Local waters and insurance

H

hack4alivin

Active Member
TECHNICAL Contributor
Apr 18, 2008
2,518
Joppa, Maryland
Boat Info
320 Dancer
Engines
Twin 350 V Drives
The friends that are going on our trip to New York with us mentioned to me the other night to make sure I call my insurance carrier and get a rider on my policy for the trip. Apparently my boat is only covered in the Chesapeake Bay. Good thing they said something, it is something I would not have thought off.
 
Nice heads up--I am going for insurance for the 2010 season and now that I have a bigger sea worthy boat, I will make sure to ask more specific questions on where I am covered. Already planning a trip to Statue of Liberty for the 4th.
 
Bill, did you about this or did the agent kind of kept this detail out and just presented an attractive rate to get your business? It's an interesting part of the policy one should be aware of.
Thanks for posting, now I have to check my policy and see what they define as local waters.
 
Alex F said:
Bill, did you about this or did the agent kind of kept this detail out and just presented an attractive rate to get your business? It's an interesting part of the policy one should be aware of.
Thanks for posting, now I have to check my policy and see what they define as local waters.
Click to expand...

Alex,
Two of the boat captains that are going on the trip told me they had to do this with their insurance, I have not confirmed with mine yet. I’ve got NBOA so I will call to confirm. It took me by surprise as well but they both confirmed it. They said it was not expensive for a temporary rider.
 
Last edited:
hack4alivin said:
The friends that are going on our trip to New York with us mentioned to me the other night to make sure I call my insurance carrier and get a rider on my policy for the trip. Apparently my boat is only covered in the Chesapeake Bay. Good thing they said something, it is something I would not have thought off.
Click to expand...

I have Progressive. They don't limit my cruising area, except to within 75 miles of the US Coast. When I took a trip to Bimini, they told me that a rider was not required or necessary.
 
Nick... Since you live in Florida I think the insurance company just assumes that you will be using your boat in the ocean. I have NBOA insurance, and they told me up front that I would be covered in the "US Inland and Coastal" areas. I don't have my policy close by, but I think I am limited to something like 12 miles out...

They did offer extended area coverage, but it would have been another $200-$300 a year for it. I don't recall the exact number, but a short term rider wasn't very expensive, so I opted to go that route.

Michael
 
All marine policies have specified navigation limits. Nobody is cutting corners or hiding anything from you if you read your dec pages and policy.
 
I was not insinuating anyone was cutting corners, but since I have never made a trip out of local waters it was not something I was not even thinking about. I thought it would be a good topic to bring up as I am sure others may not be thinking about it either.

I surely do not mind paying an addition one time charge for a rider if my overall premium is lower because of coverage area.
 
Exactly. Read your policies people! I remember when I was with Boat US, and although their rates seemed reasonable, their navigation limit was small. When I searched around, other carriers had cheaper rates and their navigational limit was much larger. Win/win in that case.

Doug
 
skibum said:
Nick... Since you live in Florida I think the insurance company just assumes that you will be using your boat in the ocean. I have NBOA insurance, and they told me up front that I would be covered in the "US Inland and Coastal" areas. I don't have my policy close by, but I think I am limited to something like 12 miles out...

Michael
Click to expand...
Like Michael, we have NBOA Insurance and we are covered for all inland and coastal waters of the US. In the main declarations page, there is no definition of "inland and coastal waters". I just looked over the policy and didn't notice a precise definition of this term.

FWIW, the NBOA insurance was much less that the competition, Progressive, Erie and several others.
 
douglee25 said:
Exactly. Read your policies people! I remember when I was with Boat US, and although their rates seemed reasonable, their navigation limit was small. When I searched around, other carriers had cheaper rates and their navigational limit was much larger. Win/win in that case.

Doug
Click to expand...

Exactly...a couple years ago I got a quote from Boat US, and was very happy....until I realized that they quoted for inland waters only. When I called and got it corrected to the ocean coast, the quoted cost nearly doubled.

Progressive insurance seems to have a pretty broad area for my policy. Of course, I boat all over the state of Florida, so that may have been what I told them and requested.
 
Last edited:
I just checked my policy and the Declarations page states the following: “Navigation Limits: Insured Yacht shall be confined to the following waters: U.S. Inland and Coastal Waters of the 48 Contiguous States, including Canada”. I believe I am covered.

So as I said in an earlier post, the thread was not started to complain about coverage but to inform others there may be holes in the coverage. Good thing to know when planning long trips.
 
Last edited:
I had great success with my insurance broker that ONLY insures boats. Check out their site...

www.boatinsuranceonly.com

Tell him Ken from B-8 sent you!
 
Timing of this is perfect. I actually called my insurance company (Allstate) 3 weeks ago into insure (no pun) I have proper coverage for a trailer boat road trip from NJ down to Florida. They checked and told me I was fully covered, no rider required. That was a relief.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,241
Messages
1,429,115
Members
61,122
Latest member
DddAae
Back
Top