Trip Insurance for Bareboat Charter in Greece (US Resident)

[mfujio]

Apologies in advance for the long question...I tried to look in the forums for a similar issue but was surprised to not find much regarding charter insurance.

My husband and I doing our first bareboat charter in the Ionian Islands, Greece in June next year. We've already paid the 50% deposit to reserve it, and the remaining 50% is due one month prior to picking up the boat. Five of our friends are also joining us, and we all live in different states/countries (but we're all US citizens). My husband will be the skipper and I'll be first mate; our friends would not be able to charter the boat without us, so we are crucial to making this trip happen. I'm worried that something will happen to my husband and I where we won't be able to go on the trip, or something will happen to my friends where they won't be able to join. I'd like to get a trip insurance policy that reimburses us for the deposit in the event that we have to cancel (because of a death, illness, inclement weather in the departing city, etc), or that will reimburse the fair share of my friends if one/some aren't able to make it. Also having coverage for health emergencies/accidents, trip interruption, etc, would be nice.

I've spoken to World Nomads and Insure My Trip and they both said that because we are renting a boat and we will be operating it ourselves (i.e. we are not hiring a skipper), that the entire trip is not insurable. In other words, they would not reimburse the non-refundable deposit even if we have a typically covered incident such as a death in the family or a bad illness. My husband does have his 6-pak so I was thinking we could "hire" him as a skipper to get around this, but I don't know if that would be legal in Greece or if the insurance company would still not consider that okay.

It seems like it'd be better to just get an insurance policy that's meant for bareboat charters. I was looking at EIS Insurance, but they're based in the EU (https://www.eis-insurance.com/en/ski...ses-insurance/). Has anybody ever used them? Does anyone have any other recommendations on specific insurance companies and policies? Thank you!

[leboyd]

We used CSA (now https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/) and when we weren't able to go because our house was flooded by hurricane Harvey, they covered us.

There are a lot of options and prices are according to what you buy. You definitely always need to read the whole contract of what you want to purchase to make sure you're covered. There is a "cancel for any reason" option, but obviously this is more expensive.

You may also want to check with your credit card provider. Some (many?) of these include trip insurance for items charged to their card.

You might also check with the chartering/brokering company to see who they recommend, if any.

[gonesail]

out the times I have chartered a boat .. bad weather kept us in port 75% of the time. but it is hard to know this until you actually arrive at the destination .. and even sitting at the dock was fun. good luck.

[bellasailor]

We bought similar from Pantaenius Germany one year, as my husband is the skipper in the situation and was at risk of deployment in his military role.

We also have used Topsail. Not sure if either can cover US residents though.