Boat afloat

- No-one seems to accept a hull survey only from the calls we've made?? - ALL people we have spoken to have said that ALL recommendations need to be fixed regardless of severity. There seems to be NO flex on this from those we have asked... - I don't blame the insurers. We just need to work out what best to do? Hi there - we have 'found it'. We haven't paid for it yet but both seller and buyer are excited about starting their new ventures so plenty of emotional currency has exchanged hands. - depends on how wealthy you are. I can;t believe how expensive boats are. Easy to spend £30K - £45K on a 40 year old boat without trying...

Thanks for this!!!!! I've just called him. He's calling me back shortly to discuss... I can understand the insurers point of view and unless I've mis-typed anything I am really NOT having a go at the insurers - simply trying to navigate the predicament we are in and see what options are there. Regards the timings I've just been quoted end of April to get the boat inspected with a laugh when I asked how quickly contractors could do the work. Doesnt bode well but I also appreciate it's not a massive poll...

Thanks for the super quick reply there. Sorry - I missed Craft Insure off the list (now edited). They want a "full out of water condition survey" too. I've updated the original post adding them to the list. I'm not concerned about accidents as I'm confident in my boat handling skills. What I suppose I am concerned about is: - theft (does that happen in practice?) although the boat will be marina based for much of it's non-cruising time - fire. Not so much the boat bursting into flames but malicious damage by a third party whilst we aren't cruising/in the marina - sinking and the costs of sorting that out. Again, with a solid hull survey completed is that really likely? I suppose one of the things I wondered was how common is it for boats to be insured 3rd party only but be worth a few quid? When I spoke to the surveyor he intimated that only people with boats with "a few grand" would be insured 3rd party only, and he seemed surprised we would consider it on a boat worth many multiples of that...

Hi there and I'm really hoping you can help us. We are new to the forum and up until 2 days ago were really looking forward to our first narrowboat and to start enjoying (part time) canal life. We've found a boat (+40 years old) and have gone to insure it so we can get our licence. And here the problems started. I've read up much on this forum and others about all risks insurance for older boats (20+ depending on insurer) but also saw that many people seemed to just sail through the storm with their existing insurers. Our experience from February 2022 is that it seems almost impossible, if not impossible, to fully comp insure a 40 year old NB without a "full out of water survey". Previous threads on this forum suggests that things were certainly tightening up as the pool of insurers got ever smaller, but it seems that things have now reached a point where there is no wriggle room. To make things worse it seems the insurers are taking the stance that "ALL recommendations" need to be complied with. Options seem to be: - comply, but this will take too much time for both seller and buyer really and we open ourselves up to whatever little bits the surveyor puts in writing and an unknown repair bill - go TPO, but we aren't wealthy enough to just write off the value of the boat should someone destroy it whilst it is not in our sight - get a fresh BSC to give us comfort it shouldn't burst into flames, but this doesn't insure the boat or our savings Just to be clear before anyone reaches for a flamethrower but we are not, in theory at least, averse to the idea of a survey. Given we are buying an old boat it's a very good idea, although the boat does have a very recent hull survey with some repair work carried out, but it's the fact the full survey will take months to sort, plus finding contractors to fix things, plus the fact the insurer is in effect forcing us to fix everything the survey might bring up, whether it's a safety issue or otherwise. Also this tightening up seems a worrying sign of things to come perhaps? I have spoken to a boat surveyor but as you can imagine he's basically telling me that there is lots that can go wrong with boats and caveat emptor etc. Fair enough. * So, having laid that out what am I actually asking? Well, I suppose I;d dearly love for someone to say 'call these people because they definitely do it' but I can't see that happening. * Given just how many older boats there are how on earth is everyone else coping with this or are they just lucky as existing customers they are slipping through the net? Surely there are hundreds of people who have had this dilemma/issue? * Has anyone got experience of having this survey and just how much 'stuff' comes up? Should we be as apprehensive of the process as we are? Equally would the seller (a boater of 4 years+) be expecting all this hassle? * Does anyone have any bright ideas? NOTE Insurers we have tried and failed with so far: Compare-boat-insurance (23 insurers on the panel) Craft Insure Insure My.co.uk Insure4boats GJW Collidge (although awaiting details of exactly what "survey" they require but fully expect the answer to be "full" Haven Knox Towergate Y Yachts/Topsail WG Yachts Navigators & General (Zurich) All genuinely helpful suggestions gratefully received!!