Insurance Requirements-gctid343414

[Guest]

Our boat club requires everyone to carry at least $500K in liablility insurance and I am of the opinion that is not enough. I have brought this up a previous meetings and since we are opening our by laws for amendment in the next couple of months, I would like to ask that we increase it to at least $1M per boat. To help my effort I would like to know what the liablility requirements are for other boaters around the world.

[Guest]

trich11 wrote:
Our boat club requires everyone to carry at least $500K in liablility insurance and I am of the opinion that is not enough. I have brought this up a previous meetings and since we are opening our by laws for amendment in the next couple of months, I would like to ask that we increase it to at least $1M per boat. To help my effort I would like to know what the liablility requirements are for other boaters around the world.

Your question/proposal is a very personal and subjective one. Although the out of pocket costs are not too much more than $300 or $500k, the bigger question for this proposed requirement is - what would be the justification for the requirement? Does your club have significant on water property (docks, outstations, etc) that need protecting with that high a liability requirement? Is your club's mix of members lean towards larger boats (35+'), or a mix of smaller and larger boats? Are you proposing the requirement for all members, or only members that moor there?

We insure thousands of boats, as well as boating organizations (clubs, docks/marinas, brokerages, etc) throughout the nation. There are only 2 moorages that have $1M liability requirements; most have either a $300k or $500k requirement ONLY if the club has moorage area (such as Seattle Yacht Club or Queen City Yacht Club). I've see prospective club members be turned away form an otherwise quality club, because of requirements as the one you're proposing....Seattle Yacht Club reduced their liab requirement for smaller boats to $500K if mooring there.

As a general rule, liability coverage is a question an insured should ask themselves- how muck risk am I willing to absorb? What is my net worth? Being property covered is important, but excessively overinsuring is usually only good for the agent. We usually write coverages for liability to meet or exceed the vessel valuation.

[Guest]

It's $300k minimum in my marina, and I carry $500k as it was pretty cheap to do so. The $1m policy was actually a lot more and required more data to underwrite. I don't know why, because it's unusual maybe?

[Guest]

2 miilon from my old marina

[Guest]

One million at our club....one reason is environmental costs should there be a sinking or fire.

[Guest]

Most of the boats in our marina are 30' and larger. We lease the property we occupy but own the docks. I believe my biggest concern is a fire or environmental issues should one sink. Our slips are double wells so there are two boats per opening which will pretty much insure if one starts the one next to it goes also and on down the line. I may be wrong but with damage to boats and docks, it would not take long to eat up $500K. I have this question up on the Rinker owners website and answers vary from $300K to $2M.

[Guest]

One million at our club....one reason is environmental costs should there be a sinking or fire.

The environmental cleanup is usually a separate item. I have $1m in environmental ON TOP OF the normal $500k liability, and that was just standard, it was just included.

[Mocoondo]

Pau Hana wrote:


As a general rule, liability coverage is a question an insured should ask themselves- how muck risk am I willing to absorb? What is my net worth?

These are all great questions. Two equally important questions are -- how much damage can you do with your boat? How much is a human life worth?

I feel that the worst case scenario would be someone getting killed either on your boat or on another boat as a result of your negligence, or maybe not even as a result of your negligence, but because it happened on your boat, you could be held responsible, or at the very least, sued for damages. You will go through a million dollars in a heartbeat. Remember, your liability is not limited to the amount of insurance you maintain.

Or here's one ... Your boat catches fire and takes out a dozen or more other boats in your marina. How much is that going to cost you?

I think in a private club setting, $1m would not be considered excessive. I'd want my slip neighbor to have excellent insurance if his boat caught fire and took mine with it.

Also, don't forget that maintaining a personal umbrella is an excellent and inexpensive option available to protect you from bad things that may come your way.

Finally, if the club has significant assets at risk, they may want to be listed as additional insured on the members policies.

[Rick_Kenyon]

I'm in a private marina owned by the HOA as part of our condos. The HOA requires $300,000 liability coverage. We do have a 26ft max size limit on the boats that can dock there. I got in because my hull is truly only 25ft from bow point to transom. We also have another exception for a "board member" who docks a 30 footer there, but they all claim he was there before the 26 ft limit was imposed. He was, but with an older boat than he has now. As I understand it, the size limit was recommended by a dock construction contractor as being the max load that should be put on the pilings, etc. , not due to insurance regulations. On top of the liability coverage required on the boats, I have a personal liability umbrella with $1 mil coverage. That's pretty cheap protection at $240/year.