Ownership
Skipper qualifications and experience questions
- Years of boating experience, and years on vessels of comparable size and type.
- Recognised qualifications — a coastal or offshore certificate, a commercial ticket, a sea-safety course.
- Longest passage completed, and whether it was offshore or overnight.
- Experience specific to this vessel: a catamaran, a large rig, a heavy displacement boat, twin screws.
- Whether anyone else operates the boat, and their experience.
- Prior claims and prior declinatures, which are read as experience evidence too.
Limited experience and underwriting conditions
| Insurer response | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Higher rate | Priced, not restricted — the usual outcome |
| Additional excess | A separate excess applies to inexperienced operators |
| Named operator condition | Only listed people may helm |
| Qualified-skipper condition | An experienced skipper must be aboard, initially or for stated passages |
| Handover requirement | A period with the previous owner or an instructor |
| Narrowed navigation limits | Coastal only until experience is demonstrated |
| Declinature | Usually where the step up in vessel size is very large |
Keeping a sailing experience record
- Keep a passage log: date, vessel, skipper or crew, distance, conditions, hours.
- Complete a recognised qualification appropriate to the vessel and the waters.
- Log time on the specific configuration — multihull, large rig, twin engines — if you are moving to one.
- Record any formal handover or instruction with the previous owner.
- Keep the certificates somewhere you can send them at quote time.
Other operators and named skippers
Operator conditions apply to every person who helms, not only to you. Lending the boat, taking crew for a delivery, or sharing it within a syndicate all engage the operator definition, and this is a question to resolve before someone else steers rather than after an incident. Check whether your policy covers anyone operating with your consent or only named individuals meeting stated criteria.
Condition is what decides marine claims
Almost every declined marine claim is an argument that a failure was gradual rather than sudden. The records you keep are what answers it.
Related guides
- Boat Insurance for Young and Inexperienced Skippers
- Boat Insurance for Experienced Skippers: Evidence and Terms
- Boat Insurance for New Owners in Australia
- Syndicate and Shared Boat Insurance Australia
- How To/Getting Insured
- How To/Cost And Saving
- Yacht Insurance When a Friend Skippers Your Boat
- Boat Insurance Underwriting: Surveys, Age and Maintenance
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.