'Lo All,

First: I said that the boat had been removed from where it grounded.
Wrong, it is still there. I was told a crane had taken it, but I didn't
look.

Second: We got the BoatUS insurance check in the mail today. So, I can
only say that BoatUS was responsive and professional. Agreed value minus
Named Storm deductible.

I am satisfied with BoatUS/GEICO insurance. They did as I expected.

--

Take care and be safe.

Wayne
Celestial
Albin43 Sundeck
Near Panama City, FL

OnIn past years I've offered a few posts regarding insurance generally, and
boat insurance specifically, based on my background as an insurance
underwriter, and later as a broker.

For over 20+ years I've believed that BoatUS was by far my best choice in
terms the coverage for my boat. The reasons that I believed that are pretty
much irrelevant at this point in light of Dave's revelation regarding the
depreciation clause that Gieco now applies to boats over 20 years old.

For a long time I've known that Gieco has had a very bad reputation in
terms of how difficult they are to deal with in their claims handling, and
I also have on occasion indicated that when insurance companies spend a lot
of bucks on advertising, they have nowhere to recover those advertising
costs other than through higher premiums and/or heavy-handed claims
handling.

So when "lower" premiums are also part of their pitch, well, resisting
claimpayments is the only other alternative.

When Gieco first took over BoatUS, I made several calls to their management
and I questioned how this could be a good thing. I was told that nothing
will change.

Well obviously something has changed, and I can't tell you how embarrassed
I am to find out that I was apparently foolish to trust what I was told
without checking each renewal carefully.

This change is a real big deal and will cut BoatUS' claims expenses
enormously (at the expense of the policy holders of course).

I see no alternative but for me to change carriers at this point, and when
I return from our current holiday I will research my options.

Think about how many of our boats are over 20 years old, and some are
perhaps more valuable than when they were first purchased years ago. All of
us have had surveys which would tend to properly identify the value of our
boats, so what does the age of the boat have to do with the current value?
And what about classic or unusual or self-built boats - who accurately
values them?

A better underwriting standard (in my mind) might be to penalize operators
UNDER 20 years old rather the  penalizing vessels OVER 20 years old. IOW,
evaluate the operator, not the boat.

So BoatUS is now writing you a policy for a "value" that they never really
expect to pay since most losses are only partial.

Sure there are catastrophes, but that's not the norm.

If your boat was built 20+8 years ago (1998-99) you will only get 20% of
the value stated for your boat on your policy.

So if you have a $100K boat of that vintage, you will get $20K maximum for
a loss deemed to be less than "Total" ($95K perhaps?)

Personally I think this is absolutely disgusting. In my estimation the
premiums for the year that this change occurred should be maybe half of the
premium of the previous year.

One possible approach here is for you to callone of the BoatUS UNDERWRITERS
and ask for a justification for not getting a big reduction this year, but
in the end I believe we all just have to look for someone else to insure
out boats.

Even if your boat is not 20 years old, I would submit that there's no such
thing as a part-time skunk. Problems will come up as soon as you have a
claim.

BoatUS is now a whole new company.

Phil de l'Etoile

West Sacramento, CA

As a follow up on my previous message on this subject I can report the
following :

I had conversations today with several BoatUS management folks, but between
road noise and cell phone coverage, I'm not completely clear on all of the
details of this issue.

In the end, I THINK BoatUS has only one policy that can be written as
either "Agreed Value" or "Actual Cash Value". The wording within the policy
includes Depreciation, but the policy can be endorsed to remove the
depreciation from certain parts of the partial loss.

I need to point out that it is a bit difficult to compose this email while
bouncing along Arizona's I-10, & after having somewhat challenging cell
phone conversations w/o actually having my own policy in front of me.

When I get home on Tuesday evening I'll look at my own policy and call
BoatUS again on Wednesday AM to further clarify several points made here.

In the meantime I'm trying to be careful not to mislead anyone with a
sloppy report here. Plus my personal driver, well she just keeps bugging me
about the beautiful mountain peaks "over there", and "Did you see that?"

Anyway I think I should be able pull things together on Wednesday including
the actual impact of Geico on BoatUS operations including claims handling.

Phil de l'Etoile
(On the Road Again)