Liability insurance for cruising sailboat

In this blog post we will talk a bit of our findings so far regarding finding a liability insurance for our cruising sailboat. (For a Swedish version of this blog post, click HERE). We have googled a bit and asked for quotes and thought we share some about it here.

We have mostly been looking at a Third Party Liability insurance for our sailboat. Our boat is pretty cheap, and we can handle the loss if something should happen. We won’t sell everything we have in Sweden, so we will also have something to return to if things should go really wrong.

But after a bit of research we noticed that it isn’t an easy thing finding an insurance for a cheap, old sailboat (approx €20’000 with some equipment included). Most companies has given us a no, and we didn’t expect that. We had expected that we might need to pay a lot, and get a no for a full insurance, but not getting a no on third party liability only insurance.

We have read on some websites that it seems that many insurance companies has tightened their requirements and no longer insures cheap, old boats. Which is a bummer…

We have asked for quotes at the following companies:

• Pantaenius
• Y Yachts Insurance
• Topsail
• Velos
• Admiral Yacht Insurance
• Paul L’Ortye
• EIS Scandinavia
• Alandia
• Atlantica

Pantaenius

Before sending a quote to Pantaenius (Swedish office) we had read that they didn’t insure boat worth less than about €50’000. But we thought it was worth a try anyway, it would be easy for us with Swedish office and all. We got a first reply that they wouldn’t be able to offer us an insurance that would be in a good price range for us, and that it probably would be to expensive for us, due to our boats value. We asked again to double-check if this was the case if we wanted a third party liability insurance only. We got the reply that they weren’t able to insure our boat at all. What we read on Google it might not be as tough requirements for other Pantaenius offices, but we haven’t made a full investigation if it is possible for us as a Swedish registered boat to get a third party liability insurance from those offices.

Y Yachts

We also sent a quotation to Y Yachts, where we got the answer we wanted! 🙂 They could offer a third party insurance for sailing to the Caribbean (not Senegal and Gambia, though, if we want to sail there). They have also been very fast and helpful with answering our questions. We will most likely choose them as our insurer.

UPDATE 1: We used the third party liability insurance offered by Y Yacht for our sailing trip and paid €5’000. The insurance covered northern Europe, Atlantic Europe, British Isles, Atlantic islands (Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira, Azores), the Caribbean and two Atlantic crossings. We had a limit of €3’000’000. One thing we learned while we were out sailing is that it could be good to make sure that the third party liability covers the dinghy as well, as the dinghy is more likely to make serious damages on third parties than the sailboat.

UPDATE 2: Y Yachts was purchased by TopSail and what we have heard from others is that they are using the policy from TopSail and thus doesn’t offer third party liability insurance only, which is very unfortunate…

Topsail

After sending a quote request we got an answer that the value of the boat was to low and that it was also to old. They also don’t offer third party liability insurance, which actually says on their website (under FAQ), which we missed.

Velos

Also a no, since they don’t normally offer third party liability insurance for cruising sailboat only.

Admiral Yacht Insurance

We never sent a quote since they asked early on their web form if the boat was worth more than 40’000 pounds. If not, you got a message saying that they couldn’t offer you anything.

Paul l’Ortye

We got a reply saying that they only insure existing client for sailing to the Caribbean.

EIS INSURANCE

No problem to offer insurance for the chosen areas, but can not offer third party liability only. Since our boat is old they needed a recent survey and a lot of pictures of the boat. As we are mostly interested in third party liability only we haven’t investigated this further, but they didn’t mention any limitations for us. Spontaneously it felt like a good alternative if you are looking for full coverage insurance for an older boat.

ATLANTICA

Does not offer insurance for sailing to the Caribbean.

ALANDIA

The chosen areas are not an issue, but they also have a boat value limitation (€50’000).

So as a conclusion, it is not an easy task finding an insurance for cruising if you have an old sailboat of low insurance value. Anyone else out there that has had similar issue or have any experience to share about picking insurance for a cheap sailboat? If so, please leave a comment. Maybe you’ll be able to help another sailor who has the same issue. 🙂