Can anyone reccommend an insurance company with reasonable rates for Florida based boats? I have received quotes from a few different companies and they are all over the map. Has anyone shopped around for yacht insurance in FL and found a good deal? Thank you in advance for any help. Vessel: 1979 Hatteras 43 Convertible
Boat US sees pretty reasonable and they don't mind me keeping the boat in Florida year round AND they insure older boats, mine is a 1979..
We use Max Marine (not Marine Max) St. James City on Pine Island in SW Florida. Ask for Mikki. 877-862-4280. They got us great prices for two years now. When we switched to them, we saved over $2,000 the first year. Ken
A lot of the boats I run in SoFla are insured by Zurich, I'd imagine that has something to do with the rates.
The result was that to insure a 1979 model boat for a mere $50,000 would cost between $2500 and $3000 a year. I got about 5 quotes from big name and small insurers and they all said the same thing...30 year old boats, Hatteras or not are going to cost you to insure. I decided if I was going to spend $3000 a year on insurance I should step up and buy a newer boat. I can insure a 5-10 year old $150,000 boat for the same money. It doesn't make much sense to me, I believe a well maintained 30 year old Hatteras is less of a risk than a 5-10 year old Bayliner or Sea Ray. But, the insurance companies don't agree. Anyway, I passed on the boat due to this issue. I was on the fence as to whether to go uninsured or not. I decided $50,000 was still too much to have in an uninsured boat, and $3000 a year was too much to spend to insure it. Bottom line, old boats, no matter the condition are expensive to insure, at least in Florida. Full disclosure...I am a licensed 200 ton master with zero insurance claims, I qualified for all available discounts.
Can't speak about older boats But we got the best rate by far from Boat US. One key is where you have the boat durring the summer. Some wanted as much as a 10% deductible for named storms.
That was my problem. I want to keep the boat in FL year round. I live in N. Florida which is by far safer than S. Fl but it did not make a whole lot of difference.Boat Us was one of the highest quotes that I got due to their policy on older boats.