is rarely compulsory. For a sailing boat whose invoices are lost, or whose equipment has grown over the years, it is often the only document that supports the value. A surveyor records condition, equipment and value on a given date, and that report belongs with the boat papers. Keep it separate in your mind from a surveyor after a claim: many wordings only reimburse that cost when the insurer commissioned the survey or agreed to it in advance.

For partial losses to rig, sails or outboard, the age of the part matters, and this is where wordings differ most. Some pay repair costs without any deduction for age. Others apply a scale, for example no deduction up to three years, then 20 percent, after five years 35 percent and from ten years 50 percent. On an older boat with old sails, that one sentence decides half of the bill. Read whether a deduction scale applies, whether it is only triggered when shown on the schedule, and keep the purchase invoices for sails and rigging.

That leaves the items outside the hull. The trailer of a trailed sailing boat and the outboard each need their own sum, and both age differently from the boat. Whoever buys a new engine should send the invoice and have the sum adjusted. Covers, compass, depth sounder or ground tackle usually fall under equipment or inventory and belong in the boat's value. Personal effects such as glasses or phones are excluded by some wordings and covered within a limit by others. The typical claims these values meet are the subject of the third part of this series.