# Insurance for sailing schools and powerboat schools in Germany

> At a sailing or powerboat school, the person at the helm is always someone who is still learning. Training boats come alongside hard, dinghies capsize, and on exam day the nerves are bigger than the harbour. The boats belong in a policy for training boats, the school on land in its own liability cover, and your students need accident cover that the law does not give them.

Quelle/Source: https://www.nammert.com/en/business-insurance-sailing-school.php  
Updated: 2026-09-18

## Are our school boats covered by an ordinary boat policy?

No. Private boat insurance excludes school use and changing skippers. Training boats need a tariff that expressly includes school use, exam runs and students at the helm, with a separate policy for each boat. As an underwriting agency (Assekuradeur) we write this tariff ourselves, and we handle claims in house.

## At a glance

- **Compulsory:** No insurance is required by law for the school; harbour operators, landlords of classrooms and charter companies do regularly ask for proof of liability cover
- **Biggest risk:** Damage caused by students at the helm: collisions in harbour, capsizing, injuries on board
- **Basic cover from:** We price training boats per boat on our own tariff; liability for theory lessons and the school on land adds about 150 to 350 euros a year
- **Statutory accident insurer:** Usually VBG, the Berufsgenossenschaft (statutory accident insurer) for employed instructors; course participants have no statutory accident cover
- **Often forgotten:** Training trips on chartered yachts: instructors need their own skipper liability cover there

## What goes wrong in this trade

- **Coming alongside:** The harbour manoeuvre is part of every exam and the most common source of damage: fenders out too late, too much throttle, and the neighbouring yacht has a ding in its gelcoat.
- **Capsizes and injuries:** Dinghies capsize, booms swing across, hands get caught between line and winch. Beginners do not yet know the dangers on board.
- **Students without accident cover:** Unlike schoolchildren, course participants have no statutory accident insurance. After a serious accident, what counts is the cover the school has taken out voluntarily.
- **Weather during a course:** A thunderstorm arrives faster than expected. Whether the instructor should have called off the session quickly ends up in court after a claim.
- **Equipment in class:** Radios for the SRC course (the marine radio certificate), chart plotters, projectors and a simulator: expensive, fragile and often travelling in a car boot to the next course venue.
- **The instructor is off sick:** Many schools depend on one or two instructors. A slipped disc in May costs half the season.

**Risk radar** (Compared with other trades, 1 low to 5 high.): Liability 4, Fire and water 4, Theft 2, Cyber 2, Downtime 3, Health 4

## The insurance you need

- **Business liability** (Essential): Covers the school on land: theory lessons, the jetty, safety briefings and damage to rented classrooms. Liability from handling the boats sits in the policy for the training boats. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-liability.php
- **Group accident insurance** (Strongly advised): Gives your participants accident cover during courses and exams that they do not have by law, and it is a good selling point at registration. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-group-accident.php
- **Business contents** (Strongly advised): Insures the classroom, lifejackets, oilskins, teaching material and cash against fire, water damage and burglary. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-contents.php
- **Electronic equipment** (Strongly advised): For radios, plotters, simulator and projector, including on the road to changing course venues. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-electronic-equipment.php
- **Occupational disability** (Strongly advised): Protects the owner's income if back or knees no longer allow work on board. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-occupational-disability.php
- **Business interruption** (Depends on the business): Replaces lost course fees if the training building or jetty is out of use after insured damage. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-interruption.php
- **Cyber insurance** (Depends on the business): For online registration and participant data that could leak in an attack. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-cyber-insurance.php

## What it costs: example prices

The biggest item is the training boats. As the underwriting agency we price them on our own tariff, boat by boat, according to value, type and waters. The examples below cover the school business, which is insured alongside.

| Insurance | Example | Typical range |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business liability | Sailing school with theory lessons and up to five instructors | about 150 to 350 euros a year |
| Group accident insurance | Participants during courses and exams, around 400 participants a year | about 200 to 500 euros a year |
| Business contents | Classroom, lifejackets and equipment worth 30,000 euros | about 150 to 350 euros a year |
| Electronic equipment | Radios, plotters and projector worth 10,000 euros, with cover away from the premises | about 150 to 300 euros a year |
| Occupational disability | Instructor aged 35, monthly benefit of 1,500 euros | about 1,100 to 2,200 euros a year |

For comparison: Liability and accident cover for participants together cost about as much a year as two places on a course for the Sportbootführerschein, the German recreational boat licence.

_Guide prices excluding German insurance tax, as of September 2026, based on published tariff examples for comparable businesses and our own quoting experience. We quote training boats from your boat list._

- [transparent-beraten.de: public liability insurance](https://www.transparent-beraten.de/betriebshaftpflichtversicherung/)
- [transparent-beraten.de: business contents insurance](https://www.transparent-beraten.de/geschaeftsinhaltsversicherung/)

## Our suggestions: three packages

- **Theory** (School offering theory and exam preparation on borrowed boats, in addition to cover for the boats): Business liability, Group accident insurance. Together: about 350 to 850 euros a year excluding boats
- **School** (Sailing or powerboat school with its own classroom and equipment): Business liability, Group accident insurance, Business contents, Electronic equipment. Together: about 650 to 1,500 euros a year excluding boats
- **Centre** (Water sports centre with courses, jetty, online registration and the owner on board): Business liability, Group accident insurance, Business contents, Electronic equipment, Business interruption, Cyber insurance, Occupational disability. Together: about 2,500 to 4,500 euros a year excluding boats

## The worst day at the sailing school

Six things that really happen away from the boat, all on a single exam day. Damage to the training boats we settle in house under the boat insurance; here you see what the school business alongside has to carry.

- 07:45: A water pipe burst overnight in the classroom. The landlord's parquet floor and wall are soaked. (€6,500, Paid by: Business liability)
- 09:15: An exam candidate slips climbing across onto the dinghy, breaks a wrist and is off work for three months. (€9,000, Paid by: Group accident insurance)
- 11:30: The bag with six handheld radios and the plotter is stolen from the car at the course venue. (€4,200, Paid by: Electronic equipment)
- 13:50: During a briefing at the jetty, a spectator trips over a loose line and falls into the water. Glasses and phone are ruined, her knee injured. (€3,800, Paid by: Business liability)
- 16:10: The online registration has been hacked, and participants' addresses and copies of ID cards have leaked. (€7,500, Paid by: Cyber insurance)
- 22:30: Fire in the equipment shed: lifejackets, oilskins and teaching material are burnt. (€14,000, Paid by: Business contents)

**Damage so far:** €45,000

## Practical tips from your broker

- Insure training boats on a tariff that expressly names school use, changing skippers and exam runs, with a separate policy for each boat.
- Take out group accident insurance for your participants: course participants have no statutory accident cover.
- Instructors on chartered yachts need skipper liability insurance, ideally including recourse claims from the charter company.
- Keep a course log with the weather, participants and safety briefing. It helps when the question later comes up whether you should have called off the session.
- Insure equipment with cover away from the premises if you teach at changing venues.
- Use our free training pack with forms and calculators for your lessons, even if you are not a customer of ours.

## Why NAMMERT for your business

- **We underwrite training boats ourselves:** For boats we are the underwriting agency, with our own authority and our own tariff for school use, exam runs and students at the helm. You get your cover from the people who also make the decisions.
- **We handle claims in house:** After a botched harbour manoeuvre, you talk to us, not to a distant claims department. We know the boatyards, the surveyors and the damage beginners cause.
- **We know training:** Schools and clubs use our training pack with forms and calculators for SBF and SKS teaching (German boat licence and coastal skipper courses) free of charge. We know what your course days look like.
- **Your broker for everything on land:** For liability, accident cover for participants, equipment and your own income protection, we act as your broker and compare offers from several insurers, matched to your boat policies. A family business since 1989.

## FAQ

### Does a sailing school have to be insured?

There is no legal requirement. Harbour operators, landlords of classrooms and charter companies almost always ask for proof of liability cover, though, and without insurance on the boats every course would be a gamble.

### Are students covered if they have an accident on a course?

Not by law, unlike children at school. If the participant has no accident insurance of their own, the only help is group accident cover from the school, or a claim against the school if it was at fault.

### Who pays if a student damages someone else's yacht while mooring?

The liability cover on the training boat. For school boats insured with us, we settle the claim ourselves and deal directly with the owner of the other yacht.

### Is the instructor insured on a chartered yacht?

The charter company's insurance covers the boat, not the instructor. For personal liability as skipper, the instructor needs their own skipper liability cover.

### Can we use club boats for training?

Yes, but only if the club boat's insurance includes school use. Raise it before the first course, otherwise training use is not covered.

### What does insurance for a sailing school cost?

Liability and accident cover for participants usually come to about 350 to 850 euros a year. The training boats are added per boat, and we price them from your boat list.

## Request quotes

We obtain quotes and come back with a comparison. Free of charge and without obligation: the insurer pays our commission. You can write in English. https://www.nammert.com/en/business-insurance-sailing-school.php#anfrage

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NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, insurance broker licensed under section 34d(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act, broker register no. D-C08Q-TOSD4-37. For boat and yacht insurance we act as underwriting agency, not as broker.

NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, Karl-Marx-Straße 4, 15711 Königs Wusterhausen, +49 3375 29 12 77, info@nammert.com. Wikidata: Q141141479.