I’ve never had boat insurance, and never needed it, in more than 30 years of cruising between Canada and the Caribbean. I’m now in Cartagena, Colombia, which is off limits to many cruisers with insurance. Frankly, I don’t know why Cartagena, which is safe, is considered an insurance problem, while Colon, which is unsafe, is not an insurance problem. And that’s one of the big problems with insurance–I don’t want to be told where to go and when to go there–particularly by some statistician based in Omaha who knows nothing about boats, boating, or me. And, why does insurance on boats cost so much. Insurance on my boat would cost a lot more than insurance on my father’s house, which is worth about 10 times what my boat is worth. The frustrating thing is that more and more marinas and more and more countries are demanding insurance, particularly third-party liability insurance. When will marine insurance companies wake up and realize there is a market for reasonably priced liability only insurance that doesn’t require frequent surveys, etc.? Sure, you can find liability only insurance, if you search hard, but it is usually costly and has a million restrictions. Why can I buy car insurance online in less than an hour, but it could take many days or weeks to secure boat insurance, and only after a full survey at an additional cost of hundreds of dollars? Of course, I don’t really want the insurance in the first place, but I’m being forced to buy it by boatyards and marinas.
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