Bishop Skinner Insurance?

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Scubadoo

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I know insurance has been covered a few times so sorry....

Received my insurance renewal from GJW which is £500 for a Sealine S24 and decided this was too high.

Just received a quote from Bishop Skinner (AXA underwriters) for £250 and can see no real difference in the policy.

Navigators & General quoted £320 and seem more popular on this forum.

So the question which one would you recommend and any one got experience of Bishop Skinner?

Simply don't want to save money if the insurance want pay up.

Any help appreicated and thanks in advance.

RM.
 
Mardon Insurance should be around £400 with 5yrs no claims with RYA qualifications and ICC on a boat value of £83k if that fits your criteria.

PM me if you want to compare the small print /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Insurance through Royal & Sun Alliance
 
our Sealine 290 costs £280 per year with Bishop Skinner (Navigator and General as underwriters).
We do have to inform them if we use the boat on tidal waterways though.
 
Bishop Skinner have been around a long time insuring boats, my brother has his yacht insured with them for the last eight years or so, never had a problem with them, but never had a claim either!

Barry
 
Phone N&G and task them why the difference.
I have been with N&G for many years and never had a problem nor a claim!

I have heard it rumoured that GJW can be a little pricey and also that while BS are generally cheap, so is the cover if one makes a claim. No matter which one you for there will always be someone that has heard of, or had, poor service from that Co.

I know a few folk who use BS and not a negative comment between them. Again no claims!

Seriously suggest you call N&G and tell them you have another quote and ask why the difference.

BTW AFAIK N&G is part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
i m not with B-S right now as the renewal wasnt so good this time around, but they handled my minor claim very fairly indeed, and I d certainly recommend them as a company
 
I have insured my boat through Bishop Skinner for many years and had a couple of minor claims which have been handled efficiently and I have always checked that their premiums are competitive with others so no complaints. As I understand it they used to go into the Lloyds market and get the best insurance deal with whichever insurance co gave the best deal at the time but now they seem to act exclusively as brokers for just a few co's like Navigators & General
Like cliff, the last time that I renewed, I checked BS's premium against that quoted directly by Nav & Gen and, bizarrely, I got a lower quote from BS than direct from Nav & Gen for the same policy! When I queried BS about this, they said they place a lot of business with Nav & Gen and therefore get a discount on premiums some of which they pass on to the customer
 
Motorboats monthly recently did a comparison on insurance companies and JGW came out tops as far as paying claims were concerned. So you may save a bit of money elsewhere but just hope they pay out.
 
I've been with Bishop Skinner for the past three years. I have nothing but praise for them. My premium is approx £350, have had one claim (for £4,500's worth of outdrive after some low-life helped him/herself to it) and they settled promptly and efficiently, sending a Mercruiser engineer 200 miles to fit the thing.

I have no connection other than being a highly satisfied customer.
 
I'm with Bishop Skinner and I am going through a claim right now - They have been excellent. They agreed that the work could be done less than 24 hours after receiving the quotes. Hope that helps
 
No problems with B&S over the last 25 yrs. They paid out reasonably promptly after I had o boat stolen from my drive. The theft was checked out by C Claims their detection agency. I must admit that at the time I felt that they thought it was an 'inside job' which made me feel uneasy. I must add however that I would have been best pleased if the Insurance Company had let me know that the boat had been subsequently recovered resulting in a Police summons. Dave.
 
Hi Scubadoo,

I've been with Bishop Skinner for many years and IMHO they are an excellent company. I've had one claim in that time that was dealt with amazingly quickly and totally without fuss.

Again IMHO, I think Bill Southgate is one of the most knowledgable and friendly chaps in the business.

A highly recommended company.
 
Thanks to everyone for providing useful feedback. In the end decided to stay with my existing insurers and pay the higher premium! The reason, basically GJW will pay out what has been agreed on my schedule and not the value of the boat, something to keep in mind. Bishop Skinner were very helpful when I called them and were the ones who pointed this out!
 
Moraira in June 2006

Small pleasure boat owners debarred from the European Alternative Dispute Resolution System.

Unscrupulous Insurance Companies in Spain, and maybe also in other European countries, debar their boat-owning clients from the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme that have been developed across Europe for the protection of the Consumers.
This is done by taking advantage of an article that can be found in the Insurance Laws in many countries and which classifies pleasure-boat insurance as a “high risk”.
THE ADR SYSTEM DOES NOT INCLUDE “HIGH RISK”. (Spanish Law 50/1980, Art.107.2).

These insurance companies are therefore in the habit of refusing to take part in dispute resolutions out-of-court (ADR). That leaves no other alternative to the discontented client with a damaged boat, but to take legal proceedings against the insurance company.
This procedure is often very costly, lengthy and tiring.
Most people give in and pocket their pride.

Pleasure-boat owners, with their boats insured in these companies, are not aware of their weak position until they have a disagreement with the company. Then they discover they do not even have a right to “legal aid” included in their boat-insurance.
“Legal aid” usually is included in a common “Consumer Insurance” (car- house- or travel-insurance, etc.)
EU HAS EXCLUDED THE RIGHT TO HAVE A “LEGAL EXPENSE INSURANCE” INCLUDED IN A COMMON “PLEASURE BOAT INSURANCE” IN RESPECT OF DISPUTES OR RISKS ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF SEA-GOING VESSELS IN ITS Directive 87/344/CEE.

The issue of insurance-disputes hereby seems to be assigned to the Maritime Laws, which are certainly not as consumer-friendly as the European Consumer Laws.
Many of the Rules in the Maritime Laws have their origin in the circumstances prevailing in the 19th century, when it was a trend amongst unscrupulous shipowners to cheat their insurance companies by overvalue their cargoes and overloading their ships, which finally resulted in the famous “Plimsoll-Rules”.
Now it appears as if unscrupulous insurance companies adopt a trend of cheating small pleasure-boat owners, by the use of paragraphs referring to these Maritime Laws.
Pleasure boat owners in general believe that a pleasure boat-insurance is as Consumer Insurance and not as a Maritime Insurance in the sense of the Maritime Laws.
That’s why the pleasure-boat owners are easy targets for these companies.
And also why these companies top the insurance companies “League of Reclamations.”

The following narrated story is a true example of this modern form of piracy.

A small Swedish pleasure-boat got stranded on a beach on Ibiza in a sudden storm.
The Insurance Company, which under the veil of discretion will be named MALFÉ in this true story, was contacted immediately and promised prompt salvage actions.
Salvage was then delayed six (6) days, during which the boat bumped against the rocks by every wave and received more damage. The boat was then salvaged and transported in a very unprofessional manner to a boat-yard chosen by MALFÉ and received still more damage.

MALFÉ could now be sure that the repair costs would exceed ¾ of the insured value and thus be considered as “total constructive loss”. In addition MALFÉ suddenly considered the boat underrated. In spite of MALFÉ´s own valuation of the 30 year old boat a few years earlier.
When the tender for the repairs finally arrived from the MALFÉ-picked boat-yard, it was impudently high priced. A comparison with a well-reputed boat-yard on the Spanish mainland showed that the repairs could be done on the Mainland for less than half the price, and for well under ¾ of the insured value.

The boat-owner felt as caught in a trap.
The MALFÉ-picked boat-yard demanded an absurd sum for releasing the boat from the boat-yard.
The transport from Ibiza to the boat-yard on the Mainland would be very expensive.
So MALFÉ´s offer of indemnity for “total constructive loss” was reluctantly accepted.

MALFÉ then made huge deductions for insured but undamaged equipment (rafts, autohelm, VHF etc.) and told the boat-owner that he was still owner of the boat and responsible for all pending and future costs from the MALFÉ-picked boat-yard.

The indemnity was appealed against to MALFÉ two times. Also appealed to the Spanish consumer organization OMIC and to Dirección General de Seguros (DGS). All in vain.

A few weeks later the boat-owner visited Ibiza by car to pick up the insured but undamaged equipment (raft, autohelm, VHF etc.), which MALFÉ had deducted from the indemnity. When he came to the boat-yard, the MALFÉ-picked boat-yard owner prevented him from picking up his belongings from the boat!

Enlightened by these experiences the boat owner now donated the boat to a Navigation School on the mainland in exchange for the pending and rising demands from the MALFÉ-picked boat-yard.

Besides these demands and after being repaired, the boat received a total renovation, an osmosis-treatment, a full painting job, and a complete official survey for a Sea-Worthiness-Certificate and a Spanish Matriculation.
From a reliable source, the total expenses for all these jobs, including the surveys, did by far not come up to the total costs demanded from the Swedish boat owner - for the repairs alone.

Boat owners and others ought to be able to draw their own conclusions from this true story and may receive more details from the editor of this publication.

Every year about 1500 pleasure boats meet with such grave accidents in Spanish waters that they have to be rescued by the Spanish Lifeboat Service, Salvamento Marítimo. Many more have grave accidents (with estimated repair costs near ¾ of insured value), in harbours and ashore without appearing in the statistics of Salvamento Marítimo.

The motive of this article is to warn pleasure-boat owners of the perils in their boat insurance, if the insurance company considers the insurance as a “high risk”.
The motive is hopefully also to initiate a debate on the subject.

Don Quijote del Mar (76) (973 words)
 
I have my boat with B&S, which is insured for £491. This includes Med cover for 4 months until she comes back aswell.
I tried and tried Navigators and General, but despite four phone calls I never received a quote!! Maybe becuase I was looking for a split med/uk policy it made it harder, but I'm sorry, If they can't be bothered to come back to me when I'm giving them money, what the hell are they going to be like when I try to claim?
 
You've posted pretty much the same thing 12 times now. If you want people to assist, ask for assistance, people around here are very helpful, but not the same script everytime
 
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