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Your marine craft insurance questions, answered by our experts.
Please read through the Safe Harbour Boat FAQ. And for more information about Safe Harbour Insurance please visit our About page. Or connect with us at harbour@harbourinsurance.ca. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you understand boat insurance.
Most marinas will require boaters to keep boat insurance on their boats when mooring. Also, if you finance your boat purchase, it’s likely that your lender will require insurance coverage which lists them as a loss payee to cover their interest in your boat. It is legal to register and operate a boat without insurance, but insurance is recommended to cover accident liability costs, damage, catastrophic loss and theft.
Boat insurance policies cover a variety of personal, pleasure use vessels with motors, including personal watercrafts.
Two important coverage’s to consider when insuring your boat:
Hull & Machinery: insurance for the physical boat and attached equipment
Protection & Indemnity (P&I): Includes liability insurance coverage where you are liable for property damage or if a person is injured or killed. Coverage includes damage caused to other boats or properties, and personal injury. A marine policy also covers legal costs, salvage fees, wreck removal, and any pollution or environmental damage caused by the boat.
Insure your boat (hull & machinery) to its current market value. This will ensures if a total loss to your boat occurs, you will recover what the boat is worth.
P&I Liability coverage – The recommended limit is $2 million.
Agreed Value – In the event your boat is written off as the result of a covered claim, the amount payable is the limit shown on the policy contract. This value is agreed upon, prior to entering the insurance contract.
Actual Cash Value – This is what your boat is worth today. It takes into account such things as the cost of the replacement of a vessel, less any depreciation or obsolescence, and in determining depreciation, the condition or current market value of the vessel, immediately before the damage, the resale value, and its normal life expectancy.
To ensure that you have the best protection, your policy should offer “agreed value” loss settlement, and “all risk” coverage.
At Safe Harbour Insurance, we prefer to offer the best in coverage and only sell comprehensive hull & machinery insurance coupled with liability insurance.
The following lists some of the items that would not be covered:
- Damage caused by failure to take reasonable care and proper maintenance of your vessel
- Intentionally caused damage
- Damage from manufacturing defects, gradual deterioration, corrosion
- Damage from freezing or ice if vessel is left in the water
- Damage from improper winterization while vessel is out of the water (without proof of that it was professionally winterized)
- Unexplained disappearance of equipment or personal effects
At Harbour Insurance our Express Policy is designed to insure vessels that are:
- less than 30 feet in length
- less than $50,000 in value
- not capable of exceeding 60 mph
- And the owner meets the criteria specified by the underwriter
An Express Policy can be set up over the phone, with no requirement for:
- A survey
- photos
- applicant signatures
Our Yacht insurance or large boat insurance policy is available for all boats, particularly those that are:
- greater than 30 feet in length
- valued over $50,000
- older
- made of wood
- not eligible for our Express program
A boat survey helps determine the condition and overall value of your boat – it can bring hidden mechanical or structural issues to light. For insurance purposes, Harbour insurance requires a marine survey to be completed on the 15th year of a boat’s life and every 5 years thereafter. (or at the request of an underwriter)
Safe Harbour Insurance recommends always initiating a boat survey before purchasing a used or older vessel. We can provide a list of approved surveyors if you require a survey.
Yes. Our Yacht policy can provide extensions of coverage for southern navigation, and intercoastal waterway cruising for pleasure craft. Additional qualifications and experience are required to determine eligibility, and additional premiums and coverage conditions will apply. Approved Southern Navigation Itinerary form is required if for vessels located South of our standard territory limits.
Yes, for an additional premium and under certain conditions, in order to offset the cost of owning and maintaining your vessel. Activities such as fishing and sightseeing are eligible, provided you are always the skipper, on board and in command of the boat.
If your vessel is damaged in a no‐fault collision or suffers damage from a fire started away from the vessel, we will waive the Hull & Machinery deductible and you will maintain claims free status.
Also known as emergency towing; if the boater runs out of fuel or has a mechanical breakdown that is unrelated to a covered loss, the boater will be reimbursed for the reasonable costs associated with towing the vessel to safe harbour.
For boat owners with over 5 years claims free history, the Hull & Machinery deductible will reduce by 10% at renewal, and will reduce every year by the same dollar amount until the deductible reaches 50% of the original deductible amount.
Yes, loss caused by electrolysis is not excluded under this policy.
The medical payments coverage is intended to protect your passengers from incidental medical expenses for accidents that occur while on your boat. If the medical expenses exceed the limit of $5000 then your passenger would look to your liability or protection & indemnity (liability) coverage for further payments.
Some insurance policies may require you to claim through a home insurance policy first. But with Safe Harbour Insurance our underwriter – Pacific Marine Underwriting Managers is the first payer. We pay the reasonable cost to repair or replace with material of like kind and quality up to the Limit of Coverage shown on the Declaration Page after applying the deductible. The boat owner will not have to make a claim through home insurance.
Payments can be made by calling our office with a credit card or to set up a monthly payment plan. We accept: Visa, Master Card, Amex, or Visa Debit. You can also pay via your banking institution by adding “Harbour Insurance Services” as the payee at your financial institution. Please use your account code or policy number as the account number to pay online. You can also mail a cheque to head office at Safe Harbour Insurance Services 4853 Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V5C 2L1.
Please note that renewal payments are not automatic as we do not save banking or credit card information.
Your premium can be financed through Premium Pay Inc. with monthly installments withdrawn from your bank account or credit card.*
The first installment is equal to approximately 20% of the total premium including fees and tax, with the remainder of the premium spread out over the remainder of the policy term. The payment plan WILL renew automatically with your policy renewal**
*Service fees apply
**5% fee applies to the total premium to be financed including tax and policy fee. In addition, Premium Pay charges a $25 set up fee for new monthly payment plans.
Your policy will automatically renew, and be delivered to you electronically by email, approximately 30-60 days ahead of the effective date. Payment is not automatically applied to your credit card, Safe Harbour Insurance does not keep credit card or banking info on file.
Your cancellation request is required in writing to cancel your policy midterm. Safe Harbour Insurance cannot accept verbal requests by phone. Once your request is received, and the policy is cancelled, any unearned premium (overage that you may have paid in advance) is returned to you calculated on a short rate basis.
Note – some policies may be subject to a minimum & retained premium as stated on the declaration page of the policy.
Short rate definition: cancellation by insured of a policy before its natural expiration; insurer pays a return premium that is less than the proportionate part that remains unearned
You can report a claim by calling our office during regular business hours, or fill out the Report a Claim.
For after hours claims, or emergencies, call our 24/7 reporting center at 1-866-694-3111 – have your policy number handy.
Your claim is assigned to an adjustor at Coast Claims, and/or a marine surveyor from Crawford and Company. You can expect a call from a claims representative within 24 hours or less to discuss the incident. The adjustor or surveyor will provide instructions for obtaining estimates or proceeding with repairs. Your Safe Harbour broker is ready to assist you along the way.
We’re experts in pleasurecraft marine insurance – we’ve been in business for over 50 years in Ontario, and recently expanded our operations into British Columbia and Alberta. Our role is to provide you with the knowledge you require to purchase marine insurance products and services that are available, affordable and understandable.
It is important to us to provide personal, quality service to our clients, including professional advice when it comes to your boat insurance policy, and claims support when you need it most.
One of the companies we represent is Pacific Marine Underwriting Managers Ltd., which is owned by the same firm that owns Safe Harbour Insurance Services Ltd. Our West Coast branch also represents Beacon Underwriting Ltd. (by Cansure). Both PMU and Beacon compensate us 15% of your overall premium, on new and renewal business, for servicing your policy. Currently, Intact Insurance Company has an indirect ownership interest in our brokerage.
A copy of the Consumer Code of Rights and Responsibilities will be forwarded to you with your new policy.
PERSONAL INFORMATION CONSENT
As part of the application for insurance, I hereby consent to Safe Harbour Insurance Services Ltd. (the “Broker”) to collect, use or disclose personal information, or provide such personal information to third parties as required, including insurance companies. The Broker may also be required or permitted to disclose such personal information pursuant to relevant privacy laws or other laws.
Where there are insured individuals in addition to You (the “Client”), or where the Client is a commercial or other entity, the Client hereby covenants and warrants that the Client has obtained the appropriate consent from all the insured individuals to disclose their personal information to the Broker for these purposes accordingly.
In addition, the Client also consents to receive electronic communications (e-mail) from Safe Harbour Insurance Services ltd., including personal file correspondence, promotions, marketing and any other important information.
If the Client wishes to review personal information pertaining to their application or policy maintained by the broker, obtain copies of the Broker’s privacy policies or standards, or make other enquiries or express concerns, the client may do so by contacting the Broker’s Privacy Officer.
The Client agrees that all personal information that provided to the Broker will be complete and accurate, the Client also consents to electronic communications.
Brokerage Privacy Officer: MaryKate Townsend