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Happy with your insurance?

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Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 03/07/2011 : 15:09:42

Sorry your experience was bad, but I really have no affiliation with them other than that they have done well by for me for a long time. our agent just retired (like since this thread started) so I am leery of what service wil be like with teh guy our file was transferred to, but through a written off car, adn a boat repair, they have treated us well. No other major claims so far though.

I think insurance laws, and therefore corporate structure, and culture can vary wildly from country to country and even between jurisdictions (provincially - stately(?)). So your experience may be very different from mine simply because of how the business is controlled.

Again I speak with no authority, just going on a stream of consciousness.

Edited by - on

pastmember
Master Marine Consultant

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2402 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2011 : 10:00:34

Carlos, if you are not protecting your boat from Ice then why should the rest of us pay for your damage. I would say an ice damage exclusion should be standard in a policy. I have been with State Farm for 40 years and they have paid very well. They totaled a Hobie based on a photo and sent the check the same day. Seems like you have unrealistic expectations of insurance. Of course you can insure anything for the right amount of money.

Edited by - on

calden
Navigator

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USA
194 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2011 : 11:39:07

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by pastmember
 Carlos, if you are not protecting your boat from Ice then why should the rest of us pay for your damage. I would say an ice damage exclusion should be standard in a policy. I have been with State Farm for 40 years and they have paid very well. They totaled a Hobie based on a photo and sent the check the same day. Seems like you have unrealistic expectations of insurance. Of course you can insure anything for the right amount of money.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I think you misread me. I protect my boat as well as anyone else's in my marina, and better than many. I had new seacocks installed and maintain it well. I am not trying to insure a piece of floating junk.

The kind of damage I am talking about is from a sudden snowstorm, say, that freezes up the scuppers then suddenly melts and more water collects, and getting there would be impossible due to the weather. I am not asking anyone else to pay for the damage, just the insurance company. Yes, yes, I know that means other people's premiums as well as my own, but that's the insurance biz, no? I pay for other people's claims just by paying premiums.

I insure my boat for large, catastrophic damage. A freak winter storm that has the potential to send my boat to Davey Jones is such a thing in my mind. All I want is some kind of assurance that I can replace my toy if such a thing would occur.

In general I have been fine with State Farm Insurance. I referred to my agent's ignorance of the policy. I was talking to him about possibly insuring extra for the cost of raising the boat from the bottom if it should sink, and I mentioned ice damage as a potential cause. This should have sparked something in his brain about the ice damage sinking exclusion. He was not doing his job.

Carlos

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NautiC25
Admiral

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USA
957 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2011 : 11:47:43

You learned the same way I did. Don't rely on a $7/hr phone operator. Read the policy!

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NautiC25
Admiral

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USA
957 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2011 : 13:01:54

Hahahahaha, insurance = socialism! We all pay into it.

Edited by - NautiC25 on 03/08/2011 13:05:27

calden
Navigator

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USA
194 Posts

Response Posted - 03/09/2011 : 08:10:21

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by NautiC25
 You learned the same way I did. Don't rely on a $7/hr phone operator. Read the policy!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yeah, that's exactly my point! This was from the agent I had been working with since 1993 for our home and auto insurance in an office. It's the way I like to do business - locally with a name and face and handshake. But you bet I will double check everything from now on.

Carlos

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Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 03/09/2011 : 10:19:23

Calden, where are you located, adn is the boat in water year round?

That likely makes a big difference on this issue. For me to have these issues, I would have to leave teh boat untarped in the driveway, have leafs block teh scuppers, and not clear snow/ice out of the cockpit all winter. Basically be negligent. I wouldn't expect my policy to cover that.

This also raises the question of whether the situation lends itself to a technological cure. Does anyone keep somethign like the gutter-wire http://www.snowmeltcables.com/ in their cockpit to melt snow/ice if they are away from an untarped boat through the winter? Is there technology out there for this situation?

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calden
Navigator

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USA
194 Posts

Response Posted - 03/09/2011 : 10:43:47

Prospector:

I'm quite far up in North Idaho and the boat is in the water year-round. I have it tarped over most of the cockpit. The lake does not freeze over MOST years, even at the shore. Some boats are a little better protected than mine with a full custom canvas cover over everything, many boats are covered just like mine, a great many are covered even less well, and many have no covers. I don't recall of hearing any sinkings due to ice in my marina. This is not negligence.

It would help to have an ice bubbler, but I am not at a powered slip. Most boats there don't have one anyway. Let me restate that I want insurance for the very slim chance of a weather catastrophe that would lead to a possible sinking.

Carlos

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 03/09/2011 : 11:52:29

Yeah - the guys who keep their boats in all winter up here (Toronto) have bubblers or Ice eaters, and full enclosures. Look really comfy. You are further North than I am, but in a far different climate. I can't speak at all to your situation.

I think that you have done everyone a service by pointing out that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to insurance is less than ideal, and that it would do us all well to read our policies sometime between now and spring thaw.

The only insurance surprise I have had was when my daughter broker her leg while we were cruising. Our policies (work, home, life) covered her medical expenses but not things like food and hotel rooms, somethign I assumed we had coverage for. It was pointed out to me by a member here that what I saved in premiums likely covered our stay three times over.

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calden
Navigator

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USA
194 Posts

Response Posted - 03/09/2011 : 12:56:11

Toronto! I grew up in Buffalo, used to skip school and head for the big city for the day. Love Toronto. Spent many a summer weekend at Sherkston on Lake Erie.

Yes, I'm further north. We get intense cold spells but the warmed ocean fronts from the Pacific push in and ameliorate the cold. Plus my lake is deep deep deep and rarely freezes over, even a crust.

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