Where Do You Get Your Foreign‑Berthed Boat Insurance?

Finding insurance for an old boat can be challenging. Add to the mix a foreign berth and it becomes even trickier. Alec Hansen of Sausalito is buying a (nearly) 60-year-old boat in Italy and is having trouble finding suitable insurance. He wrote to us, hoping the Latitude community brain trust could help him.

I’m a US sailor purchasing a 37-ft 1967 Alpa 11 in Italy (to be berthed in Palermo). This is a classic John Illingworth design, and beautifully maintained. I’m looking for hull and liability insurance suitable for a US resident with a foreign‑berthed vessel, and I’m finding that many US brokers decline due to age, low hull value and Mediterranean navigation. And Italian brokers claim that laws prohibit coverage for US citizens without official Italian residency.

If any readers have insured an older sailboat in Europe while maintaining US residency, I’d love to hear which brokers or underwriters were willing to write the policy, and what coverage structure worked for you.

Cruising area: Italy, Malta, Tunisia, France, possibly Spain and Greece. Hull value: €15,500 [approx. $18,000 USD]. Looking for: €15,500 agreed value hull plus €1M liability.

Any firsthand experience or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you. — Alec Hansen.

If you can help Alec, let us know in the comments below, or drop us a line at at [email protected] and we’ll connect you.