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Where should the jet ski spend the night?
Short answer
Theft cover on a jet ski turns less on the lock than on the place where it stands.
Some wordings insist on enclosed, locked premises,
others set their own rules for the hours of darkness.
With a jet ski, theft cover is decided less by the lock than by the place it spends the night. A ski is light, sits on a trailer that anyone with a tow bar can hook up in a minute, and is worth enough to be taken to order. Wordings respond to that in two ways. Some cover theft only if the craft was kept at least on enclosed and locked premises, and raise the excess when it was not, in one wording to double. Others work with a night clause: between evening and morning the cover applies only if the craft meets set conditions of storage or security.
The words in the storage clause matter more than they appear to. A locked garage, a fenced yard with a gate, a pontoon or lift with the ski secured by cable or lock, a marina berth behind controlled access: to an underwriter these are different places, and a wording may accept some of them and not others. A trailer on the drive in front of the house is often the weakest of all, because it is neither enclosed nor locked unless the owner makes it so. Read the list of accepted places first, then any hours written into the clause, and only after that compare prices. With us, in Basis and Basis Plus a jet ski must be secured against unauthorised use between 22:00 and 08:00, for example in a locked room or building, on an enclosed site or with a safety line to a jet ski pontoon. After a theft the excess doubles unless the ski was kept in a locked room, building or enclosed site.
On a trailer the trailer security joins in: a hitch lock, a wheel clamp and, outside a locked building, something that ties the ski to the trailer so the two cannot be parted in a minute. Photograph each device once it is fitted and keep the receipts, because after a theft the first question is what was in place. A tracker helps with recovery and increasingly with the terms, and a note of the hull identification number and the engine number, kept somewhere other than on the craft, speeds up the police report in any country.
Worth remembering
Enclosed and locked
is what some wordings require
Hours of darkness
carry their own rules in others
Theft cover hangs on the place, not on the lock. And the place is written into the contract.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Is a pontoon at the jetty good enough?
It depends on the wording. Some accept a pontoon or lift if the ski is secured with cable or lock, others require enclosed and locked premises and will not treat an open pontoon as either.
What applies to a jet ski left on its trailer?
Then the trailer security comes in as well: hitch lock, wheel clamp or box lock, and outside a locked building a connection between ski and trailer. Check what the wording names, not what the dealer recommended.
Does the time of night make a difference?
Under a night clause it does. Such a clause sets hours during which only certain kinds of storage count, so a ski left at the beach bar until midnight may fall outside it. Ask for the hours in writing.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Where should the jet ski spend the night?” 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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