Y Insurance sold to Topsail

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm about to re-new my insurance with Y. I am concerned about their business being sold.
I wrote to them to confirm that the terms and conditions quoted in their policy documents and renewal quote would remain unchanged for the duration of my cover (Dec 20 thru Dec 21). They replied that the T&C's quoted will remain unchanged.
On that basis I'm happy to proceed with them.
 
Just had this:

We hope this finds you well.

You will by now have received communication from Barrie Sullivan advising of some changes to the ownership of what was previously his company.

Topsail Insurance Ltd are excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Barrie to purchase Y Yacht Insurance and Y Yacht Assurances France. As a result, Topsail will be handling your insurance requirements going forward.

Topsail was established in 1996 as a general commercial broker. A complete restructuring of the company in 2007 led to the consolidation of the business as a pure marine broker specialising in all things marine.

Topsail is presently based in Brighton, East Sussex, but also has a sister company Topsail Insurance Pty Ltd. established in 2014 based in Perth and Sydney, Australia. We are passionate about providing excellent service to all of our customers, which is demonstrated through our high customer retention rates.

A copy of our Privacy Policy is available here. Furthermore, a copy of our Terms of Business Agreement (Version 8 – April 2019) is available here.

You have most likely previously corresponded with Claire Froggatt and Helen Webster and we are pleased to announce that they have agreed to join the Topsail team.

Rest assured that this will not result in any change for you, except that the Topsail Team will now handle your insurance requirements.

We have put together a Questions and Answers document, which I hope will answer some of the questions you may have. However, if you have any changes that you require to be made to your existing policy or indeed if you have any other questions relating to any of the above, then please do feel free to contact us.
If all is in order, then please relax and the team will be in touch prior to renewal to ascertain your plans and provide a renewal proposal for you.

Further information about us and the products we offer is available on our website, www.topsailinsurance.com.
Wishing you all the very best in the meantime and if we do not speak before, on behalf of myself and the team, I wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Yours sincerely,
blocked.gif

Chris McGowan
Managing Director | Topsail Insurance Ltd
Director | Topsail Insurance Pty. Ltd.
 
Same here, worth reading the Q&A. Nothing changes until renewal from what I can make out, so will need to check how the policies compare then.

So what happened to JFM? Would be nice to get his opinion.
 
Good Evening All,

I hope this finds you well.

My name is Chris McGowan, MD of Topsail Insurance.

Many thanks 'dustywings' for posting the email I sent to all Y Yacht clients.

If anybody has any specific queries or concerns relating to this purchase or indeed any service you may have received from us in the past, then please do feel free to contact me - chris@topsailinsurance.com

Wishing you all a pleasant evening.
 
dustywings said:
Just had this:

We hope this finds you well.

You will by now have received communication from Barrie Sullivan advising of some changes to the ownership of what was previously his company.

Topsail Insurance Ltd are excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Barrie to purchase Y Yacht Insurance and Y Yacht Assurances France. As a result, Topsail will be handling your insurance requirements going forward.

Topsail was established in 1996 as a general commercial broker. A complete restructuring of the company in 2007 led to the consolidation of the business as a pure marine broker specialising in all things marine.

Topsail is presently based in Brighton, East Sussex, but also has a sister company Topsail Insurance Pty Ltd. established in 2014 based in Perth and Sydney, Australia. We are passionate about providing excellent service to all of our customers, which is demonstrated through our high customer retention rates.

A copy of our Privacy Policy is available here. Furthermore, a copy of our Terms of Business Agreement (Version 8 – April 2019) is available here.

You have most likely previously corresponded with Claire Froggatt and Helen Webster and we are pleased to announce that they have agreed to join the Topsail team.

Rest assured that this will not result in any change for you, except that the Topsail Team will now handle your insurance requirements.

We have put together a Questions and Answers document, which I hope will answer some of the questions you may have. However, if you have any changes that you require to be made to your existing policy or indeed if you have any other questions relating to any of the above, then please do feel free to contact us.
If all is in order, then please relax and the team will be in touch prior to renewal to ascertain your plans and provide a renewal proposal for you.

Further information about us and the products we offer is available on our website, www.topsailinsurance.com.
Wishing you all the very best in the meantime and if we do not speak before, on behalf of myself and the team, I wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Yours sincerely,
blocked.gif

Chris McGowan
Managing Director | Topsail Insurance Ltd
Director | Topsail Insurance Pty. Ltd.
Click to expand...
I've just received that from Topsail as well
But I haven't yet received my letter from Barrie!!!
And I probably pay higher premiums than most of you.
 
ChrisMcGowan said:
Good Evening All,

I hope this finds you well.

My name is Chris McGowan, MD of Topsail Insurance.

Many thanks 'dustywings' for posting the email I sent to all Y Yacht clients.

If anybody has any specific queries or concerns relating to this purchase or indeed any service you may have received from us in the past, then please do feel free to contact me - chris@topsailinsurance.com

Wishing you all a pleasant evening.
Click to expand...
Maybe an answer to LongJohnSilver's post would be helpful

longjohnsilver said:
After a few phone calls and emails, this is where I’m at with this.

I contacted Topsail to get a comparative quote. They would not do this over the phone and directed me to their website to input my details, which I didn’t find particularly user friendly. I was told this would give me an immediate quote. It didn’t as it did not recognise DeFever as a make of boat (neither was Nordhavn recognised!). Not particularly impressive so far. And no email to say they’d be in touch.
However, 6 hours later I did have an email with their quote, which on a like for like basis was about 60% higher than Y!! I haven’t seen their policy conditions, but on the basis of Y being recognised as about the best, I can’t see Topsail is likely to offer better cover for the 60%higher premium. It seems to me that if I use Y for this year, my next years renewal is likely to see a huge increase based on the different between Y and Topsail now, and Y not being in existence next year.
I made a few more enquiries elsewhere, and Curtis Marine in Plymouth have come up with a quote for Navigators and General which is less than 50% of the Topsail quote, and about 20% cheaper than Y. I haven’t yet had chance to do a policy comparison, hopefully I’ll do that tomorrow.
My conclusion is that Topsail look expensive now, and I can’t see that changing next year, so my instinct is to move elsewhere now, but I will make my decision tomorrow after doing the policy comparison. The premiums for Y have increased substantially over the past few years (I haven’t made any claims in over 30 years), and in an email to Y just last week, I told them that if this continued next year I would be looking elsewhere. It seems that this sale of Y means I have brought this forward by a year.
As I’ve been typing this, I have received the email from Y about the sale of the company.

if anyone has anything else to add about either Navigators and General or Topsail, I’d be interested to read it.
Click to expand...
 
longjohnsilver said:
This news is very timely.
On my to do list today was to pay my Y insurance premium. I will now have some checking up to do.
And I haven’t received this email:unsure:

Where's jfm when you need him!
Click to expand...
Please check you junk email. It is possible Barrie's and / or my email made it's way in there. If not, would welcome an email to discuss any queries you may have - chris@topsailinsurance.com
 
MystereMarcus said:
I've received this email also. Quite annoying as I renewed with them last month! I nearly went with CraftInsure as they seemed a bit more competitive on premium (we all know Y have had big premium increases), CraftInsure use Navigators and General whose policy wording I liked. Something I noticed when getting quotes is that there are some marine insurers who are specifying that in the case if a total loss the pay out will be the assessed value of the craft at the time up to the insured value, not the insured value on the policy. Buyer beware!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your email. We underwrite on behalf of Navigators & General, but additionally have access to numerous other markets (MS Amlin, Global Yacht Cover and Concept Special Risk to name a few). As at today, all the insurers we use offer agreed value policies, so in the event of a total loss claim you will be paid the total sum insured. Any further queries, please do email me - chris@topsailinsurance.com
 
ChrisMcGowan said:
Please check you junk email. It is possible Barrie's and / or my email made it's way in there. If not, would welcome an email to discuss any queries you may have - chris@topsailinsurance.com
Click to expand...
Thankyou, I have now received both emails. However, I would appreciate you answering the points made in post #47 above. I suspect many of your potential customers will also be interested in reading your response.
 
longjohnsilver said:
After a few phone calls and emails, this is where I’m at with this.

I contacted Topsail to get a comparative quote. They would not do this over the phone and directed me to their website to input my details, which I didn’t find particularly user friendly. I was told this would give me an immediate quote. It didn’t as it did not recognise DeFever as a make of boat (neither was Nordhavn recognised!). Not particularly impressive so far. And no email to say they’d be in touch.
However, 6 hours later I did have an email with their quote, which on a like for like basis was about 60% higher than Y!! I haven’t seen their policy conditions, but on the basis of Y being recognised as about the best, I can’t see Topsail is likely to offer better cover for the 60%higher premium. It seems to me that if I use Y for this year, my next years renewal is likely to see a huge increase based on the different between Y and Topsail now, and Y not being in existence next year.
I made a few more enquiries elsewhere, and Curtis Marine in Plymouth have come up with a quote for Navigators and General which is less than 50% of the Topsail quote, and about 20% cheaper than Y. I haven’t yet had chance to do a policy comparison, hopefully I’ll do that tomorrow.
My conclusion is that Topsail look expensive now, and I can’t see that changing next year, so my instinct is to move elsewhere now, but I will make my decision tomorrow after doing the policy comparison. The premiums for Y have increased substantially over the past few years (I haven’t made any claims in over 30 years), and in an email to Y just last week, I told them that if this continued next year I would be looking elsewhere. It seems that this sale of Y means I have brought this forward by a year.
As I’ve been typing this, I have received the email from Y about the sale of the company.

if anyone has anything else to add about either Navigators and General or Topsail, I’d be interested to read it.
Click to expand...
I am sorry to hear that your experience with Topsail was disappointing. I would welcome the opportunity to look in to what went wrong here and put things right. If you would be kind enough to contact me by email (chris@topsailinsurance.com), I will immediately look in to this and endeavour to rectify things.
 
DavidJ said:
Lets see if Chris hides behind “confidentiality“ in his answer to longjohnsilver
Click to expand...
No hiding here David. Transparency is key here, but without knowing the full facts and enquiry details, thus enabling me to review things internally, then I am not in a position to comment fully. Many thanks. Chris
 
Just have that feeling of being left out.
Only received the welcome letter from Topsail but nothing from Barrie.
And there isn't anything in mt junk mailbox so they can stuff that argument/excuse.
The last email that came out from Barrie/Y about the prices going up took over a week longer than others on this forum
And then, it seems that Chris has ignored my post - maybe he is trying to justify Topsail to LongJohnSilver but I would have thought that I would have been a priority customer to keep in his business.
I've just checked my premium earlier this year was a tad over £4600
If I don't get an improvement in the service, I will be walking at renewal.
Come on Chris - at least tell us that you are sorry and are going to fix things.
 
ChrisMcGowan said:
Good Evening All,

I hope this finds you well.

My name is Chris McGowan, MD of Topsail Insurance.

Many thanks 'dustywings' for posting the email I sent to all Y Yacht clients.

If anybody has any specific queries or concerns relating to this purchase or indeed any service you may have received from us in the past, then please do feel free to contact me - chris@topsailinsurance.com

Wishing you all a pleasant evening.
Click to expand...
I received the emails being discussed but, to the best of my knowledge, I am not and wasn't a client. I am not complaining or objecting (happy to get the information) but am curious to know why?
 
I think the mailing lists are inaccurate, I've been a Y customer for several years and still am; but no email from Barrie. I did get the Topsail one though.

EDIT: Found Barrie's email in my ISP's quarantine, it would never have been delivered but that's another story. At least it was sent so in my case anyway the mailing list is accurate.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Other threads that may be of interest

S
Sailing to the USA. Do I need a special visa?
2 3
Replies
50
Views
2K
Roberto
Roberto

Share this page

Top