Insurance for offshore passage and Caribbean cruising - Canadian vessel

[BluJu]

Hello,

We're based in Halifax, NS, and getting ready to head south, first to Bermuda, then Bahamas, then either further in the Caribbean or towards Panama and South Pacific.

I'd be curious to hear from Canadian sailboat owners (mostly, but others as well!) which company/broker they would recommend to insure our boat for this kind of trip. We own a 41' steel ketch, registered in Canada.

Thanks!

[pillars]

Same here!

[Hobie_ind]

From 2013-2015 we used Dolphin Insurance out of Vancouver (Sean Thompson).

http://www.dolphininsurance.com/about

They were fine in the Caribbean, but struggled when we wanted to go to the South Pacific with only 2 adults for crew. Their underwriter insisted on 3 once 500 miles offshore and even then our premiums were going to increase by about 25-30%. We were in Grenada when working through it and ended up changing to another company through a cruiser living in Grenada who was a British insurance broker.

They were fine with 2 adults and our annual cost stayed about the same as we'd been paying while in the Caribbean. Unfortunately I don't have the information on the broker in Grenada handy.

Lots of our other friends sailing in the South Pacific were with Jackline out of the US (IMIS Jackline Insurance Program), but I'm not sure about the other Canadian boats.

Once we were in NZ, we changed to a liability only policy for our last year in NZ/Fiji/Vanuatu and Australia. That was through a broker in Opua (https://www.marine-insurance.co.nz/Contact-Us).

Good luck on your plans.

Mark