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Does the home or motor policy already cover the boat?
Short answer
Many owners already hold three policies before they buy a boat.
It is worth knowing exactly where each of them stops,
because the gap between them is wider than the brochures suggest.
The first question most new owners ask is the right one: is this not already sorted? For small craft, it is worth looking. Household policies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the personal liability cover attached to a Dutch household package, often extend to unpowered craft such as dinghies, rowing boats, canoes, sailboards and paddleboards, sometimes to a tender with a small outboard. Those extensions come with limits on length, sail area and engine power, and the limits live in the schedule and the policy booklet rather than in the summary page.
What a liability section never does is answer for damage to the boat itself. Liability answers to third parties, and that is its design rather than a gap in it. If the boat sinks at its berth, burns out in the yard, is stolen off the trailer or grounds on a falling tide, none of that is a liability question at all. It belongs to hull and machinery insurance or to nobody, and the owner who assumes otherwise finds out on exactly one occasion.
Contents insurance insures the contents of a home. An outboard locked in the garage may well fall inside it; the same engine on the transom in a marina or in a yard locker generally does not, and gear stowed on board almost never does. A motor policy insures the car: third party liability usually extends to a trailer while it is coupled, but damage to the trailer, theft of the boat sitting on it and damage in transit are not motor business. Before assuming any of this, ask the broker to confirm the position in writing, because a schedule endorsement is evidence and a phone call is not.
Worth remembering
Three policies
many owners already hold
None of them
answers for the boat itself
Household, personal liability and motor policies answer for third parties, for the home and for the car. The boat is in none of those three.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Is a small dinghy covered by household liability?
Often yes, for unpowered craft and sometimes for a tender with a small outboard, subject to limits on length, sail area and engine power. Those limits are set out in the schedule, so read them before relying on the extension.
Does personal liability answer for damage to my own boat?
No, in no circumstances. Liability sections answer to third parties for injury and for damage to their property. Damage to the insured's own boat is a matter for hull and machinery insurance.
Is the outboard insured under the home contents policy?
At the home address at best, and even then subject to limits on garden and outbuilding contents. On the transom, at the berth or in a yard locker it normally falls outside contents insurance altogether.
Does the car policy insure the boat on the trailer?
It insures the car, and third party liability commonly follows a coupled trailer. It does not insure the trailer against damage or theft, and it does not insure the load, which is what the boat is while it is being towed.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Does the home or motor policy already cover the boat?” 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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