Concerns With Moving to a Bigger Pond

[hellosailor]

"Buy your insurance in Lake Norman before you move boat."
You could also wind up uninsured that way. Yes, you would have the paper, but all insurers restrict their coverage to specific cruising grounds, and many will also require notification if your "residence" (i.e. the boat's physical home port) changes.

Insure it in NC and move the FL without notifying anyone...nd you might find you've got a piece of paper that makes marinas happy, but in the event of an incident, the insurer is going to step back and say "Hey, that's out of your coverage area, not our problem."

Especially with hurricane season in Florida.

FWIW.

[hamburking]

Marina's here (Canada) only require liability insurance, typically $2million. This is usually available pretty cheap for older boats, and without a survey. But you need to know to ask for just liability, or for a policy specifically for older, low value boats.

My sailboat insurance used to be covered under my home owners policy...under the "watercraft" clause. Although intended for things like canoes or fishing boats kept in the driveway, it also applied to my sailboat at the marina. Its important to read the clause carefully. Mine had limits. One of the limits was 26 feet LOA, which was great for my C&C25! Another is max horsepower...something like 40hp, which was never an issue for any of my sailboats...LOL. Unfortunately, my home owners policy was only $1million liability, and my marina raised their requirement to $2million, and wanted actual proof of insurance. Many boats left because of this. I purchased an "old boat" policy from Harbour Insurance (Toronto) which gave me the required liability coverage with no survey. It cost around $300 per year.

You have made a good start by starting this thread. I suggest you call your insurance broker and see what he can do for you. Or call a broker that specializes in boats.

Good Luck!

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Being a cr0otchety old bastard. I think you need to do much more research.

Agreed! We just left there and it is everything that has been said; hot, expensive and no real live aboard space easy to find.

One guy told us he wasn't really zoned for live aboard but if we paid his requested rent, $3,500.00 a month, he could "overlook the fact we were staying on the boat". Even if I had that kind of money I sure didn't want to live behind his house.

We stayed 2 weeks in Lake Sylvia, close to Bahia Mar and Pier 66, for free. That requires being on the hook with no services and having to dinghy ride for trash runs, provisioning, etc. but thank goodness the wind blows well there, kept us cooler at night.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Being a cr0otchety old bastard. I think you need to do much more research.

I suppose that's why he posted here, to get advice from experienced cruisers.