Which sailboat Insurance?

 We started comparing insurance options way too late. By the time we signed for the boat and had it in dry dock, we didn’t have any insurance. We began receiving most of the quotations, but not all.

 April Insurance

We narrowed our list down to two insurance options and finally picked April, which specializes in nautical insurance.

We received their quotation and thought it was reasonable. (We also checked them out using AI and forums.)

We called them to proceed with the multi-risk quotation, but it didn’t work out as planned. They wouldn’t insure the boat without a survey!

They could only offer us minimum civil liability insurance, which cost around 300 euros. We took it since we were still in dry dock and had just purchased the boat.

They gave us the name of a surveyor located near our dry dock. We called him and found out that an insurance survey would cost 1,000 euros—almost the price of April’s full-year multi-risk quotation (around 1,200 euros). It would be an additional 200 euros if we wanted a full pre-purchase or pre-sale survey.

He also mentioned that the boat needed to be surveyed both in dry dock and on the water. This made us panic a bit since we were set to launch in three days (after the weekend). We booked him to meet us on the day of the launch.

We thought a survey might be nice to get an estimated value for the boat, but since we hadn’t completed all the repairs yet, it wouldn’t reflect the boat’s final condition. Plus, it felt expensive—equivalent to the cost of a full year of multi-risk insurance.

That afternoon, we decided to call another insurance company we hadn’t heard back from yet.

 Macif Insurance

We couldn’t view their quote on their online platform because boat insurance is handled through their old system, so they had to email us the contract.

They quoted us 1,569.40 euros—slightly more expensive than April—but it was multi-risk coverage with no geographical limitations, unlike April, which was restricted to European seas.

We called them on Monday, just one day before the boat launch. They told us no survey was required, though we’d likely need to show invoices proving the boat’s maintenance history.

However, we couldn’t sign up online; we had to visit an agency in person.

The next day, after sailing the boat back to Narbonne Plage, we went to an agency and got everything settled.

It turns out Nico and I were already clients with Macif in the past, so we had existing insurance numbers. So, we’re back with Macif again!

The agency in Narbonne was really nice and efficient. We got it done quickly in the afternoon without an appointment, even though the place was full of people."