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Insurance for Trimarans


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30 minutes ago, alibaba said:

Nobody on the West Coast?? On a day like this there would be at least 300 vessels out over the various bars, and if Raglan has a fishing competition on, that easily doubles.

One of the things I note, is that the number of calls for assistance that Coastguard gets on the West Coast are far fewer than on the East Coast. I think because the bar crossings are known to be dangerous, the Westies take better care of their craft, very few seem to run out of fuel etc compared to the EAst, which is more benign.

That said, when it does go wrong on the West COast ........

Do insurance companies not cover all these vessels? Having a yacht I wouldn't know, but I find it hard to believe that they are all uninsured?

I'm sure there will be companies covering west coast boats, just not the one that Baileys (Originally a broker that was Yacht friendly, maybe still is? )  have me insured with.

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3 hours ago, Steve Pope said:

I'm sure there will be companies covering west coast boats, just not the one that Baileys (Originally a broker that was Yacht friendly, maybe still is? )  have me insured with.

Definitely so. We are with Mariner.  Current policy provides insurance anywhere within 200Nm of the North or South Island so long as we haven't gone through customs.

I am curious, did the policy wording specifically restrict you to a given area? Or was it only after you enquired that they updated/changed the policy? 

 

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1 hour ago, CarpeDiem said:

Definitely so. We are with Mariner.  Current policy provides insurance anywhere within 200Nm of the North or South Island so long as we haven't gone through customs.

I am curious, did the policy wording specifically restrict you to a given area? Or was it only after you enquired that they updated/changed the policy? 

 

It was only after I mentioned going around to the Kaipara in passing, as I had contacted them on another matter. As far as my original contract, it was the same as yours, 200nm  off shore of NZ. Going up to the Islands we could have been insured once we were there but there would have had no cover when actually sailing there. I believe my current insurer isn't the same company that I was originally insured with. I do not remember as to why there was a change.

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Have any of you tried Mariner Insurance, which is Vero. I know nothing of them, but I do know Vero is Australian and pretty much the biggest Oz has.
There is also The Marina Shop, Opua.
They are about the only Insurers left that still write their own Policy as such. As far as I know, all other insurers are underwritten by some real big Underwrites whom specify the policy. Hence why many seem to have the same policy rules.


Be wary of Edward Williams Insurance of Spain. They seem to insure Boats anywhere in the World, but many Marinas will no longer accept a vessel insured by them, becuase they have been gain a reputation of not paying out. I know this because Insurance is the biggest most common question asked on the Hartely Ferro BB I run and we have been getting that comment back from several overseas FC owners now.
The Marina Shop will only look at FC under third party. They will look at most types and age of boats 3rd party providing the Vessel has had an inspection to ensure what they are insuring is worth the cover and is Sea worthy.
I have also heard that any boat, no matter what it is made of, if over 20yrs of age, is now becoming very hard to insure.
The reason why Multi Hulls have a hard time being insured is due to the huge number written off over seas by Hurricans. The over seas Insurers look at statistics only. The largest number of Boats written of in Marinas over in the Hurrican affected areas are predominantly Multihull. The two reasons being that many of the warm water places, like Caribean etc have high numbers of Charter companies which go for Multi's. And Multi's tend to be hard to keep safe in bigh storms when tied to a jetty made from Concrete.

Oh and in relation to a comment way back in this thread, Ferro, statistically has the lowest incidence of Insurance claims than any other Boat material in the World. They also hold the over all lowest repair cost of any other vessel type.
But sadly, they have become the hardest vessel type to insure. Hence why I was wondering if any one had experience with Mariner/Vero. Because I was wondering if it was worth me, as Hartley Ferrocement Association, should write to them. There is a large number of very nice FC boats  needing insurance around the World.

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Any Ferro boats still in the water today will have proved itself many times over. I had friends who sailed one almost everywhere possible world wide over a period of 25 years, the only major hull repair was when they were hit by a fishing boat somewhere around the Azores, they had quite a bit of seepage but were able to continue onto the UK, pull out and do a replastering job, once done you wouldn't know it had been hit. A yacht built of anything other than steel or Alluminium (or ferro) would most likely have sunk at the collision point. When the fishing boat crew apeared they quickly left the area with no attempt to help or make contact.

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On 29/01/2022 at 1:09 PM, wheels said:

Have any of you tried Mariner Insurance, which is Vero. I know nothing of them, but I do know Vero is Australian and pretty much the biggest Oz has.
There is also The Marina Shop, Opua.
They are about the only Insurers left that still write their own Policy as such. As far as I know, all other insurers are underwritten by some real big Underwrites whom specify the policy. Hence why many seem to have the same policy rules.


Be wary of Edward Williams Insurance of Spain. They seem to insure Boats anywhere in the World, but many Marinas will no longer accept a vessel insured by them, becuase they have been gain a reputation of not paying out. I know this because Insurance is the biggest most common question asked on the Hartely Ferro BB I run and we have been getting that comment back from several overseas FC owners now.
 

Mariner is Vero and Baileys boat insurance is Vero as well. The insurers set the rules not the brokers.

I have my policy renewal note to pay this month to Baileys, it has gone up about 5%. Last year's renewal was the "big" one, premium went up 20% and they switched from agreed to market value, unless I provided a valuation. Yacht is over 30 yrs old now, Baileys told me they will grandfather existing policies but cannot write any new policies with Vero for boats over 30 yrs old.

The limits are within 200 miles of the North or South Island, which means a run to the Kermadecs or Chathams takes you outside the policy limit. No mention of any restrictions on the west coast.

The problem we face here is the NZ marine insurance market is small but with Tutukaka this year ~ 10 boats sunk and others badly damaged, it means there has been 2 years in a row of exceptionally high claims, ie insurers will be losing money which they don't like. There are 2 options, a hike in premiums or exacting the market as Club marine did.

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Has anyone made any progress here yet?

just bought a 42ft classic tri on a swing mooring and getting an abrupt "no thanks" from PIC and Vero.

I expected it would be hard, but not this hard.

Previous owner had third party insurance with obscure overseas insurer, but a quick google search suggests they have a questionable reputation when it comes to paying out.

Are there any Brokers or insurance advisers out there who can at least offer some kind of cover?

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Bay Insurance is who we are with, they said if we either let our policy lapse, or change circumstances greatly, ie move to a swing mooring, no cover.

I get the feeling they dont want to insure anymore multi's, they only continue to cover us because we have an existing policy.

But by all means give them a call and let us know what they say

 

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Can you blame them? Sub 35' multihulls in this country have an abysmal record when it comes to falling apart, capsizing or hitting something hard. Just this week another 2 trimarans have sh*t themselves racing.

Take the mickey-mouse outfit. They will never pay a claim but at least you have something to wave at marinas. Think of it as a berthage surcharge

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On 24/02/2022 at 6:20 PM, Deep Purple said:

Can you blame them? Sub 35' multihulls in this country have an abysmal record when it comes to falling apart, capsizing or hitting something hard. Just this week another 2 trimarans have sh*t themselves racing.

Take the mickey-mouse outfit. They will never pay a claim but at least you have something to wave at marinas. Think of it as a berthage surcharge

Yep! The trimaran I had been racing on this summer capsized a few weeks ago (thankfully I wasn't racing that night - blessing or curse?), and then talking to a number of people after the incident, it sounds like it's basically impossible to get insurance for them. Two people asked if I wanted to buy it after that........ nope! 😅

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Well we have just gone through this whole palava after our previous company (effectively Lloyd's of London) in their wisdom decided that multi-hulls are something they wont insure any longer.

I spent a day or two sending out multiple applications via websites, emails etc etc to almost 30 companies and brokers in NZ and Australia, and the odd one in the US without any success at all. Not good when potentially our marina could ask us to leave because we would be uninsured. Even 3rd party was out of the question.

This resulted in my wife getting on the case, and actually calling them all and speaking to real humans, she spent a good 3 days doing this and managed to find a number of companies that would play ball, all who had declined my requests via websites or email.

The trick is to actually call them, explain the circumstances, ie we would be kicked out of the marina etc etc... :)  make stuff up, say whatever you need to say to get them on your side... Talk lots about your experience as a sailor etc, makes you a person rather than just another number.

We were offered cover from the following...

The Marina Shop in Opua,

Topsail in Australia

Sunderland Marine in Nelson

Baileys Insurance in Auckland

Aon Insurance in Auckland

Hope this is helpful

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