Re: BOAT INSURANCE
Originally posted by tommays:<br />one of the big reasons to carry insurance is that the costs of cleaning up even a MINOR sinking is a lot of money<br /><br />it cost big time to have a fuel spill cleaned up<br /><br /><br />tommays [/QB]
100% correct, but you (probably unknowingly) just raised an absolutely critical loophole in MANY boat policies. So I'm back on my soapbox again.<br /><br />By all means a pollution cleanup is expensive. And for that very reason many of the fine insurance companies out there will often NOT pay for cleanup. <br /><br />For example: Here's a quote directly out of an American Family Insurance Boatowner's policy:<br /><br />"EXCLUSIONS:<br /><br />12. Polution Damage. We will not cover bodily injury or property damage arising out of the actual, alledged, or threatened discharge, dispersal, release, escape, seepage, trespass, wrongful entry, migration, injestion, inhalation or absorbtion of a polutant from any source.<br /><br />We will not pay for loss, cost, expense, fine, or penalty to test for, monitor, clean up, remove, contain, treat, detoxify, neutralize or dispose of any pollutants, whether or not such actions are done voluntarily or at the direction, request or demand of any governmental body or agency, any other authority, person or organization, or as a result of any suit."<br /><br />Pretty thorough languange, huh? That's the long way of saying that just because you have boat insurance does not mean they will pay a single penny toward a fuel spill cleanup. Some policies will offer this coverage. American Family, and many others, do not. <br /><br />Lesson: KNOW YOUR POLICIES.<br /><br />The biggest point that I'd like everyone to understand is this: Everyone is so focused, when buying insurance, on insuring the proper value of the BOAT (or car, or motorcycle, or whatever)...or worse yet, the amount of the silly deductible. This is such a small and insignificant part of boat insurance, especially wnen you're dealing with smaller boats (by smaller I mean under 28 to 30 footers) Sure, your hard research and shopping will guarantee that you'll get your $5,000 or $30,000 value out of your boat. Wonderful. But few will give a fleeting thought to the $200,000 price tag of an EPA fuel and oil spill cleanup, or the $2.5 million dollar lawsuit you just had slapped on you because your prop chopped up and killed the primary breadwinner of another family while you were looking the other way for 3 seconds. Chances are that if you're reading this right now, you are GROSSLY underinsured for such a scenario and you don't even know it. THESE are the types of losses that can cause a bankrupcy or destroy your financial security. And these are the types of accidents that need to be anticipated and insured, and those what-if scenarios are the questions people need to ask their insurance companies. The value of the boat itself is peanuts.<br /><br />Please don't take me wrong...I'm not trying to talk down to anyone or criticize. The whole concept of insurance is extremely complex, and I don't like the loopholes, language, and legalities anymore than others do. But they exist. And I'm just trying to help people understand something I have a great deal of experience in, and something that is not well understood by about 98% of the general public.
