Boat Insurance through Global Marine Insurance

Hello Friends,
In the past years I have had boat insurance coverage with Zurich or Chubb insurance companies. With our previous Carver 25 I had to make some claims that were promptly covered by both of these companies at separate times. I'm up for renewal with Chubb on our 2018 RT31 CB and there was a minor increase.
Last August there was a Ranger rendezvous in Charlevoix Michigan, on the Great Lakes. A representative of Global Marine insurance gave a very interesting presentation regarding adequate marine coverage of a boat. Remembering that presentation, I called Global Marine to give me an identical quote to my present one with Chubb. The quote I received was 50% lower than my existing renewal. The company being quoted is Markel American Insurance Co., Markel American Yacht Insurance.
Have any of you had any experience with Global Marine Insurance or Markel American Insurance Co.? Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Sonny

I can't help to say I have experience because I don't. I'm boat shopping. As I shop and trying to nail down various costs I have opened articles and posts on various other boards on insurance. The names I see most often recommended are Global and Boat US / Geico. Some marine specialist brokers too, who often use Travelers (but this avenue seems more rare).

I am interested to hear your real-life quote from Global though. Please PM me if you'd rather not post a number.

I have been a State Farm customer for almost 30 years. Asked for a quote for my new boat and they said $1600/yr.
Went though BoatUS (partnered with Geico) and they quoted me $650 for the exact same coverage. Agreed Coverage of 130k. 500k limits. I went ahead with the policy from BoatUS.

Makes me question my State Farm loyalty.
My State Farm agent was speechless. Shop around. I called 4 places, no one could touch BoatUS.

I had been insured with State Farm for about 49 years, worked for them for four years after I got out of the service, and had a boat insured there since 1976. I guess that also made me a loyal customer. Almost 3 years ago, I decided to shop rates when they quoted me about $1,250 for stated value on the R25 we purchased. BOAT US (Geico) quoted me 45% less for the same coverage. Add in the premium towing and road service for trailering, and it was a short way to that decision. One tow off the lake could pay a couple of year's premiums. I have not had a claim, but I have seen that BOAT US is highly rated, with higher amounts of incidental coverage such as pollution cleanup after a loss. .
State Farm has been a good company and should be competitive as a mutual company, but they appear to have gone off the target on marine underwriting. Also their agents do not have much experience with marine coverage, at least in my experience.
You may find it interesting that my son is a professional captain (private yachts) that are highly insured, yet he carries the premium BOAT US towing coverage for himself, on whatever he happens to be piloting at the time, because of their excellent reputation and coverage.

I just recently purchased a new Ranger R23, haven't even picked it up yet. I had my eyes opened to the differences between auto insurance and marine insurance. I was trying to stick with what I knew already about insurance. Make it simple, right? So I thought anyway. All of the quotes I received on-line were very reasonable and quite comparable to each other, i.e.; State Farm, Geico, Progressive, etc..

Then came time to give them the HIN information (to finalize a policy) which tells them all the specifics to the boat. Remember, I was trying to keep it simple? LOL. Keep the same coverage as my previous boat, just carry them over to the new boat. Suddenly the price went up by about 40% from the on-line quote.

Come to find out that your deductibles can vary greatly from the ones offered on an auto policy. My auto always offered deductibles of $250, $500 or $1000. You can ask for these and they will offer them to you...as a pretty good increase in price to your Comprehensive-Collision rates.

Most of your Marine Insurance companies are basing their very reasonable rates on the 1%, 2% or 3% rule. The value of the boat (or purchase price) times either 1%, 2% or 3%. This is now your new deductible. Example: $100,000 value x 1% = $1,000 deductible, 2% + $2,000 etc.

If you have a loan on your vessel, the bank will not allow more than a 3% deductible.

My eyes are now wide open. To marine insurance anyway.

We've had Global/Markel since we bought our R27S in 2018 and found the process painless. I have subsequently shopped insurance and found that just to get a quote was sometimes a hassle I didn't nee (as described in this thread). I haven't found anybody that can produce the same coverage for the price. BTW, Markel is a Fortune 500 company.

When I got my RT-27OB I shopped insurance. BoatUS/Geico had good rates, but Global Marine/Markel was about 30% cheaper than BoatUS. I went Global, I haven't made a claim so I don't know how they do handling issues. My insurance comes up for renewal soon, so I will be making a few calls to make sure I am getting the best rates.

I have been using Global for three years. It has been going up a little each year. This year I decided to shop around. Interestingly the quotes I have received are close to half the price from Global this year, including Boat US. One difference though is the line item "Agreed Value" V "Actual Cash Value". Agreed value is what you agree on in advance of a complete loss. Actual Cash Value is what you may get with depreciation. All the competitors are quoting Actual Cash Value, which means I will be insured for less than Global. However I have been asking them for 3 days to look at the policy with some adjusted overages so I can compare apples to apples and they seem to be stalling.

This is interesting That you brought this up. We have used Gallagher Charter Lakes located in Michigan as a yacht insurance broker. The insurance company I was insured with was National Specitly Insurance Company. In December I received a notice from Gallagher that this company would no longer be offering insurance due to marketing conditions. Gallagher Charter Lakes compared apple to apple policies and I now have CHUBB. I just read the policy and was quite pleased with the additional benefits I am receiving with this new policy compared to my old policy. Examples old policy had 2500.00 tow endorsement (no deductible) Chubb $137,000.00 tow endorsement (no deductible) boat or trailer. old policy 250.00 per year for liability and replacement of the tender based on tender value of $2000.00. Chubb no charge as long as the tender is used to service the insured vessel. liability and replacement are limited to the value of the insured vessel. Temporary substitute water craft insurance. I never heard of this. If I have a insurance claim and my boat is not usable after 72hrs of the claim I have a $5000.00 allowance to charter a in like kind vessel to use until my boat is repaired. Chubb included this. 15000.00 coverage of search and rescue. Chubb included this. Operational coverage of other vessels when I or a family member is operating the vesse,l includes liability and property damage 500.00 deductible. Chubb included this. If the national weather service designates a tropical depression or storm warning hurricane warning. reimbursement cost for extra gear, anchors, fenders, lines and if needed haul out fees are covered up to 1500.00 to protect the boat with no deductible. If damage is still experienced to the boat the boat is covered requiring a deductible for repairing damage . Chubb. Surveyed value of the boat 137000.00 and trailer value is 9400.00 deductible is 1% surveyed value for boat (1370.00) trailer is 250.00. Annual premium is under $600.00, 300.00 less than previous policy. I shopped premium insurance companies and didn't get a quote less than this with the coverage I have. I have 12 month coverage because I told them we will use the boat in Florida this year and coverage in Canada and Bahamas. Because I have a trailer the boat can be in Florida during Hurricane season without additional endorsement. It is amazing how one can get just the opposite experience to another. I can't vouch for the coverage because I haven't had to use it and hope I never do. I can vouch for the professionalism and service I have reached from Gallagher Charter Lakes. A call or email about a policy question the response is immediate.

As BB Marine explains, boat insurance is a whole lot more than just basic hull coverage and deductibles. Like his Chubb policy, our Travelers Yacht insurance has all sorts of additional coverage provisions included. The differences between coverages offered by different carriers are all in the fine print of the policy.
Like a $15,000 personal contents coverage in our Travelers policy at no extra cost. That was several times more $$ coverage than Geico offered. There were many coverages included in the Travelers policy that had no coverage at all in the Geico quote. Some of you have additional unlimited towing coverage through Boat US for $159/year. I have $100,000 towing coverage with no deductible included in my Travelers policy at no extra cost.
I didn’t mind the 10% higher premium from Travelers because I felt the value and scope of the coverage plus the lower deductibles justified the extra $6/month in cost.

We’ve been with Global for 6 or so years and have been happy. We changed, within Global, to Geico last spring. We did so because we had planned to go to the Abacos n the Geico policy covers that area for no additional costs. We have agreed value. The Geico thru Global, I was told, is the same as the Geico thru BOATUS. My policy includes the basic BOATUS towing.

Jim F

We financed our 2019 R27 w/USAA, who recommended Markel/Global Marine for our Ins.
Glad we took them up on it. Good rates and service (no claims, thankfully). Nobody then or since (Boat US/GEICO, Progressive or others) quoted us much more competitive rates, even considering our 2d-year increase (12%).

We have been with Global out of Traverse City for over 20 years.
First, there customer service is beyond exceptional.
We have had a few claims over that period of time and they have been paid fast and more than fair.

As for price they have always been either very close to the lowest or the lowest for comparable coverage.

Boat/yacht ins has changed a lot over the last 20 years, with may companies dropping out of the market or companies consolidating. Global has always made the coverage of our boats seem less and hassle free.

One surprise (a good one) was when we bought our 2016 C30S our coverage over doubled from our 2016 40’ motor yacht but the premium went down by over 30%. I guess newer boats exhibit less risk.

So all that said we are very happy with Global Marine.

I made an error in my post. Our old 40’ boat was a 1996 not 2016. Sorry

I have Markel through Global. Last year I was hit by an uninsured boater that did $100K worth of damage to my boat. Markel covered the loss minus my deductible. Couldn’t be happier with how they handled the claim.

Hi All,

Thank you for all the information you offered since I posted my comments. Update: I replaced my Chubb policy at $1368.00 per year with Markel insurance through Global marine for $713.00. Identical coverage plus Ranger Tug incentives that Markel is offering at no additional charges. The person I dealt with at Global was very knowledgeable and responsive.

Sonny

I just had Global Marine (Chubb) do a quote for me. Came in just over $1,200, with a $2,500 deductible. That is including the trailer. That is one-third less than Boat US and HALF the deductible. Yes, Boat US had me at a $5,000 deductible.

This is for my 2017 R31CB and trailer, 12 months in the water. Agreed upon value for both companies is $252,00 and trailer $8200. $1,500 towing, $500,000 liability.

Thought it might be good to share actual numbers.

Bobby

I was a PPP (Professional Policy Peddler) for 32 years in WV until recently selling my offices and retiring to the coast of NC for the life of leisure in my Ranger 25.

As someone that functioned within the industry, I humbly offer three suggestions:

1) ALWAYS research the A.M. Best rating before purchasing a policy. Anything less than a solid "A" is unacceptable.

2) Shop your policy every couple of years. The trend in the industry is to offer "introductory" pricing that is designed to price creep over the years.

3) When researching, remember the old insurance saying, "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away".
Read carefully and ask questions often.

Sam Baker
Lake Norman NC & Ocean Isle Beach NC

2) Shop your policy every couple of years. The trend in the industry is to offer "introductory" pricing that is designed to price creep over the years.

Click to expand...

First year increase from BoatUS/Geico of 14% got me to call Global Marine. They replied quickly with a quote that was slight higher than BoatUS after the increase, ~$80 higher. Hence, I'll renew with BoatUS, but, keep Global Marine in mind should I have any future issues.

We just renewed with Markel American thru USAA Agency at $749/yr. ('19 R27 LE O/B).
Our renewal rates with Markel seemed high (11% increase) and over 3 seasons increased from $710 initially, to $849 then to $964, so we called to 'negotiate' -or go shopping for a better deal.
BUT the very helpful Agent found we had not reported "Seasonal use" only (vs. 12 mos. in-water) and the renewal rates dropped from $964 to $749 for same coverages: 2% deductible, $10k Personal effects ($250 Ded.), $500k UIW and Liability, $200k Agreed Value, plus towing and Rental at $2.5k each included.
(Vs. US Boat/Geico $669 -but lower coverages, Cash Value only) so still quite competitive and a great Co. to work with.