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Most marinas will require boaters to keep marine insurance on their boats when mooring them. 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 or jet-skis
Two important coverage’s to consider when insuring your boat:
Hull & Machinery: insurance for the physical boat and attached equipment
Protection & Indemnity (P&I): liability insurance should an event occur where you are liable for property damage or if a person is injured or killed. In addition to paying for damage caused to other boats or properties, and personal injury, a marine policy provides coverage for 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 ensure that in the event of a total loss to your boat, 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 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)
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 hurricane plans are 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 5yrs 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 Harbour Insurance our underwriter – Pacific Marine Insurance 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.