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Using the boat differently from what you declared
Short answer
The use you declared is not a formality.
It is the basis on which the risk was taken,
and a boat used differently from the way the schedule names is a different risk,
whatever the hull says about it.
Every boat policy is written for a stated use, and it is printed on the schedule: private pleasure use, occasional hire, bareboat charter, sea school, commercial coding. If the way the boat is actually used has moved on since the proposal, almost every wording has something to say about it, and what it says is rarely in the owner's favour. The trap is that nothing visible changes. It is the same boat, in the same berth, with the same person at the helm, and only the paperwork is now describing something that no longer happens.
It runs in both directions, and both are underestimated. An owner who lets friends of friends take the boat for a fortnight in return for a contribution has stepped outside private pleasure use, whether or not the money was handled formally. In the other direction, a boat on the books as a charter yacht that the owner takes away privately at the end of the season is also outside the declared use, and that case is spelled out in hardly any wording at all: the terms speak abstractly about pleasure purposes without ever naming the switch.
The remedy is unglamorous and it works. Tell the insurer in writing before the change, and ask for the answer in writing too, even when the answer is that nothing needs to alter. Do the same for anything else that touches the risk: a repower, a wider cruising range, a new berth, a season spent living aboard, a regular skipper who is not you. A note like that costs nothing to send, comes back within days, and is the difference between a claim that is settled and an argument about what was agreed two seasons ago.
Worth remembering
The declared use
is the basis of the contract
A quiet change
is where wordings bite
The boat does not change. The risk does. A letter settles it, a sign in the window does not.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Does one paid trip really count?
It can. Hire for reward is a different use from private pleasure use, and many wordings draw the line at the reward rather than at how often it happens. If money is changing hands beyond a share of the running costs, settle it in writing first.
What about a sea trial when I am selling the boat?
While you are on board and in charge, this is normally straightforward. If you hand the boat over for the buyer to take out alone, that is a different arrangement and worth clearing beforehand, in writing, with the broker copied in.
I moved the boat to a charter base but still use it privately. Is that a change?
The berth on its own is usually a notification point rather than a change of use, but the combination is worth declaring. State both facts, the new base and the private use, and keep the reply with the policy documents.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Using the boat differently from what you declared” or another question: send us your residence and the flag your boat flies. You will get a straight answer in one email; including a no, if that is the answer.
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