Charter Insurance

[Wasabi]

Another current thread touched on the matter of Charter Insurance. Rather than hijack that thread I started another one.

Insurance sucks, unless you need it. Boat Insurance seems to suck even more. And Charter Insurance is just the next step.

I have Charter Coverage from NE Florida to the Bahamas, across the Gulf Stream and the Yucatan Straits into the Caribe, to Mexico and along the Mexico Coast. I have an older boat. An '82 Blackfin. I was amazed to find that the whole package was less than BoatUSA was wanting to cover only the NE Coast of Florida, without the Charter Coverage.

My coverage is through one of the Lloyds of London companies.

One of the things I learned while running a hunting operation, was to get a Release of Liability from every single hunter. I do the same thing for the boat for the same reasons.

The good news is that because I use a form approved by my insurance company, it saves me a little bit.

I am curious whether any of you other charter guys do this ? There are those who will try to tell you that these release forms are no good but that's not true. It's true you can still be sued. Nothing can stop that. But it will get thrown out unless the plaintiff can prove some pretty serious fraud. In normal cases that just doesn't happen and the release forms hold up.

Maybe this info will help someone out there.

[neilinov]

I hate insurance, but if you want to be in business and still own anything at the end of the day it is a requirement. The one thing that most of these illegal operations can undercut on price is the fact that they are uninsured. It is amazing that people will hire someone who doesn't have insurance just because they are cheap.

In my business we are on a wide range of boats and do a lot of different things for people. We not only carry charter insurance but also carry Care, Custody and Control insurance. It is expensive, but you never know what can happen and I would rather have the owner of the boat know that if the unexpected accident does happen my company is fully insured. We charge accodingly for our services and we are a professional company. It just astounds me that people would trust their boat into the hands of un-licensed, un-insured, and basically un-professional crews. They may save a few dollars here, but what if the unexpected does happen. Chances are that the guy who is undercutting doesn't have the cash to replace your boat, and I doubt that any boat policy covers anyone other than yourself as the operator.

[magicdragon]

You just can't operate without insurance unless your willing to take a chance on losing everything you own. One point I would like to make is establish a corporation and have the boat owned by the corp. If the boat is not owned by the corp a plantif can not only file suit against the corp but also the boat owner. Some guys buy a boat and never put it under the corp shell