Ensuring you’re insured

Good news at last for hard-pressed yacht owners: the vertiginous rise in boat insurance premiums over recent years looks to be levelling off somewhat.

With annual increases topping 25 per cent for some yachts, there had been howls of protest from boat owners. Driven mainly by years of under-pricing risk in the large yacht sector, and the increasing damage from extreme weather events, some say there are now signs that the market has readjusted.

“The London market at the very top end did some fairly drastic price changes – 100 per cent rises over three or four years, but that was more of a correction,” says Mike Wimbridge, MD of Pantaenius UK. “In the European market, there’s been a 20-25 per cent increase, and I see that slowing down and becoming more manageable. We’re talking about lower single digit increases now.”

At the sharp end of the online boat insurance business, where margins are lower and every penny on a quote counts, there is