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Arranging boat insurance online: what to have ready
Short answer
A quote for a boat takes a few minutes if the papers are on the table and an afternoon if they are
in a locker on board.
This is what the form asks for,
and why each answer matters long after you have forgotten giving it.
The form wants the boat first: type, builder and model, year of build, length, the hull identification number, the make and output of the engine or engines, and the serial number of an outboard. Then it wants money: the value of the boat and how you arrive at it, the value of removable electronics, the value of a trailer if there is one. Then it wants geography: where the boat lies in the season, where she spends the winter, and how far you intend to go. Finally it wants history: how long you have been sailing, which certificate you hold, and what has been claimed in the last few years.
Two of those answers do most of the work later, and both are easy to give carelessly. The first is the value. It is not an opinion but a figure you will have to evidence, so it should come off a purchase contract and the invoices for whatever has been fitted since, not off a feeling about what the boat is worth. The second is the cruising area. A range agreed in February is read very literally in August, and no exclusion has to be invoked for a passage that simply lies outside it. Spend the extra minute on those two fields and the rest of the form is administration.
What comes back is a schedule and a wording, and the schedule is the one to read against the form you filled in. Check the boat, the engine, the sum insured, the cruising range, the deductible and the dates, and query anything that reads differently from what you typed, because the schedule is what counts from then on. Store the documents where you can reach them from a weak signal at a fuel berth, not only on the laptop at home. And treat the arrangement as living: a stronger engine, a new berth, a longer passage or a change of use belongs in writing before the season, where it is a formality, rather than after an incident, where it is an argument.
Worth remembering
A few minutes
if the papers are already on the table
Two answers
decide most of what follows
The value and the cruising range are asked almost in passing, and asked first when something happens.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
What should I have on the table before I start?
The purchase contract, the invoices for anything fitted since, the registration document, the hull identification number and the engine details. With those to hand the form is a few minutes of typing.
When does the arrangement actually begin?
Most contracts run from an agreed date rather than from the moment the form is sent, and the schedule states that date. It is worth reading before you plan a passage around it.
Can I change my answers later?
Yes, and you should, in writing, as soon as something changes: a stronger engine, a different berth, a wider cruising area, a different use. Notice before the season costs nothing.
Related
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