If we go back to Hurricane Hugo, the history is that some insurers went out of business and left some boaters high and dry. Other than Andrew, with loses over over $500 million the recent years have been relitatively storm free. Boat U S estimates the recreational boating loss to be over $680 million this year. I suspect it will be higher, since this was issued almost a month ago, and the full impact of Ivan was not known. This does not include commercial boating or marinas and private docks. I doubt in current premiums have really yet taken account of this years storms--and suspect that premiums will be going up even more. Also there will be less insurers--A lot depends on the losses of each insurer. In Pensacola, it appears as if Boat U S has more than all other insurers combined. I know that several smaller insurers have declined to issue new policies in Florida. We are susposed to be entering another active hurricane cycle. The talke around the campfire last night (fall is here in the Gulf coast) was that this was fluke and that we will not see this magnitude of storms in our lives. Unfortunately history does not bear this out--and if we have another year or two like this, I suspect that boat insurance may be almost impossiable to get (both physically and fiscally) in Florida for named storms. This would have a major impact on the boating economy. The solution would be a state pool or high risk type of coverage. Lets hope I am wrong. Bob Austin