Yacht insurance
Past a certain size the questions change
With a yacht it stops being about the sum insured. Employed crew, the marina contract, the occasional charter to friends, and passages that leave the Mediterranean; each of those is a line in the contract, and each is usually the line that is missing.
The four that are missing from most policies
Is there paid crew?
A skipper for the season or someone maintaining her changes the legal position. Employer’s liability is not part of an ordinary marine policy.
What does the berth contract say?
Many marinas require a minimum sum and some tie the berth to a particular insurer. Read it before you place the cover elsewhere.
Lending her, or letting her?
Lending to a friend is one thing; being paid is another. Private hire up to 30 days a year can be added with a written agreement; beyond that it needs commercial cover.
How far do you really sail?
Gibraltar, Morocco, the Canaries and the Atlantic all fall outside a “Mediterranean” area. Extending takes minutes; after a claim it takes nothing at all.
Premium tariff
What a yacht needs as standard
Third-party liability up to €50m, the highest sum in our own comparison.
Unlimited agreed value, adjustable when the boat changes in value.
Gross negligence waived up to 50 % of the sum insured.
Salvage and wreck removal up to €2.5m, on top of the settlement.
Six weeks a year outside the agreed cruising area, without notice or surcharge.
No hurricane or cyclone exclusion and no blocked season.
Your own policy wording governs. For larger yachts and permanent crew we underwrite individually, call before you buy, not after.
The point that gets missed
A paid skipper is not a guest
Pay someone to move or maintain the boat and you have an employment relationship, even for a few days and even agreed verbally. That brings obligations a marine policy does not carry on its own: workplace accident cover and liability as an employer.
Tell us if there is paid crew, seasonal or year-round. It is one of the few things that cannot be put right after a claim.
Individual underwriting
Yachts do not come out of a calculator
Tell us length, home port and how she is used. You get a concrete proposal, usually within a week, and an honest no where we cannot write it.
Before you sign
The three questions you actually have
Not “what does it cost”; you can work that out yourself in a minute. These are the three nobody asks an insurer out loud. Here they are, with the answers we can back up.
“Will they actually pay?”
We are an Assekuradeur; a managing general agent that underwrites and settles claims under its own authority. Our own claims department, appointed surveyors, more than 2,000 partner yards. Cover checked within 24 hours, release or a survey appointment within 48. We settle directly with the yard; you pay the deductible and nothing else.
What happens in the first 48 hours →“Who picks up the phone?”
A family firm since 1989, now in its second generation, with three of its own offices: Königs Wusterhausen near Berlin, Salzburg and Palma de Mallorca. No call centre, no franchise. You get a named contact from the first hour; and after office hours, a number somebody answers.
Out of hours: +49 3375 29 28 95 →“And if I choose wrong?”
Find the same cover cheaper elsewhere and we make up the difference. Our comparison sets seven providers against the same criteria; including the segments where somebody else comes out ahead of us, and the one where we are the most expensive in the field.
Price guarantee →When we are not the right fit →