craze1cars
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2004
- Messages
- 1,822
As an insurance appraiser, I inspect a lot of boats that have insurance claims. Think of this as a sad story with a bit of education for any of you new boat owners.<br /><br />About 10 years ago, an insurance company had a customer who purchased a very nice brand new boat with dual 454's in a late season sale. He promptly insured it, took a couple rides in fall and had it winterized and parked for the winter. Along came a beautiful freak 75 degree day in February (very rare in Indiana), anxiously took his boat out of winter storage, and went for a nice weekend ride with the family. Everything went great. Loaded it back up on the trailer, towed it home and parked it in his driveway waiting for more warm weather.<br /><br />2 months later, he goes out for another ride on a beautiful April day. Both engines run for a while, then one quits. Then the other. One quick look in the engine compartment reveals a nasty brown foam all over both engines. Any boat mechanic reading this knows EXACTLY what that is. Two cracked engine blocks mixing lake water with oil.<br /><br />So he makes an insurance claim. Unfortunately, most every single boat policy in the US specifically excludes damage caused by freezing. I inspect, determine 2 cracked blocks caused by freezing, confirmed by the marina, report to the insurance company, and they deny his claim. He naturally has a hissy fit because he paid the marina his hard earned cash last fall to properly winterize. He figures they screwed it up and they should be responsible for this freezing.<br /><br />The marina service manager tends to agree, and begins to research their records to see if they made an error. He then finds the launch fee receipt dated mid February in the boat's glovebox, and tells the customer that his marina is not responsible either. "What does the Feb launch receipt have to do with anything?" the owner asks. "Did you re-winterize again after your February cruise?" Of course not, he says..."why would I need to do that?"<br /><br />Because between Feb and April, the blocks froze while it sat in his driveway. His beautiful nearly brand new boat now needed about $20K worth of two new engines. Insurance couldn't help him one bit. And the marina wasn't responsible at all.<br /><br />Time for another loan. OUCH! The lesson? Do NOT jump the gun in spring getting your boat into the water, unless you are willing to re-winterize, or have the luxury of heated storage.
<br /><br />Basically in New Meico we can boat all year round. the lakes don't freeze down south. I did winterize though as I have not used the boat much yet still working on it but soon my dreams will...well you get the picture. 
