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Insuring a racing yacht: what will the underwriter ask?
Short answer
With a yacht that races, most of the decision is made before the contract is signed. The questions are about the rig, the sails and the maintenance record, not about the silverware on the shelf.
A yacht that races most weekends is not a different boat to an underwriter, but it is a different risk. Rig and sails are loaded deliberately and close to their design limits, spinnakers go up in breeze that a cruising crew would sit out, and the boat spends its afternoons in close company with thirty others at the leeward mark. So in much of the market racing is less a question of what a wording says after the event than a question of acceptance, and that question is asked on the proposal form, long before any clause applies.
The questions follow what breaks. Expect to be asked the age and condition of the mast and boom, of the standing and running rigging, of the spars and of every sail in the inventory, and the date of the last rig inspection. Some underwriters send a dedicated condition questionnaire for racing yachts, others fold it into a single question on the form. An owner who cannot answer with dates and paper tends to get either no quote at all or one with a restriction on the rig. Many notices of race also ask for evidence of third party cover, so the certificate belongs aboard or in the inbox before the first start of the season.
In practice a current rig survey on a racing yacht is not a document for the file but a condition for sensible terms, and after a dismasting it is the most useful piece of evidence an owner has. Keep a simple log of when halyards, shrouds, forestay and terminals were replaced and by whom, with the invoices behind it. That log is needed twice: once on the proposal, and once when a surveyor has to separate a rig that failed from a rig that was simply worn out. Answer every question fully, even where it seems irrelevant, because a gap on the form is argued about after the damage and never before it.
Worth remembering
Before the contract
most of it is decided
Rig, sails, upkeep
are the three questions
Answer fully now and there is nothing left to argue about the condition before the damage.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
How old can the standing rigging be?
Hardly any wording names a fixed limit, but almost every proposal asks. As a rule of thumb cruising yachts replace it after about ten years and racing yachts sooner, and the rigger's report is what an underwriter will actually read.
Does racing always mean a higher premium?
Not always. A restriction on the rig or a condition about maintenance is more common than a loading on the price. Ask about both, not only about the premium, and keep the answer in writing.
What if I only start racing after the policy is in place?
Tell the insurer before the first race, in writing, and keep the reply with the policy. Racing is a change of use, and a change nobody was told about is the one that gets argued about after a claim. With us, Basis excludes regattas, Basis Plus covers club regattas and Premium also open competitions.
Related
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