Quicksilver Activ 505 Cabin insurance check: setting the insured value

The second part of this series is about the figure that sits next to the boat name in the schedule, the sum insured, and the value it is meant to reflect. As in the first part, we have not driven the Quicksilver Activ 505 Cabin and we do not value it. We give no market values and no amounts, because the value of a motor boat with a cuddy cabin depends on the year, condition, engine, equipment and care of the individual boat. What this insurance check can show is how policy wordings deal with the value you declare and which items are often missing when setting it. On a boat of this size the outboard and the trailer are separate positions in many policies, and both are easily forgotten.

The most important difference lies in the basis of settlement. Some hull wordings pay the actual cash value: what it costs on the day of the loss to replace the item with one of the same kind and quality, minus a deduction for age, wear and use. Some apply fixed age deductions on top, rising with every few years of age. Others work with an agreed value: the sum in the schedule is settled between both sides when the policy starts and is not argued about again after a total loss. Some broader wordings also waive the underinsurance argument. Look for the words agreed value, actual cash value or market value in your schedule; they tell you which system applies to you.

The outboard is a separate item. In many policies it is not automatically part of the sum for the hull but needs its own value in the schedule, and without it the engine may not be covered at all. If you replace it or fit a more powerful one, the value changes and often the risk as well. Some wordings let you raise the sum at any time against invoices or a survey; others go further and oblige you to report upgrades, with cover for the added value only once you have proved them. Keep the invoices for engine, electronics or new upholstery in the same folder as the bill of sale.

Then comes the equipment that a cuddy cabin boat carries. Hull cover usually includes the boat with all fixed parts, navigation equipment such as chartplotter and handheld radio, accessories and inventory. On a boat of this kind that might be the cover, cabin cushions, chartplotter, echo sounder, swim ladder, cool box and anchor with rode. Wordings rarely list every item, so their value belongs in the sum. Personal belongings such as phones, glasses or towels are excluded in some policies and covered within fixed limits in others. Either way they do not belong in the sum insured for the boat.

Over winter, parts of many boats of this size move indoors: engine, cushions, electronics. Some wordings keep equipment, inventory and outboards covered when they are stored apart from the boat in locked rooms or buildings, often only after any household policy; others say nothing about it. Two limits are common everywhere: weather damage from rain, frost or sun is usually excluded unless a storm caused it, and theft of loose items that were not properly packed, covered and lashed is often not covered. If you take things off the boat, put them behind a locked door rather than under an open shelter.

The trailer has its own line too. Many policies cover it under the hull section only if it is declared with its own value in the schedule. Some waive the excess for trailer claims and pay for trailer damage only when it results from an accident to the boat, storm, lightning, earthquake, fire, explosion or theft. Theft cover for a trailer often depends on a hitch lock against unauthorised uncoupling and, when the trailer is parked uncoupled, a lock against coupling or a wheel clamp. What that means on the road and at the ramp is covered in the fourth part of this series.

A value does not stand still. New electronics, a new engine or fresh upholstery raise it, age and use lower it, and the sum also drives the cost of cover. For partial losses some wordings pay the repair cost without deductions for age, others apply an age scale only if the schedule says so. A look at the policy once a year, ideally when the boat is recommissioned in spring and everything goes back on board, keeps the sum and the boat in line. Which kinds of damage are typical for a motor boat with a cuddy cabin is the subject of the third part of this series.