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.
This is the company I use for hull insurance. Liability is covered by Baja Bound.
Offshore Risk Management
A World Company
p: 305-743-7711 x2208
f: 408‑228‑8937
http://www.offshorerisk.com
Getting insurance for a boat is the absolute worst part of boat ownership! Its a nightmare. Policies are dropped without warning and for no reason. Forget hull insurance. Just get the minimum required liability insurance you can find. Make lots of phone calls. Stay away from the big guys. We were dropped by two major carriers in a matter of two years, yet had no claims! We then called a Mexico based insurer who said, sure! No problem! We switched to liability only which is required by most marinas and ports of call. Good luck!
Your problem is a common one for US residents cruising outside of the US. I cruised a 1985 Flicka 20 around the Pacific. Non-US insurers (not just Italian) all claimed they could no longer insure US residents. I cannot verify, but this made me suspect it wasn’t on their end, but something on the US end. I am also an Irish citizen (not resident), and that didn’t help.
The boat was too old and small for US insurers to touch it beyond US waters. Mexico insurance was easy while in Mexico, but mine didnt cover beyond Mexico waters. It was just liability too and inexpensive, which was fine.
I finally gave up and avoided marinas in French Polynesia and settled on being uninsurable. In the Marquesas, I did haul out, and the paperwork said I was supposed to have insurance. They didn’t check, but they likely knew because it is a common US problem. Probably a don’t ask, don’t tell scenario. Stay away from Edward Williams. I would like to know myself what your final solution is.
I purchased a 1972 Gallant 53 in Italy a few years ago and went through the same thing. I changed the flag from IT to USCG Documentation, an effort in itself, had to backdoor through Delaware. USA companies would not insure a vessel in Italy that had never been in USA. EU companies would not insure a boat in EU with foreign ownership. Big problem that I could not find a solution to without moving it to USA.