Narrowboat and Inland Waterway Boat Insurance
Canal Boats and all inland waterways craft looking for
insurance will be covered by “Marine Insurance”.
Strictly speaking “Marine” relates to Oceans and
saltwater, the original environment of the earliest insurance ventures,
which undertook to guarantee the investments backing shipping ventures, in
return for a cut of the profits. However it soon became apparent that this
needed to be extended to cover the freshwater barges and other craft that
re-distributed the goods from the Ports to the Cities and areas of commerce.
This developed into what became known as “Inland Marine Insurance”, which
covered commercial craft and cargoes serving the Inland Waterways.
As time went by the market then developed further to
cover passenger vessels – whose cargo was basically people and finally
pleasure craft, which in historical terms are newcomers to the canals and
rivers.
Today we live in a World in which nearly every major
risk and a whole spectrum of minor ones are covered by Insurance, sometimes
for peace of mind like home contents insurance, sometimes to fulfill the
necessary terms of a contract such as building insurance for a mortgage and
sometimes as a requirement of law such as Car insurance in the UK and a lot
of other countries.
The bulk of the UK’s Inland Waterways are regulated by
British Waterways, who require you to purchase a license before putting your
boat on the water and one of the requirements for obtaining your boat’s
license is Third Party Insurance, which is required for all powered craft
and recommended for all non-powered craft.
Third Party Insurance is insurance designed to cover
any damage your boat might do to other people or other people’s property
while under your ownership and control. It basically ensures compensation
for anyone or anything accidentally hurt or damaged by your craft, while you
or an approved party are in control. What it will not cover is damage to you
or your craft, though it will cover damage to your passengers.
Beyond this most people will also want their craft,
which will almost certainly be a considerable investment, to be insured
against the possibilities of fire and theft, vandalism and various other
potential risks.
A boat sinking at its moorings due to a failed sealing
for instance is going to represent a very hefty financial loss. Not only
will the boat have to be raised and pumped out, but all the soft furnishing
will be damaged, not to mention the electrics, engine and other items. For
many people without insurance this would be the end of the boat.
It is worth taking a few moments to consider the risks
and the losses you can afford to take and then try and balance these against
the cost of Insurance. You can save money in the short term by not taking
out protective insurance, but in the longer term you may risk losing your
boat.
Insurance won’t
guarantee you wealth or a happy life, but it will help you to recover
quickly from the less desirable of life’s unplanned diversions and take the
edge off the financial consequences.
Winston Churchill’s advice to the Nation was once
famously “ Insure, Insure, Insure!”.
He was not in the pay of the insurance industry; he was
looking to reduce suffering and uncertainty in the face of life’s inevitable
disasters. He was trying to advise people along a path to Peace of Mind, so
that their plans and ambitions were not constantly being set back or
destroyed by unhappy events.
Today society has taken the message very much to heart
… sometimes possibly beyond what is actually reasonable, but the message is
still very relevant.