Claim Yourself as a Liveaboard? - & Tax Question

[grunzster]

I've always heard, from various different forums that if you have a loan on your boat, you don't need to tell the bank your living aboard...unless they have clause against liveaboards, in which case you should have found a different lender in the first place.

But that you should always tell your insurance, because if they find out, you could have all kinds of problems as severe as losing your insurance or being denied a claim.

Then on my trip North I ran into someone who gave me a completely different story. He basically told me that the insurance companies kind of define liveaboards as bums with nowhere else to go, and claiming youself as a live abaord would mean a huge increase in your premium, which I've never heard before. He went on to say if you're living aboard by choice, as in you have friends/family in the area where you can go or enough money to buy rent someplace on land, then technically you're not a liveaboard. Also that when you start cruising you should claim yourself as an extended cruiser, not a liveaboard, because that will also make a difference in how your insurance company charges you.

Sounded like a bunch of semantics BS to me, also he seemed to really base this whole theory on FL, which in general really seems to have it out for boaters these day, but I'm not in FL. My policy costs about 1/3 what it would if I ws in FL, so even if it was to go up a little, I doubt it would be that much.

So, is there any shred of truth to this, or should I be on the phone with my insurance ASAP?

Also, I was thinking, even if what this guy said is true. The tiny little bit my insurance may go up, may be offset by potential tax breaks by claiming the boat as a primary residence...especially being that I have a mortgage on it.

Which brings me to question #2. When tax time comes, for all you TurboTax users out there, do I claim the boat the same as a house? AKA: the screen where it asks "Any major life changes this year, for example bought a home?" do I click yes, and go through that whole process that same as if it was a house.