Boat Storage Insurance FAQ: Meeting Policy Conditions
Answers about meeting boat insurance storage conditions for marinas, swing moorings, hardstand and trailers. Record inspections and check weather precautions.
By Gabriel9 questions1 step-by-stepLast reviewed
Where the boat sits when you are not aboard drives both the premium and a set of conditions you carry continuously. Most of those conditions are about inspection and securing, and most are easy to satisfy and easy to forget.
These answers cover what each storage arrangement requires and how to evidence that you met it.
How do I satisfy a mooring inspection condition?
Have the mooring lifted and inspected at the interval the policy or licence states, by an operator who issues a written report, and keep the certificate with your policy documents. The inspection is worthless to a claim if it cannot be produced, and the ground chain at the block is the part that cannot be checked any other way.
Moorings fail in predictable places: the ground chain where it lies on the bottom, the swivel, the top links of the riser, and the pick-up strop that has been in the sun for years.
Swing mooring insurance covers the conditions typically applied, and mooring failure claims covers what happens when the inspection record is missing.
Covered in depth: Swing Mooring Boat Insurance Australia · Mooring Failure and Dragging Claims · Lost Anchor and Ground Tackle Claims
How do I insure a boat in a marina berth?
Declare the marina and the berth, read the berth licence for what it makes you liable for, and check your liability limit against a marina-fire scenario rather than a single-boat collision. Berth licences commonly make the boat owner responsible for damage to the berth regardless of fault.
The liability exposure in a marina is the part owners underestimate. A fire that starts aboard your vessel can involve several boats and the pontoon.
Marina berth insurance covers the arrangement, and marina fire claims covers why the liability limit matters more than the hull value there.
Covered in depth: Marina Berth Boat Insurance Australia · Marina Fire Insurance Claims · Boat Liability Insurance Australia
How do I prepare a boat for a cyclone warning?
Execute the plan you wrote before the season: move the vessel to the agreed refuge or hardstand, strip all windage, double and chafe-protect every line, and photograph the finished arrangement before you leave. Insurers test whether reasonable precautions were taken against the warnings that were actually issued.
- Write the cyclone plan before the season and agree the refuge in advance.
- Act on the warning early, before marina traffic and haul-out capacity run out.
- Remove headsails, covers, biminis, dodgers and anything else that holds wind.
- Double every line, add chafe protection at every fairlead, and set springs.
- Check the bilge pump and its battery, and secure hatches and lockers.
- Photograph the finished arrangement, dated, before you leave the boat.
Writing the plan in advance is the point. In a genuine warning there is no time to decide where the boat goes, and the marina's cyclone protocol may compel you to move it anyway.
The cyclone checklist sets out what to prepare, cyclone cover covers the policy conditions, and storm claims covers what follows.
Covered in depth: Cyclone Season Insurance Preparation Checklist · Cyclone Boat Insurance Australia · Storm and Cyclone Boat Insurance Claims Australia
How do I insure a boat stored on the hardstand?
Declare the yard and whether the vessel is in commission or laid up. A boat ashore is exposed to different risks — cradle or stand failure, yard movements, and wind loading on a hull with a keel in a cradle — and cover is often arranged as lay-up or hardstand cover with its own conditions.
Check who is responsible for the cradle and the stands, because the yard's terms and your policy may both have views about it.
Hardstand cover covers the vessel ashore and lay-up cover covers the out-of-commission period.
Covered in depth: Hardstand and Dry Storage Boat Insurance · Seasonal Lay-Up Boat Insurance Australia · Navigational Limits in Boat Insurance
How do I meet theft and security conditions on a moored boat?
Read the security conditions and comply with the specific measure named, not with something equivalent. Where a policy requires an approved outboard lock, a locked companionway, or the tender lifted overnight, the claim is assessed against that requirement — and 'I secured it another way' is not the same answer.
Record serial numbers for the outboard, the electronics and the tender, and store them ashore. Police recover stolen marine equipment regularly and cannot return what cannot be identified.
Outboard theft and tender theft cover the conditions that most often decide these claims.
Covered in depth: Outboard Motor Theft Claims · Tender and Dinghy Theft Claims · Tender and Outboard Insurance Australia
How do I protect a boat that lives on shore power?
Fit a galvanic isolator or an isolation transformer, inspect the shore lead and inlet regularly, and check the anodes far more often than you would otherwise. Shore power is the route by which most electrical damage reaches a moored boat, and the slow version — stray-current corrosion — is excluded as gradual deterioration.
Discoloured or pitted pins on a shore lead mean replacement, not cleaning. A failed connector is a fire source as well as an electrical one.
Shore power surge claims covers the distinction between sudden surge and gradual corrosion, and marina fire claims covers the fire exposure.
Covered in depth: Shore Power Surge and Electrical Damage Claims · Marina Fire Insurance Claims · Saildrive Failure Insurance Claims
How do I insure a boat on a trailer while towing it?
Check that the policy covers road transit and read the conditions: towing vehicle requirements, the trailer's registration and condition, and how the boat must be secured. Road transit damage is a distinct cover from on-water loss, and a boat damaged behind the car is not automatically a marine claim.
Check also how the trailer itself is insured, since some policies cover the vessel but not the trailer, and the car's policy will not usually cover either.
Road transit cover covers towing, and trailer sailer insurance covers the vessel type.
Covered in depth: Trailer and Road Transit Boat Insurance Australia · Trailer Sailer Insurance Australia · Boat Theft Insurance Claims Australia
How do I lay a boat up for a season properly?
Declare the lay-up period, comply with the conditions attached to it, and do not use the boat during it. A declared lay-up usually requires the vessel to be out of commission, often ashore, with specified securing — and using it inside the declared period can suspend cover entirely.
The saving is real, but it only suits a boat that genuinely stops. Owners who might take a fine winter weekend should not declare a lay-up.
Lay-up cover covers how it is declared and hardstand cover covers the storage itself.
Covered in depth: Seasonal Lay-Up Boat Insurance Australia · Hardstand and Dry Storage Boat Insurance · Boat Insurance Renewal: Value, Use and Policy Checks
How do I reduce the chance of a fire aboard?
Stop charging lithium batteries unattended, keep shore-power leads and connectors in good condition, service the gas system on schedule, and keep the engine bay clean and free of fuel leaks. Those four account for most recreational marina fires, and all four are routinely the subject of policy conditions.
Lithium systems are the current focus of Australian marine underwriting, and conditions about who installed a system and to what standard are increasingly common. E-bikes and scooters charging aboard are the version of this owners overlook.
Lithium battery cover, fire and lithium claims and marina fire claims cover the exposure.
Covered in depth: Lithium Battery Boat Insurance Australia · Boat Fire and Lithium Battery Insurance Claims · Marina Fire Insurance Claims