Ownership
Boat condition, value, location and use
| Question | What answers it |
|---|---|
| What is it worth? | Comparable sales, a survey valuation, a documented equipment list |
| What condition is it in? | A current survey and the rectification of its recommendations |
| How has it been looked after? | Dated invoices, a service log, photographs over time |
| Who is operating it? | Qualifications, logged passages, claims history |
Marine surveys and vessel condition
- Marine surveys: the types, choosing a surveyor, and what happens on the day.
- Pre-purchase versus insurance survey, and how to commission one that serves both.
- Insuring without a survey, and what it costs you in cover.
- Osmosis and corrosion: gradual processes, excluded, and what their presence does to your terms.
Maintenance and underwriting records
- Maintenance records: what a usable file contains, and why self-performed work still counts.
- Standing rigging, and the age condition applied at claim time rather than at inception.
- Skipper experience: what insurers ask and what evidence moves the terms.
Buying, selling and modifying boats
- Buying a used boat, and closing the gap between settlement and inception.
- Selling a boat, and why cancelling on the handshake leaves the gap on your side.
- New boats, handover, and time-limited new-for-old provisions.
- Modifications: what to declare, when, and what happens if you do not.
- Imported yachts and unregistered vessels.
Boat equipment insurance
- Marine electronics, and the fixed-versus-portable distinction that decides those claims.
- Lithium battery systems, where installation standard is now the live underwriting question.
- The tender and outboard, and the 'while attached' restriction.
- Personal effects, and why the sub-limit rarely suits a liveaboard.
Insurance eligibility for older boats
Age changes conditions more than it changes price. Past certain thresholds insurers commonly require a current survey, apply rigging-age conditions and restrict the settlement basis. The section covers boats over thirty and over forty years, what is typically required at each, and what to do when cover is declined.
Start with the survey
On any boat old enough for an insurer to ask, the survey sets the value, establishes condition and produces the recommendations that become conditions of your policy.
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Related guides
- Marine Surveys and Boat Insurance Australia
- Boat Maintenance Records and Insurance Claims
- Insuring a Boat Over 30 Years Old in Australia
- Standing Rigging Age: Insurance Replacement Conditions
- Buying a Used Boat: Insurance Australia
- Boat Insurance Declined: Why It Happens and What to Do Next
- How To/Survey And Older Boats
General information onlyThe information on sailboatinsurance.com.au is general educational information only. It may be wrong, incomplete or out of date, and you should not rely on it as a substitute for the current policy documents or professional advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and is not personal financial product advice. Insurance cover depends on the actual policy wording, Product Disclosure Statement, certificate of insurance, endorsements, exclusions, limits, sub-limits and underwriting decisions that apply to your vessel. Always read the current policy documents before buying, renewing or changing cover. For legal, financial or insurance advice about your own circumstances, consider speaking with an appropriately licensed professional.