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Old 14-07-2023, 17:08   #16
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Not having at least liability insurance is not just a bad risk but disregards the damage done to the rest of us. Do unto others….

As for an underwriter, we have a policy with Chubb which is an agreed-value policy covering the entirety of the Caribbean where we typically sail. My understanding through talking to others in this area is that Seven Seas is the or among the most popular underwriter. No idea how their policy coverage limits are written. It’s not cheap!
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Old 14-07-2023, 18:01   #17
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Marina's typically require liability insurance, hull insurance, etc, is another thing. Not sure if you can get one without the other.

One other thing you could try is to lump all your insurance requirements together, which can sometimes swing things in your favor....ie, your vehicles, home, etc.....the boat just gets added to it. Contact your car or home insurer and see if you can " add" a boat.
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Old 15-07-2023, 03:44   #18
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Im going to take a guess and say people who sail the Caribbean dont have insurance for the Caribbean? There sure is a lot of boats there, but nobody seems to know anyone who will insure for the Caribbean.
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Old 15-07-2023, 06:36   #19
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Well, I feel I gotta do at least some kinda due diligence. I'd hate to bonk some rich guy's pride and joy and end up losing my ass.

It's pretty annoying that this isn't simpler.
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Old 15-07-2023, 06:38   #20
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Originally Posted by MicHughV View Post
Marina's typically require liability insurance, hull insurance, etc, is another thing. Not sure if you can get one without the other.

One other thing you could try is to lump all your insurance requirements together, which can sometimes swing things in your favor....ie, your vehicles, home, etc.....the boat just gets added to it. Contact your car or home insurer and see if you can " add" a boat.
Sadly, my home n auto company (erie) won't touch a sailboat. They'd insure a bassboat or something like that, but not a real boat :P
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Old 15-07-2023, 06:45   #21
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Marina's typically require liability insurance, hull insurance, etc, is another thing. Not sure if you can get one without the other.
You can get liability only or "full coverage" liability + hull coverage. Never seen a policy that was hull only.

Quote:
One other thing you could try is to lump all your insurance requirements together, which can sometimes swing things in your favor....ie, your vehicles, home, etc.....the boat just gets added to it. Contact your car or home insurer and see if you can " add" a boat.
This tends to work well if you have mainstream boats and mainstream sailing. If you live on the Chesapeake Bay and want coverage limited to Chesapeake Bay for your 20 year old 30 foot boat worth under $100k yeah pretty much any insurance company will cover that.

If you want to cruise the world, or have a boat older than 40 years, or a boat worth more than $500k most "normal" insurance companies (USAA, Progressive, State Farm, Geico, etc) won't touch you. The risks are just too hard for them to pin down. You are going to need a company that specialized in maritime insurance.

Hell it is getting so bad some mainstream companies won't write any new policies for any new boats for exotic locations like ... Florida.
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Old 15-07-2023, 07:06   #22
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Not to voice a contrary opinion...but you could just say to hell with it...and sail without insurance.
Be your own insurance, maintain the boat well, make smart decisions, etc.

This whole " insurance" thing is a bit of a racket in my humble opinion. Rates are sky high, deductions are ridiculous, seasons are short, etc and so on, and lordy...should you ever file a claim on any kind fugetabout ever finding insurance again.

These days there are insurances for every possible thing. Something wrong with society that we are at this point. Blame the lawyers.

If you had to factor in home much money you pay for insurance every month, you will see that after a year or more, it is a tidy sum. Put that money aside in a savings account as your own "insurance" bank.

'jes sayin'....


Once again, this man speaks my thoughts exactly. The only way to save on insurance is to assume as much of the risk yourself as you can, then plan, act and anchor accordingly.
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Old 15-07-2023, 07:08   #23
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Im going to take a guess and say people who sail the Caribbean dont have insurance for the Caribbean? There sure is a lot of boats there, but nobody seems to know anyone who will insure for the Caribbean.
Guess again. Or read my prior post.

It’s actually pretty rare to find a marina in any Caribbean island which doesn’t require insurance as well as rare to find a cruising boat without it. The absence of responsive comments here may more likely be a reflection of how this site is populated by people who don’t untie their dock lines.
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Old 16-07-2023, 11:40   #24
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Whoa...I probably sailed the best part of 20 years without insurance and in all that time never came across another sailor that had to put his/her "insurance" to use.

It was only in later years when marina's started to mandate liability insurance that I had to sign on the dotted line....
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Old 16-07-2023, 13:12   #25
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Im going to take a guess and say people who sail the Caribbean dont have insurance for the Caribbean? There sure is a lot of boats there, but nobody seems to know anyone who will insure for the Caribbean.
Your guess would be wrong. We have both hull and liability insurance for our boat, and it covers the whole world. Those people who say they "never" need liability insurance to check into a marina either have experience decades out of date, or never actually go anywhere. Both of which are pretty common here. Everybody WE know carries insurance, but that's very different than saying that everybody carries insurance...

Our insurance binder is one of the pieces of paperwork that goes with us to every marina check in we do. Sometimes we don't need it, but other times we certainly do. And we have ALWAYS needed it for any kind of haul-out facility.

It certainly makes sense that if you have a boat that you could afford to lose without it crimping your lifestyle, then you can skip the hull insurance. I always paid cash for a car, and never paid for collision insurance because I could always afford to replace it if I really needed to. But not carrying liability insurance? That's just plain stupid. For me, exactly the same logic applies to a boat.

Almost nobody ever uses their marine liability insurance. That's why it is so much cheaper than hull insurance. But IF you ever needed it... not having it could bankrupt you. Lots of people could afford to replace their boat if it caught fire, but could you afford to replace a whole marina full of boats that YOUR boat set ablaze? Or pay out if you ran over that kid with your dinghy while he was snorkeling at dusk in the anchorage? ... or...
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Old 16-07-2023, 13:41   #26
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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Holy hell, man. That sounds great.

I called around to ask the Big Names (state farm, progressive, etc) and without exception they lied straight to my face and said they don't cover sailboats at all. It's a frustrating process.


It may be that they are no longer underwriting NEW sailboat policies.
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Old 16-07-2023, 18:03   #27
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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It was only in later years when marina's started to mandate liability insurance that I had to sign on the dotted line....

It’s all those insurance agent-marina owners double dipping. I knew it was a conspiracy!
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Old 16-07-2023, 18:11   #28
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

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It may be that they are no longer underwriting NEW sailboat policies.

I suspect most, if not all, insurance companies go through phases. Times they will and then will not insure something. In my case 10 years ago my home/auto insurer declined to insure my boat. 4 years ago they wrote the policy, same location, same boat, same captain.
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Old 16-07-2023, 18:41   #29
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Try Topsail. They seem to have decent policies globally and also underwrite for Chubb and other mainstays.
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Old 17-07-2023, 02:22   #30
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Re: Insurance for Bahamas, Caribbean?

Thanks. If this next query doesn't work out, I'll reach out to them.
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