Cruising Insurance

[josh]

Hi,
Well as long as there are no major dramas found in survey, I now own a 38' downeaster in St. Petersberg FL.

I am now looking into insurance and some advice would be appreciated.

I am Australian and the yacht would also be registered there. The plan is to cruise from the US back to OZ over the next few years. The first trip will be from here to Panama, via the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico and Central America taking the rest of this year. I will then leave the yacht in Panama and head back to OZ to work for a bit before continuing cruising.

I hold my Master 5 skippers ticket (vessel to 24M to 200 NM offshore) and my MED 2 (engineers). Know that these are not recognised outside of Australia but hope they would contribute something towards judging my experience.

From what i understand it would be better to get area specific coverage, as this would cover the first leg to panama without having to include the pacific area which i wont be tackling till the next leg.

I am researching different policies online now, but advice on where to look and who to speak to would be helpful.
Thanks

[Paul L]

If you use a US carrier or US written policy then you will not be covered in Cuba. Getting insurance for only the area you will navigate in the next 6 to 12 months will be less expensive. The gotcha is ' will your insurance carrier cover you at a reasonable premium for the next leg'. It can ebe hard to determine this a year in advance. If you have to change insurance companies, they will only accept a survey that is recent. Usually within 6 months or a year old. So if you get a high quote for the next leg, you might need a haul and survey to try another company.