What Is Marina Insurance & Why Is It Important?
When it comes to insurance, getting the right coverage is key, whether you’re a marina operator, boat builder or yacht broker.
It’s important to have an understanding of what insurance is out there and how it can help you with your marina or any of the boats you manage or own.
There are many different types of marina insurance options, and some offer greater benefits than others. There can be a high level of exposure for those operating a marina, and those who own boats on a popular harbor.
Whether it’s protection for the storage of boats to fire protection, here is a guide to understanding marina insurance and why it’s so important.
What Is Marina Insurance?
Marina insurance helps to insure the liability exposures that can come with the daily and typical operations of a marina. It also relates to those individuals and companies that are related to the care, custody and control of a watercraft of any kind.
You want full coverage of your property and for the property of other boat owners too. After all, boats are expensive commodities, and so you don’t want to risk going without insurance.
If you do or currently are doing, then you’re certainly tempting fate and risking a lot of money in the process.
The coverage you get will tend to include both land and waterborne exposure, which is obviously important when getting insurance. So, whether you operate the marina or harbor itself, or own a boat of your own, insurance is essential.
What Marina Insurance Coverage Is Available?
So what type of coverage do you need and what is available? Boat insurance is the main insurance policy that individual boat owners will need, but for marina and boatyard owners, the policies and insurances might involve multiple plans in place.
This will make sure you are in fact, fully protected against anything and everything. This mixture of policies might relate to business coverage and specific coverage for the property itself that basic insurance policies won’t cover.
After all, you’re responsible for other people’s boats.
The three main types of coverage to look out for are a traditional commercial property policy. This covers the building, i.e the marina or harbor, the contents of this area and the loss of building income.
This could be due to a fire, vandalism or an explosion, for example.
The second type of policy is an inland marine floater that helps to cover mobile property and is useful for those who manufacture and build boats. The last is general liability which covers all the basics.
There’s also plenty of additional insurance outside of these core insurance policies. Flooding insurance can help pay out for any damage that might have occurred to the marina.
Commercial auto coverage can also be helpful to cover vehicles in the commercial sector. It’s worth exploring what you have available to you and what you need as an individual or company.
Why Is Insurance Important?
If it hasn’t already been made clear to you, insurance is important. As a business, if you’re making boats, then insurance is definitely going to help ensure that if anything does go wrong, you’re covered.
It also helps with covering your workers whilst out on the marina. As well as insurance being important, it’s good to look after your boat or business so you get access to the best options available on the market too.
There are some insurances that are obviously very important, and that certainly need touching on in this article too.
Work’s Compensation Insurance
With any business, it’s worth having insurance in place to help protect your staff, and employment practices liability insurance that’s helpful to have too.
Worker’s compensation insurance is good for those who’ve been injured or disabled whilst at work. It provides the individual and family with the support they need.
This insurance protects the employee in office environments, work yards and other areas.
Pollution & Environmental Insurance
With more of a focus than ever on the environmental effects when it comes to pollution, it’s important to get insurance to help with problems that affect the environment.
Whether it’s an oil or fuel spill that happens, this insurance helps to clear it up and pay out on any fines or charges you’re given.
Systems Breakdown Coverage
With various electrical and mechanical systems in place for running your boat building business, it’s important to have a system breakdown coverage.
This can help replace and fix any issues with systems or equipment within the business. It’s critical to have this so that your company can continue on making boats and more importantly, making a profit.
For owners and contractors, having insurance can help when you’ve got work being carried out. Whether you’re the owner or contractor, it can be helpful to have this insurance in place in case anything bad were to happen.
This policy is designed to cover your liability to injury and property damage should it occur. It’s certainly worth having, but also being advised on what’s best to have when it comes to this and other types of insurance that are available.
With so many add-ons and insurances out there, it can be hard to pick. That’s why it can be sometimes helpful to have a broker do all the legwork for you!
Getting A Broker
A broker can help get the right insurance for your needs, whilst also reducing the amount of effort needed by yourself.
When looking around the Manahawkin, NJ area, it’s worth using a company like Anderson to help you find the perfect insurance for you, whether it’s the one insurance or a combination of a few.
Marina insurance is something you need, and so it’s important to understand what’s on the market.
You don’t need to get anything but the more protection you get, the better position you put yourself in when facing an accident of any kind.
It’s the peace of mind that any individual or business needs when it comes to owning or being in charge of a highly-priced and valuable vehicle or property.