Boat Insurance? Who needs it...

Well, we here on Hello World do indeed like it. We've known two, yes two, boats that have gone down in the short time we've been on this cruise. One hit a whale off the coast of Ensenada and sank in 5 minutes and one ran aground and subsequently burned to the waterline. Jason likes big anchor tackle to sleep well at night. I prefer insurance.

I've been meaning for the past year to leave our current insurance agent and find one that I like better. I won't slander here, but if anyone is out there looking for a blue water insurance agent, let me know and I'll tell you who I don't recommend. Now that we've met lots of other boats out cruising, we've got a few recommendations and I've found an agent (Pantaenius) that came highly recommended and I'm very happy with the policy. Since HW is our first boat, we took whatever we could get for the first 2 years, but this new policy has a few additions to our current policy that I'm very pleased with:

• Liability went from 300k to 500k


• Towing coverage went from 1500 to 5k


• Medical coverage from 10k to 25k


• An inspection after grounding is covered with no deductible


• Nav limits are increase to 15-52N and out to 225nm offshore


• Living expenses are covered up to 5k if the boat is getting repairs covered by insurance (great since we live aboard)

The premium is about $100 higher than our current policy, but it seems worth the price. Now we just need to steer around those pesky whales...