Port Risk Insurance

[mikfin]

My insurance company (Nat'l Marine Underwriters) is dropping me due to the age and location of my boat ('73 Hat in Florida). I nees port risk insurance until I finish doing a large refurbishing and refit on the boat in Cape Canaveral. Does anyone have the names for companies that insure boats in the middle of a teardown in the yard in Florida?

Thanks,

Mike

[Jaxfishgyd]

I have my 73' Hatt insured by W.R. Hodens Marine Insurance,Inc in Fl Lauderdale....(800-990-9283).

[NAN-PO 41]

Hagerty Insurance wrote a port policy on my 1966 41'tc while it was on the hard in Mass. and added navigation after survey in the spring. I know that they were writing policies down south in the past. Don't know about now. They write a lot of antique and classic boats and offer a discount (10%) if you join the Antique and Classic Boat Society. Hagerty tel # is 800-762-2628 or WWW.HAGERTY.COM. So far they have been really easy to deal with. (no price increase or decrease in coverage this past year)
Good Luck, Fred

[ThirdHatt]

Mikfin,

I purchased a new NMU policy on my 1973 Hatt and they were fine with the age, just not the state of Florida. Although Florida gave me 90 days to get it out of their state before they would hold me responsible for sales tax on the purchase price of my boat, NMU would only give me 30 days to get it out of FL.

I tried like heck to buy a Port Risk policy to cover me for the several weeks my boat sat in the yard while I was working on it with no luck. If you have a current (<1 yr old) survey you may have better luck. It is hard to find companies that will bind a Port Risk policy because they cannot make enough premium to justify the risk, from what several potential insurers told me. Apparently they have had to pay claims from welding and such that goes on while a boat is having a refit and fires happen, often engulfing other boats nearby in the yard. I explained that my boat was fiberglass and even offered to sign a "no welding" clause, but to no avail. I was more worried about a potential hurricane coming along and knocking my boat off the stands and possibly tumbling into the 118' Millenium that was 30' away!

I had to buy my boat without insurance because I could not get my survey completed until the work was complete. I was VERY careful to shut off all electricity when I was not on the boat and PRAYED that no hurricane came. I actually went back in the water and stayed tied to the yard's dock for several days without insurance and had one heck of a scare that could have been financially catastrophic for me (story posted under "bilge pumps" thread on this forum). The yard did tell me that anyone in the yard when a named hurricane comes in the area automatically pays a $40/ft "fee" for insurance, but I never got it clear if it protected me and my boat or damages my boat did to the yard or other boats in the yard. Luckily I never had to pay or find out!