HANHAM INSURANCE AGENCY

Easy Tips To Lower Your Yacht Premium Every Year

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Below are the factors that affect a yacht owner’s insurance premium. Read below for some tips on how to lower your yacht insurance premium this year. The more your yacht insurance broker knows about the following factors, the better they can negotiate for you.

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1. Owner Experience

2. Yacht Details

3. Cruising Area or Plan

4. Hurricane Plan

5. Survey

6. Claims

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1. Owner Experience

One of the strongest factors in an underwriter’s decision to insure a yacht or not and at what premium, is the yacht owner’s ownership and operating experience. The longer that someone has owned and operated boats, the more likely that an underwriter is to charge a lower premium.

 

Ownership and operating experience also includes courses taken, qualifications, claims history, and any other relevant information that pertains to experience on boats.

 

Tip to get the lowest possible premium:

 

Be Thorough. When applying for yacht insurance, tell your broker as much as possible about your boating experience. If you have owned previous boats, then send your broker a list of the boats and how long you have owned them, as well as any and all courses or qualifications. If you really want to lower your premium, create a CV that shows your boating history. This shows that you are serious and professional. Similar to a job interview, show off your skills! Click here for our operator experience form.

 

If you are planning on hiring a delivery captain or training captain to familiarize yourself with the yacht, then tell your broker as this will also help to lower your premium.

 

The more your broker knows about you and your experience, the better they can negotiate for you, so don’t hold back.

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2. Yacht Details

When you are applying for insurance, you will of course need to tell your broker the yacht specifications, which are usually standard, but the more you can tell your broker about things that make your yacht safe, the better they will be able to negotiate for you. 

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Tip to get the lowest possible premium:

 

- If your yacht has recently undergone a refit, upgrade, rigging replacement, or anything that makes it able to better operate, tell your insurance broker.

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- If your yacht has any of the following safety equipment, tell your broker.

 

• Offshore Life Raft

• EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon)

• Fire Alarm System

• Automatic Fire Extinguishing System​

• Anti Theft System

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If you feel that there is any additional information that makes your yacht stand out as a safer risk to insure, then tell your broker. Remember, the more your yacht insurance broker knows, the better they can negotiate for you.

 

 

3. Cruising Area and Plan

One of the largest factors that an underwriter takes into account when deciding what premium to charge is where the yacht will be kept, as well as where the yacht will cruise and when. The more specific you can be about your navigational plan, the more accurate of a yacht insurance premium you can achieve.

 

Yacht underwriters usually give premium discounts if you are within certain geographical parameters during certain times of the year. For example, if you are above 30.5 degrees north latitude during hurricane season, then you can usually cut your premium in half.

 

Be sure to tell your broker as much about your plans and if you are unsure about where you will be, be sure to ask him to quote you with navigational limit options.

 

** A good yacht insurance broker will work with you to give you options as well as advice. 

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4. Hurricane Plan

If you plan on keeping your yacht in a Hurricane zone during hurricane season, then we would strongly recommend creating a hurricane plan. This not only demonstrates to underwriters that you are a safe, forward thinking yacht owner, but it also allows him to know that in the event of a hurricane, that the yacht will be safe. This in turn will almost always lower your premium.

 

Create a thorough hurricane plan and send it to your yacht insurance broker. The yacht insurance broker will show the plan to underwriters, which will benefit you.

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5. Survey

A survey shows the current condition of a yacht. If an underwriter can see that the yacht is in good condition, then he will be able to confidently charge you a lower premium.

 

Although you don’t usually need a survey often, if you get a survey every 4 years, you will usually save the money that you spent on the survey in premium.

 

 

6. Claims

Yacht insurance claims happen. That is why yacht owners pay for insurance. If you have had a claim recently, then tell the broker as much about it as possible. The more an yacht insurance underwriter knows about a claim, the more he can understand what happened, and that can have a lowering effect on your insurance premium.