BASIC BOAT INSURANCE

[c c]

A comment on another thread about the Basic Boat Liability Insurance, whose service I was praising, prompted me to look at our policy. We have the motor BADSEY and also the Butty ANGEL both insured with their third party cover. BUT the policy on each does indeed state that the vessel is NOT covered when being towed.

I telephoned and asked them how I move a non-powered boat that they insured without it being towed by the other boat they insured.

After much discussion with the insurer, the underwriter telephoned back to say they would allow BADSEY to tow ANGEL on one day a year for a short journey for repairs etc.

 

If you are in the same position, can I suggest you contact them now.

[Grace and Favour]

Well done Ian - - proof indeed that it pays to read the small print - - (even if it does prove that assumptions can be dangerous!)

[c c]

I'll just add that the premium for each boat is the same despite there seeming to be a vastly differing insurance risk:

BADSEY can rush around the system non-stop all year and even tow what it likes under its own power whilst ANGEL must stay static apart from our special concession of one trip per year!

[Delta9]

[Harpur Hill]

Interesting.

 

If you take Angel for its repair/maintenance do you then have to wait 12 months before you can bring it back? (assuming the work plus journey takes longer than a day)

 

HH

[carlt]

I enquired about the same clause when I insured Lucy but I was told that because the boat was designed and built to be towed it was covered.

 

I suspect I may have got a different answer from a different person and would only have got the definitive response if a claim was made.

 

I'm glad I didn't have to test the accuracy of the advice given during the many years they provided cover for my butty.

[KarlosMacronius]

You could try writing 'tender to Badsey' on it....

[David Mack]

Towergate Mardon are the people who offer a good deal for historic boats (but not necessarily the cheapest).

 

The current policy they offer is the successor to one which Michael Stimpson arranged when he was a local insurance broker in Rickmansworth some 20 or 30 years ago. As a keen boater (in a modern boat) and active in the local IWA branch etc. he kept being asked by local historic boat owners if he could find a policy more appropriate than the yacht policies that were then offered to inland boaters. Through his contacts in the trade he got the underwriters surveyors to look over Jim McDonald's converted historic boat, Elizabeth, but without telling them that it was then over 100 years old. The surveyors concluded that provided that boats met the then new BW standards (now the BSS scheme), they did not need to impose onerous survey requirements or higher premiums for older craft.

 

Michael sold his business to Mardon Marine some years ago, and Mardon are now part of the Towergate Group. Michael continued to be employed as an advisor on canal boat insurance for some time, but I see he is no longer listed as such on their website, so he may now have retired.

 

I can't see any exclusions in relation to towing or being towed. But give them a call and ask for a quote.

 

 

[alan_fincher]

Towergate Mardon are the people who offer a good deal for historic boats (but not necessarily the cheapest).

 

The current policy they offer is the successor to one which Michael Stimpson arranged when he was a local insurance broker in Rickmansworth some 20 or 30 years ago. As a keen boater (in a modern boat) and active in the local IWA branch etc. he kept being asked by local historic boat owners if he could find a policy more appropriate than the yacht policies that were then offered to inland boaters. Through his contacts in the trade he got the underwriters surveyors to look over Jim McDonald's converted historic boat, Elizabeth, but without telling them that it was then over 100 years old. The surveyors concluded that provided that boats met the then new BW standards (now the BSS scheme), they did not need to impose onerous survey requirements or higher premiums for older craft.

 

Michael sold his business to Mardon Marine some years ago, and Mardon are now part of the Towergate Group. Michael continued to be employed as an advisor on canal boat insurance for some time, but I see he is no longer listed as such on their website, so he may now have retired.

 

From a conversation not that long ago, Michael Stimpson was still involved with Towergate Mardon then.

 

However my understanding was that Towergate Mardon will only insure historic boats where there is a hull survey recent enough to convince them, (I think it may have been at least every 5 years, but may have that slightly wrong).

 

I know nothing specifically about butty insurance, but insurance of any "historic" seems to be less than straightforward, unless you have it surveyed regularly, which clearly costs a fair bit, even if incorporated with pulling it out for blacking.

 

EDIT:

 

Sorry - looking at this again, it started with CanalChef talking presumably about just a minimalistic level of cover, but David's post is about Towergate Mardon, and I'm not sure if they do a basic minimalistic insurance or not - probably not, I think?

 

I now realise my chipping in may be further confusing things!

Edited September 18, 2014 by alan_fincher