The most common question I hear after "what will you sell it for?" is "and what does the insurance cost?" Let me answer with a real example sitting on my desk — with the client's details left at the door. A one-year policy on a 16-metre flybridge motor yacht from 2018, valued at roughly €690,000: premium ~€3,405 a year. That's about half a percent of the yacht's value. That, in plain terms, is the price of peace of mind.
What it really costs
As a rule of thumb, annual hull cover usually lands somewhere between a fraction and about 1–1.5% of the value — here it came to ~0.5%, because it's a modern, well-kept hull on calm waters. The premium is driven by value, age and type (fast motor yachts and older hulls cost more), cruising area, experience and crew, claims history, how the boat is used (charter costs more) and the lay-up period (winter laid-up is cheaper). Then there's the deductible: here €6,900 per event (~1% of value), and for carbon parts a steep 30% of the repair cost.
What separates a real policy from a decorative one
A cheap premium means nothing if the wording is full of holes. In this offer (the Sealogy TOP programme, with risk carried by AXA, Allianz and Helvetia) I look for a few things that genuinely protect capital:
- Agreed, fixed value with waiver of underinsurance — in a total loss you get the agreed sum, with no haggling over "what it's worth today".
- "New for old" repairs — no depreciation deducted.
- €10m third-party liability with no deductible — that's what saves you when you clip someone else's yacht in a crowded marina.
- Salvage up to €2m plus an extra 50% of the sum insured for measures to limit the damage.
- No-claims loyalty bonus — after five claim-free years the deductible is halved.
What to watch before you sign
And the things that most often leave owners without a payout: charter needs a separate, commercial variant (a private policy excludes it); the lithium battery clause is a condition precedent — non-compliance can strip your fire cover; only the named cruising area is covered; machinery and electronics are covered only when the failure results from a named peril (not from wear); and the sum insured excludes VAT. These aren't traps — they're simply things you need to know before signing.
A short pre-signing checklist
- Agreed value or market value? (You want agreed.)
- "New for old" repairs, or with depreciation?
- What's the deductible — and is there a separate, higher one for machinery/carbon?
- Does the cruising area cover where you actually sail?
- Does the scope match your use (private vs charter)?
- Liability: what limit, and is it deductible-free?
- Special clauses (lithium batteries, cyber, pandemic) — do you meet them?
Buying a yacht with us, or already own one? A policy deserves the same care as the purchase itself — because the difference between a good and a bad policy isn't a few hundred euros of premium, it's hundreds of thousands at a single claim. Get in touch — we'll go through the wording together, on the buyer's side.
Tomasz Wrzesiński · independent yacht broker, Monaco · tomaszwrzesinski.com