Cruising without Insurance in the Caribbean ?

[Zanshin]

I think that I will end up continuing self-insuring, particularly as my account is healthy (I put in 2% of value for 5 years) but will insure liability.
The insurance market for boats must really be pretty small, I am currently doing (boat-unrelated) work at one of the largest German insurance companies who have literally millions of customers for health and car and house insurance. Their boating department lists under 100 boats, none of which are bigger than runabouts

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Lock

I can't get insured to sail south of the tropic of cancer. How many people are sailing in the Caribbean without insurance on their vessel? I imagine it is suicide during hurricane season and peak tourist season with a lot of green sailors drunk on charter boats. Has anyone did a risk assessment of sailing down there on a medium sized yacht valued under 100k?

As asked by others - What is the boat? F.C./Wood or what? Age makes a difference. And of course, a survey to establish its seaworthiness. Is the boat homemade or a "one-off" versus from a main stream boat manufacturer. If there is no record or "history" of the boat from other risk insurers it is going to be difficult for the insurance company to assess the risk and set a premium.
- - As to sailing with or without insurance, it is more a matter (eliminating all instances of boats with mortages/loans) of whether you can personally absorb/ignore financially the loss of the vessel (assuming you survive the loss).
- - Risk assessment in the Caribbean is not higher or lower than most other places in the world - except for the potential for damage during a Tropical Storm. Other than the BVI's places like the Chesapeake Bay or probably the area around the Channel Islands and other major sailing centers in Europe are probably just as collision prone.
- - Even "named storms" are not a major threat to boats if the owner properly prepares the boat and take care to put it in a place that will offer protection from the storm. There are probably tens of thousands of boats in the Caribbean and not that many are lost to "named storms" except for those boats neglected or where the owner really wouldn't mind loosing the boat.
- - Even then being "inside the box" only means you are not insured for that particular period of time/season - the rest of the year you are insured. The fine print in each policy is where you find out exactly what is and isn't covered. Don't forget the "appendix's" - what is stated in back and white in the main body of the policy can be negated by an appendix.

[Lock]

It is a fiberglass boat. Very sea-worthy and maintained well. I am a seasoned sailor and nothing out of the ordinary. So I cant really understand why it has been so difficult to find insurance. Although "we" "yacht cruisers" are maybe .005% of the population and there isn't enough market demand to create large business.

I used IMIS as my broker and they were able to help me. I contacted over a dozen other brokers and IMIS were the only ones that produced.