What insurance?

[primetime]

We're buying a 33 year old boat for inland river cruising only. Because of her age, the insurance companies seem to want a full survey done within the last 5 years but we haven't had one done and neither did the previous owner 2 years ago; before that is unknown territory.

The BSC ran out last month and we wouldn't be looking to get that renewed until she's ready to go back in the water next spring - we plan on having her hauled back to our home so that we can fix her up over the winter.

Does anyone have suggestions please on what to do about insurance?

 

[volvopaul]

Judging by the last few weeks and how many boats I have been to work on that have sunk, and are either under insured or not at all, then I would seriously get it sorted, I have just literally been talking to one owner whos world has been turned upside down because he was under insured let alone none at all.

Usually a new owner to a boat has to have a survey after its 20 years old, unless they have owned it for a number of years then the insurance company renews it on a reciprocal turnover as the vessel is usually up to scratch with its current bss etc.

 

[ggt9]

If it's an old boat and you just need to satisfy a requirement to be insured, you may be able to get a 3rd party only policy without a survey from someone like Basic Boat Liability. This is fine if you're happy to 'self-insure' and pay for any loss or damage to your boat, didn't borrow money to pay for it and wouldn't, in the end, care if it sank or caught fire tomorrow but is a bad idea otherwise.

For a full insurance policy, you could try phoning around and see if there's someone who'll accept your word on the boat's condition (an 'owner's condition report' from you or perhaps a boatyard) but this seems to be increasingly rare, especially on larger boats. The previous owner's insurers might be worth a try though.

Other than that, you have to accept getting a survey done and should concentrate on finding a recommended, cheap, friendly, local surveyor and accept that his or her price is part of your first year's premium.

For what it's worth, I got caught out when I bought a 24 and a bit year old boat which the broker happily insured without a survey because it wasn't 25 years old. The insurance company however subsequently changed its mind and insisted on a full survey. This didn't cost as much as I thought it would and was actually a pleasant and informative experience though it's generally considered the wrong way round to do these things.

 

[Sneds]

Would make sense to get the survey done while she is out of the water, shouldn't cost more than £300-£400 (?)
Might sound a lot but how much is the boat worth and could you affod to replace her if the unthinkable happened?

 

[primetime]

Thanks for the replies, and that's a good pointer for the basic liability from NavGen, they don't even want to know anything about the boat. I'll ring round tomorrow to see if anywhere will accept an owners condition report or suchlike, as suggested, since our preference would be for full insurance.

I know £3-400 isn't a great lot in the overall expense of boat owning, but on a boat costing less than £5k that needs a bit of work (and therefore more spend) then the survey money could be put to better use on other things.We've had surveys done on previous boats but we suspect that on a boat this age the survey won't bring up anything that isn't known or suspected anyway. So it just makes for expensive insurance /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[SP2]

When this topic has come up before, people have pointed to Edward William Insurance because they did not require an insurance survey:

Edward William

I obtained a quote on a boat we were considering which would have been easier to survey for insurance closer to our home and the quote was competitive but I have no other personal experience.

 

[brianrunyard]

[ QUOTE ]
We're buying a 33 year old boat

[/ QUOTE ]
Does this mean you haven't bought it yet?
If that's the case, it might be a good idea to have a survey, on the basis of the survey you will have more idea what you're buying and might be able to negotiate a reduction in price.