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Salvage and wreck removal costs
Short answer
Raising, moving and disposing of a boat can cost more than the boat was worth, and the order to do it goes to the owner. Check whether your policy pays those costs on top or out of the settlement.
A sinking is the beginning of the file, not the end of it. Once the boat is on the bottom of a harbour, the port authority or the waterway administration orders its removal, and the order is addressed to the owner. Ignore it and the authority can have the work done and send the bill, at a price and on a date you had no say in. The work itself splits into three separate trades, each invoiced on its own: raising the hull, transporting it and disposing of it.
The last of those surprises people most. A glass fibre hull has to be cut up and thermally treated, antifouling counts as hazardous waste in most countries, and tanks and batteries are handled separately again. Specialist firms charge by weight and by hull material, so two boats of the same length can end up with very different invoices. Add fuel or oil in the water and a further set of costs appears, with an authority behind it that does not wait for insurers to finish discussing the matter.
This is why one line in a hull policy deserves a careful read: whether removal and disposal costs are paid in addition to the sum insured or deducted from it. Deducted, they take money away from the replacement boat at the exact moment it is needed. Look as well for a separate limit for these costs, for how pollution clean up is treated, and for whether any of it depends on an authority ordering the work rather than you deciding it makes sense. Marinas increasingly ask for evidence of this cover before granting a berth. With us, removal ordered by an authority is paid in addition to the indemnity: up to the sum insured in Basis, 1 million euros in Basis Plus and 2.5 million euros in Premium.
Worth remembering
On top
leaves the hull settlement for the next boat
Deducted
pays the salvage firm out of that same money
One word in the clause decides what is left when the harbour is clear again.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Who orders the removal of a sunken boat?
The port or waterway authority, and the order goes to the owner. If nothing happens, the work can be done for you and the cost recovered from you.
What drives the cost of disposal?
Weight, hull material and what is aboard. Glass fibre, antifouling, tanks and batteries are each treated and charged separately.
Paid on top or deducted?
That is the line to find in the wording. On top leaves the hull settlement intact, deducted does not, and the difference is the money for the next boat.
And if fuel escapes?
Clean up costs are added and an authority becomes involved. Check whether pollution sits inside the policy and with what limit before you need to know.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Salvage and wreck removal costs” 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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