Travel / liveaboard personal Insurance

philmarks

philmarks

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 May 2001
Messages
718
Location
New Zealand
www.blue-hound.com
We currently spend about 3-4 mths a year aboard. This will increase to 12 months in the next couple of years /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif . I've never been one to use travel insurance, but have to recognise the reality of the ticking clock /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I'm not in the fortunate position of being able to 'self-insure' as I know some people are.

What types of policy would be recommended - annual multi-trip for now I guess, but what about when permanent liveaboard?

Are there companies which specialise in long term liveaboard insurance?

All advice welcomed!
 
Consider going for the for the Bishop Skinner annual insurance through the RYA. It's specifically for sailors and includes many of the exclusions in normal annual insurance policies. Although we haven't had to use it yet, it has given us peace of mind over the past season - 4 months + on the boat. I think however that you have to maintain a UK residence.
 
Try Endsleigh Insurance. They have 1 or 2 year packages , worldwide including or excluding USA. They are intended for students, but they take any age -they took us in middle age....and no questions asked. This info is getting old now, but I believe they still do it and were the cheapest we found at the time for a good level of cover.
 
I must declare an interest as travel insurance is what I do for a living! Someone has to /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
chrisr is quite right to warn about relying on annual multitrip policies - they are designed for frequent short trips and usually have a limit of 31 days any one trip these days. A few go to 60 or 62 and a very few for longer than that.
The best option, I would suggest, is to look for a Long Stay policy, usually available for up to 12, 15 or 18 months depending on provider.
Make sure that you tell the provider what you are doing - there should be no problem covering liveaboard sailors but some insurers take a more restricted view than others.
 
Had a look, but exclusion is yachting out of territorial waters. I may need to consider two policies then - an activity policy plus this one.

Oh, and you can't claim as a hostage unless held more than a month /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Oh yeh, Endsliegh 2 years 2 adults 1 camera and 1 laptop worldwide £1970; 1 year 2 adults no extras £860. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I need to do some more research /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
When I insured boat with Admiral Marine Insurance they told me all about their travel policies. Designed for liveaboard yachties. Worth a try. Also try contacting Blue Water Rallies (or other major rally operators) as they have good knowledge of this sort of thing.
 
You don't say what you want to insure but I assume:
- boat and contents, we use Pantaenius.
- health cover, we use AXA-PPP.

Be very careful about general travel policies, unless they particularly state they cover sailing.
 
I use HealthCare International for long-term health insurance. It's essentially "patch you up and get you home" cover for acute events, though they do cover other stuff like dentistry, outpatient care if you want. The policy we took out is worldwide and round the year, but length of treatment may be limited (typically to 90 days per annum). Medical evacuation and repatriation costs are included, though the former would not include deep-sea evacation. The cost, approx £450pa for a couple, seems comparable with other quotes here, but the deductible, £1,300, means its only good for serious stuff. Never had to claim, so can't say how good they are.

No objection was raised to "travel by yacht", but this MUST be disclosed. Watch out that some companies offer reduced or no cover in USA/Canada.
 
Hi We plan to be away most years from the UK for about 12 months. For This we use the backpacker with water sport package policy ( cover offshore sailing) from columbusdirect.com. If we find overselves going over the 12 months columbus allow an extention of anthor 4 months. If we go over the 16 months we then use Nomads.com who allow you to start cover from anywhere in the world. Once we return to UK we start over with columbus. All of this can be done online. This has been the cheapest opion we have found and have been using this plan for the last 7 years. We do 6-7 months on the boat, 4 months backpacking and 1 month skiing. If we can route through UK and stay for more than 24 hours we renew our columbus policy. The backpacker policy I think you must be under 49. Hope this helps.

David and Emma
Antigua,
 
Not looking for health cover, liver uninsurable /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

My yacht policy with Pants - good idea, now why didn't I think of that ? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif - reason liver work underway!

We have taken out annual multitrip with Pants - max trip 60 days unless sailing which does not appear to be limited...suits me for next year or two.

Thanks all for advice!

May the greybeards be on your face and not up your transom!
 
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