87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

[ninhalo5]

Hi guys, I need some help.

My insurance company sent me this "Required" Survey to fill out and there are some questions out of the 100,000 they are asking, that I have no clue on what they are talking about or if it even relates to my boat.
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out with this. Listed below are the questions they are asking and my comments in parenthesis.

Thanks a lot


Fuel System:

1. Fuel deck fill properly grounded and labeled with fuel type (Should there be a ground strap or something attached to the neck?)

2. Fuel shut-off valve at tank - also engine if in separate compartment (No idea)

3. Do all fuels drain overboard in the event of an accidental overflow (Umm, where else would it go?)

4. If fuel filter has a bowl, is it made of metal (I think it's just a canister type)

5. Is the blower suction hose free of holes, unnecessary bends, and positioned to draw air from the lowest spot in the bilge, but above normal bilge waters? (Uhh what??)

Thru-Hulls and Hose:

1. Are all below waterline thru-hull fittings equipped with shut off valves? (Are these those round holes under my live wells?)

2. Are shut-off valves in good working order? (Dunno if I have any and if I do, how would I test it?)

3. Are all thru-hulls free of any restrictions such as barnacles, marine growth? (I'm sure that's not an issue, but Spiders... Spiders maybe. Again if these are the round ports/hole under the live wells, how would I check? The floor of the boat covers them)

4. Are all hoses connected with a double hose clamp? (All my hoses seem to run under the floor, how the heck would I know?)

5. Are cockpit drains and scuppers watertight to the hull? (???)

6. Is the engine's raw water strainer free of debris? (Is that the fuel/water separator?)

Electrical:

1. Is there only one splice in any length of wire? (They're joking right?!?)

 

[JoLin]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

Who's the company? I'm on my 4th policy (BoatUS) and never had to answer all this stuff. Also, is the boat an outboard or I/O? It makes a difference in questions related to whether the engine resides inside the hull.

Fuel:

1. There should be a (green) wire attached to the underside of the fill fitting that runs to the flange of the fuel sender at the tank.
2. To be honest I've never had a boat that had a shutoff valve at the tank or motor.
3. Yes, it'd flow overboard unless you had some funky setup where the fuel fill is inside the boat.
4. No idea. 'I' would mark it 'N/A' and let them com e back to me on it.
5. This one is easy... Does the boat have a bilge blower? If it does, is the hose free of obstruction, and routed so it'll suck out fumes instead of being mounted so low that it sucks bilge water?

Thru- Hulls

1. My boat has 2 thru-hulls- one is the bilge drain/garboard plug. The other is the intake for my A/C and head. I don't know if livewells are what they're asking about. Ask them.
2. You test a shutoff valve by opening it and seeing if water comes into the boat, then closing it and seeing that water doesn't come into the boat.
3. Same as 2. Poke them from the outside and dig out any crud you find.
4. All your hoses terminate somewhere. That's where you check for clamps.
5. C'mon guy... is everything well sealed, or is caulking old, cracked and separating? This is an eyeball judgement unless you see a leak.
6. Applies to Inboard only. Not I/O or outboard.

Electrical

1. No, they aren't joking. They're an insurance company.

 

[ninhalo5]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

Thank you, that helps a lot.

I'm not sure what a bilge blower is, (is that the thing you turn on for like 5 minutes before you start the boat so it dont explode?) my engine is an outboard so I would imagine that would be irrelevant.

For my thru-hulls, I have 2 round white ports ( look like little donuts) on both sides of the boat bottom and I have 2 blue ones on the rear upper side of the boat. The blue ones I know have clear hoses attached to them, but no clue about the bottom ones, nor do I know how they operate and if there are shut offs attached. This was one of those things I questioned myself about a few weeks ago... With 2 ports at the bottom of the boat, what keeps water from entering the boat. It would seem there would have to be a valve to prevent that from happening or the live wells or whatever would over flow.



As for leaks, I have no idea and won't until I get her in the water. I primarily needed the insurance in case a tree falls on it or some dummy decides to climb up on my trailer slips and cuts his leg open.

Thanks again

Oh yeah, the insurance is seaworthy, through geico.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

thos esurveys are made for big boats and are a square peg in a round hole when it comes to small boats. But this is a great opportunity fo ryou to learn all about your new boat (like no, you don't have a blower).

So in your case it may be money well spent to get a boat mechanic to go over it with you (or free with a knowledgable boater ON SITE). You ought to take it in for water pump and start-up check up anyway, so he might throw it in with the water pump.

IOW use it as an opportunity; for me it would be a big pain!

 

[Opnine99]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

I use seaworthy and they didnt make me fill out any type of survey.......I did however have to send in dated photos of the boat inside and out, but other than that it was pay the premium and print my insurance verification.

 

[ninhalo5]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

I use seaworthy and they didnt make me fill out any type of survey.......I did however have to send in dated photos of the boat inside and out, but other than that it was pay the premium and print my insurance verification.

Yeah they want pictures too. Can't make anything easy.

Home Cookin: I live in a nice area where the closest boat mechanic is about 3 or so hours from me. I've already replaced the water pump, and the next thing for me to do is replace the thermos and poppets. Good thing I was a Benz mechanic, so I'm fairly mechanically inclined

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

WoW!! I've had boats to 28' with several companies until I really read the policies and have stayed with Boat US ever since. Not one asked for all that info. If you bought a 42'er it would be understandable.
You are going to know your boat better than the dealer that originally sold it-- wonder how many say "wtf" and call another company...

 

[Texasmark]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

I'm with State Farm and the only thing they wanted to know was the engine rating on the boat and size installed. I'm rated for 130 and have a 90 so I got a discount. Rates are really nice.

On Geico, I don't see how they can have the advertising budget that they must obviously have and still save you any money. I mean you can't flip up the seat in a crapper without that stupid lizard blinking his eyes at you. But see they won. They got us talking about them and that is a key to good advertising. That's why we have all these rediculous commercials these days insulting our intelligence.

Mark

 

[ninhalo5]

Re: 87' Procraft 1950V insurance survey

Maybe this insurance co. Has been taken for a ride... I guess it's totally possible that people get a junk boat, spend $100 to insure it then say it got damaged and file a claim. So they want to take a precaution, but then again a self examined survey won't prove anything either.

I went through geico figuring I'd get a good discount ( my cars are insured through them) and they've been fairly decent. They actually just do the underwriting for seaworthy and not provide the actual insurance. Seems like anytime there is a middle man involved, there is a hassle to be found.