Insurance - the elephant in the room.

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by rogerf, Jan 31, 2013.

  1. tamas
    Joined: May 2009
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    tamas Junior Member

    Sorry for bring up an old issue but it is important. I can confirm Youi are insuring trimarans & cats. I got a very good rate as well.
     
  2. Fanie
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    Location: Colonial "Sick Africa"

    Fanie Fanie

    You see, it's you Aussies that drive those tri's like hooligans :D

    Shame about those boats.

    They only want to insure you when there is no risk.
     
  3. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    What the insurance like in Africa for amateur built boats - have you made any inquiries yet ?
     
  4. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

    My Seawind 24 is insured with Youi.
    I tried a couple of others but they excluded any rotating rig.
    Jeff.
     
  5. AndySGray
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    AndySGray Senior Member

    For motorists, uninsured drivers cost those with insurance about 15-20% on their premiums.

    Fortunately technology is catching up and in many countries the Insurance companies supply details of insured motorists to the licencing authority who then can compile a list of uninsured motorists.

    Current technology allows for licence plate recognition and the authorities can quickly identify anyone driving without insurance.
    Police in the UK can sit beside the road with a laptop and any expired insurance, licence or uninspected vehicle is identified by a camera and the screen goes orange and a 'bell' sounds - arrests usually follow...

    Hitting a Merc is cheap compared to causing someone a spinal injury! Who should pay for that?

    There is also a discussion as to if uninsured motorists are actually a higher risk group. The thinking being that those who are prepared to walk away from a total loss are not going to have vehicles with a high capital value. This in-turn leads to 'budget' or skipped maintenance and mechanical failures on the road...

    Those same insurance companies are the ones we go to for boat insurance, so who's to blame for 20% higher boat premiums?

    In the UK there are insurance companies who's customers ARE the shareholders - Mutuals or Cooperative Societies.
     
  6. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    Fascinating. i wonder if that applies to monohulls as well ?
     
  7. redreuben
    Joined: Jan 2009
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    Location: South Lake Western Australia

    redreuben redreuben

    In Australia personal injury is covered with the compulsory third party as part of the license fee. Everyone pays, administered by the states.
    Just because I choose not to take accident and theft insurance does not mean I walk away from my responsibilities, it just means I make different arrangements.
    Thanks for pointing out yet another reason not to live in the UK.
    The reason your premiums are going up is because investment markets are flat so premiums have to pay there way with no subsidies from earnings.
    I work in property maintenance, I am constantly under pressure from the policy buyers to cheat, deceive, exaggerate anything to put one over the insurer.
    You talk like a true victim, who can I blame ?
     
  8. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

    Not so common on monos... maybe some Norwalk sharpies or such but still uncommon- the three stay set up on most rotating set ups nearly garantees dis masting if one stay fails..
    I briefly(very) considered 2 bits of alu flat bar as "rotation arrestors" to the mast spanner.............
    When I had my beach marine cat I needed to claim when some unknown person speared into the aft alu connective & dented/tore a divot into it with a bow fitting... the assessor that came had never been on a yacht let alone a cat(mostly did caravan assessment), all he needed to see was that it was damaged & the quoted works matched fixing the damage.

    Jeff
     
  9. Fanie
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    Location: Colonial "Sick Africa"

    Fanie Fanie

    If you have lots of money (and you don't need the insurance anyway) and when there is no risk then sure. Insurances are in business for themselves, they want to take your money, they don't want to pay you. What were you thinking ?

    You have to read and analyse the fine print very carefully. What you think you have and what they give you is usually two very different things.

    And then of course Africa. You guys have a very weird view of this place.

    Maybe one day when the English sink below the waves you can become something other that a British colony and do things differently.
     
  10. AndySGray
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    AndySGray Senior Member

    Thanks for clarifying - clearly driving for 33 years on third party is not quite the same thing as driving uninsured...
     
  11. Charlyipad
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    Location: St Simons is ga

    Charlyipad Senior Member

    Guys, allow me to revive this thread.

    Id like to hear from others in the US also, since this is where I am and I am having similar problems. Of the three insurers I have talked to, two have turned me down flat and the other refused to even give me a ballpark figure without seeing a survey. I don't remember their names two of them were in cahoots with Sea Tow, and the other one was referred by my homeowners agent (I think they were inMilwaukee Wis.)

    FWIW the marinas around here don't require ins papers unless you charter, then they usually want 1 million in liability. I would be happy to just buy some liability only, but the agents I talked to said that is not possible, you must have the whole enchilada.

    The whole thing sucks IMO. Cornelius Vanderbilt said he reckoned that if the insurance companies could make money by insuring his fleet, that he could make money by insuring his own dang fleet. :)

    edit: I have a 36 homebuilt wood/epoxy cat. Te insurers hangup seems to be the fact that wood is mentioned. Nobody said anything about it being a multihull. (?)
     
  12. redreuben
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    redreuben redreuben

    Take a leaf out of the brokers book and call it a composite hull.
     
  13. ThomD
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    ThomD Senior Member

    Call it glass composite. Virtually every glass motorboat out there has a transom and ribs in plywood if a certain age, and other stuff. If your is wood epoxy you are a step up.

    Of course it is one thing to get insured, it is another to get paid out after an accident. There is an assumption that somehow these are connected and that the insurance market is upside down when they won't insure because they are paying out. Buyers are generally pretty happy when they are getting insured but the small percentage making claims is getting stiffed as that detail is often unnoticed.
     
  14. neville2006
    Joined: Jul 2008
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    neville2006 Junior Member

    Help!

    On the Aussie front what's the latest with Tri insurance?

    Looking at insuring a 42' cruising Tri...YOUI will only cover boats less than 12m

    Anyone have a contact name at RACV?
    Would like to try them but don't want to stuff it up so would rather speak to the right person!

    any other ideas?
     

  15. Corley
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    Corley epoxy coated

    I've heard that Pantaneius will look at trimarans on a case by case basis. Tell us more about your trimaran, sounds interesting.

    http://www.pantaenius.com.au/en/home.html

    Some of the MYCV members insure with RACV but I'm not sure how welcoming they are to new business in that field.
     
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