Personal effects and equipment

Permanently attached equipment

Equipment fixed to the vessel is usually insured as part of it and settled on the same basis — agreed value or actual cash value, whichever the policy uses for the hull.

What counts as attached is less obvious than it sounds. A chartplotter at the helm generally qualifies; the same unit on a bracket that lifts out may not. Anchors, ground tackle, canvas and permanently mounted seating are usually in.

Equipment added after the policy was written is the common gap. If the insured value was set before a significant addition, the addition may not be inside it.

Personal effects

Belongings you bring aboard and take away again — clothing, phones, cameras, bags, sports equipment — are usually covered by a separate section with its own limit.

That limit is generally modest, and it frequently carries category caps inside it, so a single expensive item can be limited well below both the item's value and the section limit.

Some policies exclude belongings while the boat is unattended, or apply different terms to theft than to damage. Both are worth reading before assuming the section covers a bag left in a cockpit.

Fishing, diving and sports gear

Specialist gear frequently sits outside both of the above. Rods, reels, tackle, dive equipment, tow toys and similar are sometimes covered as an addition and sometimes not covered at all.

The value involved is easy to underestimate item by item and hard to ignore in aggregate. An inventory of what is normally aboard usually surprises the owner more than the insurer.

If the gear is a substantial part of what the boat is for, cover for it is a specific question rather than something to infer from the presence of a personal effects section.

Scheduling, and what it changes

Scheduling lists an item individually with its own agreed amount, which removes it from the category cap and generally broadens the terms it is covered on.

It is the usual answer for a single item worth more than the caps allow for — high-value electronics, a tender's outboard, dive or camera equipment.

It normally needs evidence of value, and it needs revisiting when items are replaced. A schedule that lists equipment sold two seasons ago is paying for cover on something that is not aboard.

What is usually excluded

• Cash, and often documents and tickets
• Items belonging to guests, unless the policy specifically says otherwise
• Mysterious disappearance, where the loss cannot be tied to an event
• Wear, and damage from ordinary exposure to sun, salt and damp
• Equipment being used for a commercial purpose
• Items left aboard outside the policy's storage or lay-up conditions