What limit of indemnity do I need?

The limit of indemnity is the point at which a liability policy stops paying and you start. It is easy to treat as a number on a schedule, and easy to leave at whatever the first quote suggested. The sensible way to choose it is to ask what the worst realistic claim looks like in the waters you actually use, then add the part nobody budgets for: legal costs, expert reports and years of correspondence, which in some jurisdictions are billed on top of the settlement and in others come out of the same pot.

Three things push the figure up. Speed, because a fast boat turns a moment of inattention into a serious injury claim. Traffic, because commercial shipping means claims for delay and for blocked fairways, which are financial rather than physical and can run well past the value of the craft involved. And the destination, because several countries set minimum sums for pleasure craft and because litigation costs differ enormously between legal systems. A short season in a quiet estuary and a summer between Croatia and Italy are not the same exposure.

Read two clauses alongside the figure itself. First, whether pollution and damage to water quality sit inside the liability section or somewhere else, because a fuel spill in a marina is one of the few events that reaches a large sum quickly. Second, whether claims between people on board are covered, which is the scenario nobody imagines until a guest is hurt by a boom. Many insurers will raise the limit at renewal, so treat it as a decision you revisit when the boat, the crew or the cruising ground changes.

Worth remembering

A hull loss is capped by the value of your boat. A liability claim is not capped by anything you own.