Shipowners’ Club takes clear-language approach to specialist yacht insurance

The Shipowners’ Club, one of few P&I Clubs to offer specialist yacht insurance, is taking a new, clear-language approach to yacht liability.The club is offering an all-risk policy that seeks to de-mystify aspects of the traditional wording contained in typical P&I insurance rules and make the conditions understandable to non-specialist yachtsmen and brokers.Conventional yacht insurance policies offered by both general commercial insurers and P&I clubs have traditionally featured complex wording using legal and maritime jargon that can be difficult to understand for anyone who is not a specialist in marine insurance, the club notes.”Our new policy document – running to just 2,000 words instead of the original 40,000 – takes a common-sense approach to losses and liabilities and has very few excluded risks; the assumption being that everything is covered unless the policy states specifically that it is not,” says Ian Ferns, Shipowners’ research and development manager. “The policy aims to be all-embracing, making it much easier for brokers to recommend it to a client as a single package, rather than having to put together a variety of separate types of cover.”The policy includes a number of new features intended to make it attractive to yacht owners. They include:•All-risk water sports cover, including perceived ‘risky’ pursuits such as water-skiing, jet-skiing and diving. •Greatly relaxed voyage restrictions in many regions of the world and cover for sailing yachts participating in organized races.The policy can also be extended to include personal accident cover for crew members, whatever their employment status or nationality.