Insurance with no experience - help!

[3miry]

What response do you get if you ask for 3rd party only cover?

I haven't tried to be honest. We remortgaged the house for the boat, we will be liveaboard. We lose the boat, we lose our house. It's not a risk I can take.

Have you tried going through a broker? They may be able to persuade insurers to accept their clients. I use John Russell (Insurance Birmingham) and they have avoided all the issues often reported here for me.

I'll give them a go, thank you!

We have been with Admiral for three years and very happy. I find them helpful and pragmatic.

I would push the conversation gently and in any case look for some ways to build experience. I bet if you hired a coach to do a channel crossing or two with you guys as nominal skipper (under third-party insurance); then add your DS and your partner's CS accordingly, you'd be in a different boat so to speak.

Have to say an 80k boat as a pair of near-novices isn't the way most of us come to boat ownership, and that of course informs the insurers' perspective.

Admiral said no. I have a few rather more experienced family members working towards RYA Yachtmaster I might coerce into helping out building up some experience

Perhaps cats are a lot more risky?
New owner here with zero qualifications and I've just insured a 50k mono for £250 fully comp with ceta. All they wanted was the survey.

Do you mind sharing which insurer you went with? Yeah it's either the beam of the cat causing issues maneuvering in marinas, or people flipping them lol. Our cat is only 4.2m beam so it's very narrow, so it's a shame if we're being excluded for that reason.

At risk of encouraging moral turpitude, how are they checking the 1 year experience?

Asking a bunch of questions on how I got that experience. There was 1 insurer (can't remember which) where their quote form started from 1 year so no option for 0, so I went with that. Got a phone call asking me how I got that experience, where, on what vessel etc. - when I explained I've been around boats here and there since a kid and I've got XYZ qualifications they weren't happy and said by experience they mean boat ownership or acting as skipper for "similar vessels" i.e. catamarans. I could be economical with the truth here but honestly I can guarantee they'd catch me out at some point, particularly now I've asked for quotes from nearly every insurer saying I have nearly nil experience

 

[Solostoke]

Hi I filled in an initial form on compare boat insurance Boat & Yacht Insurance Comparison brought to you by Compare Boat Insurance
The insurer is cwaterlegal.

 

[3miry]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

For anyone who comes across this who might be in a similar situation, we have found that Craftinsure is probably the best bet for the moment as they don't seem to ask about experience and their premiums are the cheapest of the 20+ I have checked.

So far we've now had 6 quotes, the rest refused to quote. We can only get insured in UK coastal waters and the north of France, but this is a fine starting point for us and we're hoping we can up the range later. The quotes range from £500pa to £1600pa with varying amounts of excess. Interestingly the more expensive one did give us a condition as well, that we are always accompanied by someone with at least 1 years experience in this vessel type until we have 1 years experience or we "obtain the relevant RYA certificate". I'm checking with them what certificate they would like to see but imagine it's going to be Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

For anyone who comes across this who might be in a similar situation, we have found that Craftinsure is probably the best bet for the moment as they don't seem to ask about experience and their premiums are the cheapest of the 20+ I have checked.

So far we've now had 6 quotes, the rest refused to quote. We can only get insured in UK coastal waters and the north of France, but this is a fine starting point for us and we're hoping we can up the range later. The quotes range from £500pa to £1600pa with varying amounts of excess. Interestingly the more expensive one did give us a condition as well, that we are always accompanied by someone with at least 1 years experience in this vessel type until we have 1 years experience or we "obtain the relevant RYA certificate". I'm checking with them what certificate they would like to see but imagine it's going to be Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster.

Did you try Y Yacht ?

 

[3miry]

Did you try Y Yacht ?

Still waiting to hear back from them. I'll give them a call this afternoon to follow up.

We've just had a quote covering all the Med for £1.6k pa, so there are options for when we need it

 

[Tranona]

Y yacht no longer exists. Barry sold out to Topsail about a year ago. They offer a similar policy to the original Y one from HKJ, also underwritten by Amlin as well as policies from other providers. They offered me 4 alternatives but HKJ was the cheapest by a small margin and just 5% or so more than last year.

 

[3miry]

Y yacht no longer exists. Barry sold out to Topsail about a year ago. They offer a similar policy to the original Y one from HKJ, also underwritten by Amlin as well as policies from other providers. They offered me 4 alternatives but HKJ was the cheapest by a small margin and just 5% or so more than last year.

Yeah Topsail are the ones I'm waiting on - fingers crossed they'll come back with something good but we will see

 

[PaulRainbow]

Y yacht no longer exists. Barry sold out to Topsail about a year ago. They offer a similar policy to the original Y one from HKJ, also underwritten by Amlin as well as policies from other providers. They offered me 4 alternatives but HKJ was the cheapest by a small margin and just 5% or so more than last year.

As a Y Yacht customer i'm aware of them selling out to Topsail, but the Y Yacht link i posted earlier gets the OP where he needs to be for a quote.

YYacht Insurance - Yacht Insurance | Boat Travel Insurance | UK & EU Insurance

Mine did jump up a bit when i renewed in April, so i'll be checking around next renewal, didn't have time this year. I suggested them to the OP because i don't think they ask about experience. I organised cover with them a couple of years ago, for a customer who had just purchased his first boat and they insured him, no experience whatsoever, 50ft wooden gentlemans motorboat!

 

[bitbaltic]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

For anyone who comes across this who might be in a similar situation, we have found that Craftinsure is probably the best bet for the moment as they don't seem to ask about experience and their premiums are the cheapest of the 20+ I have checked.

So far we've now had 6 quotes, the rest refused to quote. We can only get insured in UK coastal waters and the north of France, but this is a fine starting point for us and we're hoping we can up the range later. The quotes range from £500pa to £1600pa with varying amounts of excess. Interestingly the more expensive one did give us a condition as well, that we are always accompanied by someone with at least 1 years experience in this vessel type until we have 1 years experience or we "obtain the relevant RYA certificate". I'm checking with them what certificate they would like to see but imagine it's going to be Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster.

You seem to be sorted, but I had the same experience (with GJW) a decade ago when I bought my boat with only a week's comp crew behind it- they wanted someone with Day Skipper onboard with me for the first year or until I got Day Skipper myself, if I remember. Anyway, as has been suggested above, a broker was the immediate solution. I used Bay Marine as they are local. Bay Marine Insurance

Got my money straight back from GJW and the boat was initially insured with Aviva. They dropped out of the market and it's been with HKJ since.

Sounds like the insurance marketing is tightening and I wonder if its more to do with insurers revising their criteria to screen out risk on lockdown/ebay specials?

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Welcome to the forums!

Get an online quote from Craftinsure. I can't see anything in their policy details which would exclude you on the grounds of little experience. I've used Craftinsure in the past, but have never had to make a claim. You may need to start with a policy for UK waters, then ask them to extend cover as you become more adventurous.

multihull insurance

+1 for Craftinsure. I have used them since buying my first boat back in 2002 when I had very little experience, a total of possibly four weeks of courses at various levels.

 

[3miry]

Topsail got back to me and I think we have a winner - it's more expensive than Craftinsure but would cover us for the range we want to do. I'm going to have a think about the two options but we'll probably go with Topsail's because then we won't have to worry about "what ifs" when we need to expand the policy to Europe.

 

[westernman]

Sounds like you already have it sorted.
Having a largish excess helps substantially with premiums.
Also coverage for the western Med increases premiums a fair bit. And adding eastern Med increases them further.

 

[[70521]]

Yeah Topsail are the ones I'm waiting on - fingers crossed they'll come back with something good but we will see

I had an interesting discussion with Topsail this year when I asked for a quote. They advertise in the Flying Fish, the house magazine of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC), so I thought they would be keen on selling insurance to members, how wrong was I. 'Sir has paid much higher than the usual cost of your vessel', I then listed the extras that came with the boat and the upgrades that I've done. 'Sir is planning a single handed oceanic voyage', well I do most of my sailing single handed and am a member of the OCC. They, in my opinion, were reluctant to quote and when it did arrive was so far out of the ball park they clearly did not want the insurance. They are on my 'don't bother with list' in future.

 

[SlowlyButSurely]

Topsail got back to me and I think we have a winner - it's more expensive than Craftinsure but would cover us for the range we want to do. I'm going to have a think about the two options but we'll probably go with Topsail's because then we won't have to worry about "what ifs" when we need to expand the policy to Europe.

Our boat is insured with Topsail and they have been very good over the years. If you join the CA, which I strongly recommend, you can get a discount on the premium. Some parts of the med are more expensive for insurance than others so we just got cover for the bit we were in at the time and changed the cruising area as we moved around.

 

[lustyd]

Although it's sorted, I'd still recommend you book a skipper course, either day skipper or coastal, it'll build experience and probably teach you a thing or two, and it's cheap as chips, even for own boat tuition.

 

[pauldowrick]

Welcome to the forums!

Get an online quote from Craftinsure. I can't see anything in their policy details which would exclude you on the grounds of little experience. I've used Craftinsure in the past, but have never had to make a claim. You may need to start with a policy for UK waters, then ask them to extend cover as you become more adventurous.

multihull insurance

THey never even asked me

 

[mattnj]

Let us know how you get on.

Fyi... I was with craftinsure in 2017.... Made a claim when we struck something and damaged/eventually lost prop completely... They were totally excellent.... Instant answer of basically "get it done" I arranged the tow/lift/new prop no haggling.... They paid within a few days and premium went up about £50 the next year.

They dont do Trimarans so not with them anymore but highly recommend.

 

[Osmosis]

Speak to Nautical highly regarded.

 

[syvictoria]

Yachtmaster in Woodbridge seem to get very few mentions on here, but we've been with them for over 10 years and have found them excellent to deal with (including, sadly, one claim).

 

[3miry]

Although it's sorted, I'd still recommend you book a skipper course, either day skipper or coastal, it'll build experience and probably teach you a thing or two, and it's cheap as chips, even for own boat tuition.

Partner has Day Skipper. I did much of the theory alongside him doing his theory (though I didn't go in for the exam) and did my comp crew the same time as the practical, I will probably look at doing mine at some point too and he can up his to Coastal.