How a boat insurance claim works

On the water, first

People before property, and the maritime obligations before either — accounting for everyone aboard, assisting others in danger, and calling for help where it is needed.

Where an incident involves injury, another vessel, or a discharge into the water, there are usually reporting obligations to an authority that are entirely separate from telling your insurer, and the timescales on them can be short. Establish who has to be told locally rather than assuming the insurer covers it.

If the vessel is taking on water or in danger, a decision about accepting assistance may have to be made quickly, and whether that assistance is a tow or a salvage has consequences worth understanding in advance.

Mitigation is a policy duty

Policies generally require the insured to take reasonable steps to prevent further loss, and reasonable costs of doing so are usually covered.

On a boat this is unusually active: pumping, plugging, hauling out, moving the vessel somewhere safer, drying and rinsing electronics and engines that have been in salt water, and getting a damaged rig secured before it does more harm.

Doing nothing and waiting for an adjuster is generally the wrong answer and can prejudice the claim. Do what is reasonable, keep the receipts, and photograph the state of things before you change it.

Reporting, and what to have ready

Report promptly, before repairs beyond mitigation begin. Policies commonly require notice within a reasonable period and can require the insurer's agreement before substantial work.

• What happened, where, and when — with position and conditions if under way
• Photographs and video, taken before anything is moved or cleaned up
• Details of any other vessel, its operator, and its insurer
• Names and contact details of anyone aboard or anyone who saw it
• Any report made to an authority, and its reference
• The declarations page, and the survey if there is one

The surveyor, and the assessment

Marine claims of any size are commonly assessed by a surveyor appointed by the insurer, who establishes what happened, what the damage is, and what caused it.

Cause matters more here than on most claims, because the boundary between a covered peril and excluded wear is exactly where marine claims are decided. A failure that began as a perished hose is a different claim from the same water arriving through a hole.

Repair estimates usually come from yards rather than from the owner, and the insurer may want more than one. Keeping the vessel available and the damage undisturbed until this happens is part of the process.

Total loss, salvage and what follows

Where the vessel is a total loss, settlement follows the policy's basis — the agreed figure, or the depreciated value — and the insurer generally takes title to what remains.

That does not necessarily end the owner's exposure. If a wreck still has to be removed or a discharge dealt with, those are separate sections of the policy responding to separate obligations.

Expect the claim to affect renewal, and expect a survey to be part of the conversation afterwards on a vessel that has had substantial repairs.