Boat Insurance In Australia: How To Insure Your CNC Marine Boat
Looking for boat insurance in Australia? Don’t stress! With the right information, it’s relatively easy to insure your CNC Marine aluminium kit boat. And if you are a registered business building boats, it’s even easier.
Looking To Find Boat Insurance?
Insurers look at a range of information when determining boat insurance quotes for your vessel including experience boating, size of the vessel, length of time you have held your boat licence, the market value of your vessel, and where you store/house your boat.
Some insurance companies may even refuse to insure your vessel due to a lack of owner experience or require more information if you’re planning to build your own boat. This is why it’s super important to shop around, get a bunch of boat insurance quotes, and see what works for your budget and requirements.
Boat Insurance Comparison
At CNC Marine, we recently built one of our demo boats and went through the process of insuring our brand new build. This is how the process went for us.
Firstly, we started by researching different companies for the best boat insurance — these were a few that we looked into and our experience with each one:
- New Wave Boat Insurance: Good price, fully online process to obtain a marine insurance quote. However, they didn’t provide a whole lot of information about what was insured and didn’t include extras.
- Nautilus Insurance: Mostly online, we did have to contact customer service as we checked a box that they didn’t accept. It was a good price and we were happy with the inclusions.
- Youi Watercraft Insurance: Long process. It wouldn’t accept our boat insurance online application, and we had to complete it over the phone. Great customer service but it was on the pricey side and they required a lot of information.
- Club Marine: Our boat models weren’t listed so we had to take specific photos and provide details. It was a slow process and customer service was very slow in getting back to us.
- Suncorp: Over phone process, average pricing.
- GIO: Over phone process, average pricing.
How To Prepare For A Boat Insurance Quote
This list gives you an idea of the questions that will be asked and the information that is required for obtaining a boat insurance quote:
- First and Last name
- Date of birth
- What is the year and make of the boat?
- What is the year, make and type of motor?
- What material is the boat’s hull constructed from?
- What is the total length of the boat?
- Where do you intend to store or moor the boat?
- How much did you purchase the boat for and what was the date of purchase?
- What is the boat’s current market value?
- Is the boat in a seaworthy condition with no unrepaired damage?
- Is the boat you wish to insure located and/or registered outside of Australian waters?
- Do you need to extend the geographical limits beyond the policy standard?
- Has the boat been used, or will the boat be used for any commercial, work, or commuting purposes (including charters)?
- Is the boat used in a syndicate, time share or equity arrangement, including for Hire, Reward, AirBnB or similar “Uber” type arrangements?
- Is the boat intended to be your primary residence?
- What year did you first obtain your boat licence/skippers ticket?
- What is your previous experience (in years) in control of a boat of this type and approximate size (within 10ft)?
- Have you or any other co-owner of the boat:
- a) had any claim refused, insurance declined, or special conditions imposed on any insurance policy in the last 5 years?
- b) been convicted or had any fines or penalties imposed for any alcohol or drug related driving or boating offences or had their licence cancelled, disqualified or suspended due to offences in the last 3 years?
- c) been convicted of any criminal act in relation to drugs, dishonesty, arson, theft, fraud, burglary, violence against any person or property, malicious or wilful damage in the last 5 years?
- d) made a claim against your own boat insurance policy in the last 5 years?
- e) privately imported the boat from outside Australia?
- f) been declared bankrupt and not discharged within the last 12 months?
How Do I Insure A Home-Built Aluminium Kit Boat?
Since CNC Marine aluminium kit boats are built by thousands of different businesses and DIYers, they aren’t typically listed in generalised boat builder lists.
In this case, most boat insurance companies will ask for more information. You will be required to provide clear images of the vessel and trailer, as well as fill out an extensive list of questions about the vessel. Every boat insurance company is different and the process can differ from one company to another.
Other insurers may ask for a survey to be completed in order for the boat to meet insurance requirements. However, we found that if we used the right wording, it was a much easier process — such as explaining that you purchased from CNC Marine, where all designs are approved by AMSA certified naval architects. If there is a company that you’d really like to use, the best thing to do is to explain the situation and see what is needed and work from there.
We recently insured our Demo Boat with Nautilus Marine Insurance. We did this over the phone and didn’t need to provide any photos — we just filled out the above-listed information and it was an easy process.
New Wave Marine even has a ‘Custom Build Boat Insurance Quoting tool’ which is tailored for homemade builds!