Insurance Claim question

[evantful]

Hi all just had an insurance claim question. I have Boat US as my insurance provider.

Boat: 1999 Cobalt 206 Volvo Penta DP-SM Drive

Some back ground:

Late last August I was on a camping trip with my family on the islands of Lake George (Upstate New York). On the second to last day, coming into the dock at our campsite, a large cruiser was passing behind us at semi planning speed (throwing a huge wake). We were about 10ft from the dock itself when the wave came behind and causing the stern of the boat to rapidly drop and the outdrive strike the bottom (solid rock shelf).

I had the outdrive trimmed up a bit which caused the outdrive to strike almost square on the bottom of the Skeg. As the boat stern dropped, it suddenly stopped with a thud as the drive hit the rock. We were barely drifting forward as I had already noticed the waves coming from behind. Got to the dock, lift the drive up to check for damage and found the skeg slightly bent to one side. Also the forward prop (the big prop) on the Outdrive had one bad that had a impact flat spot towards the hub, but didn't look to bad.

Later in the day I took the boat and there was a vibration in gear, not terrible but pretty noticeable and assumed it was the prop. Avoided driving the boat anymore and idled back to shore the next for the trip home.

I took both props to a very reputable to Prop repair shop near by home, had them refinished and balanced to each other.

Due to other life situations I did not get a chance to take the boat out for another trip after that. Winterized it on muffs and put her away in the garage.

Yesterday I took the boat out for the first time and the vibration was still there. It only occurs in gear, and occurs regardless of steering angle or trim angle ( I had replaced the U-Joints and Gimbal bearing a few years ago when I had noticed a very very slight vibration. It has been smooth since)


Im starting to suspect some kind of lower unit damage, maybe from the prop being struck at its strongest point and transferring that energy into the gear set.

The question:
Im considering filing a claim but Im concerned about the time that has passed and the fact I had the props refinished. I just didn't think it was anything more than a bent prop. How do you think I will fair due to that?

Thanks for your thoughts

 

[shrew]

I would suggest you open a dialogue with your insurance agent for starters. They'll be able to tell you what they would need to begin the process. You're going to need to determine what is wrong. Then you're going to need to attribute it to the event you described. You stated you were coming into the dock. Was the drive in gear at the time of of grounding? The receipt from the prop shop should suffice as evidence of a collision as should the bent skeg.

I hit an unseen object (suspect deadhead log) 8 miles from shore in several hundred feet of water. It tore one of my prop blades and sheared 4 teeth in the upper gears of the drive. My insurance covered that.

 

[tpenfield]

The claim will probably be denied, at least at first. you may have to fight your way back in there. The visible damage after the grounding is the more obvious issue. Check the T's & C's on your policy to see if grounding is even covered.

I'd expect that you may be fixing this on your dime, but you can give it a try.

 

[jkust]

Unusual claim situations are the usual. My take not knowing the policy details is that you had an occurrence based policy and you are making a claim that would be paid for under the policy that was in place when the accident happed. It's been less than 12 months since it happened. That to me is very reasonable. I just got my now previous boat deemed a total loss from something that had happened two years prior. Different circumstance but a highly unusual situation and yes they denied it several times before my tenacity paid off. First thing is to pull out the policy.