Chris Richmond, CIC, AAI, CMIP By Chris Richmond For  WorkBoat Magazine. Recently I presented a marine insurance session at a national conference. The topic was additional coverages – and I repeated what has become a mantra for these times: In today’s world just having hull and protection and indemnity may not be enough. Does your vessel have tenders? While your hull’s coverage extends to the tenders and launches, they will also have the same deductible that your vessel carries. This could often be higher than the value of your tender. By listing your tenders separately, you can have t ..read more

By Dan Bookham for April 2023 WorkBoat Magazine Dan Bookham, AAI The data is in: A strong safety culture has the single greatest impact on accident reduction in the workplace on land and water both. With that in mind, a smart employer will look to prioritize the creation or reinforcement of a strong safety culture and will often turn to an incentive program to drive the desired results. But what’s the best approach? Incentive programs fall into two categories. Calendar-driven, aka rate-based, incentive programs reward employees for injury free time periods such as months or quarters. Action ..read more

Dan Bookham, AAI By Dan Bookham for February 2023 WorkBoat Magazine With 2022 rapidly receding to stern but with the new year still as fresh as a cadet on their first cruise, I thought this would be as good a column as any to step back from coverage and safety details and instead give a high-level view of how the marine insurance landscape appears to be shaping up for 2023. The phrase to familiarize yourself with above all others this year is “hard market.” Insurance is subject to a range of forces − claims activity, social inflation in jury awards, stock market performance, infla ..read more

Chris Richmond, CIC, AAI, CMIP By Chris Richmond For November 2022 WorkBoat Magazine. You have heard it before but it bears repeating: If something occurs that you think might be a claim let your agent know sooner rather than later. If a passenger or crew member is injured, report it, even if they say they are fine and do not need medical attention at the time. The time to record information pertaining to any sort of occurrence is immediately after it happens. This is when everything is still fresh in your mind and you can accurately record the events that happened. Who was injured? Where d ..read more

By Dan Bookham For October 2022 WorkBoat Magazine You cannot escape the headlines: Almost everything is getting more expensive. Supply chain issues, increased demand, workforce shortages and other pressures are driving inflation at a sharp clip, and every industry is affected. And while an uptick in prices might be a boost to one’s top line profits, there’s obviously a negative impact on the cost of doing business. Insurance is not immune to inflationary pressures either, and most insurance and reinsurance companies continue to look warily at the cost of materials, the time it takes to repla ..read more

Chris Richmond, CIC, AAI, CMIP By Chris Richmond For August 2022 WorkBoat Magazine. A very long time ago when I was captain of an old wooden sailing vessel, I was bringing the boat in to the harbor to tie up to the dock, something that I had done countless times. Except this time when I put the engine in reverse to stop forward movement the boat went ahead. Quickly losing room in the congested harbor, I tried again to engage reverse propulsion, to no avail. A wooden tour boat tied up ahead of me finally stopped my movement. There was season-ending damage. While my vessel’s Hull and P&I ..read more

By Dan Bookham for WorkBoat magazine, August 2022 After being an avid reader of Workboat for many years it’s my distinct honor to be joining my colleague Chris Richmond as a contributor to the monthly “Insurance Watch” column. For my first go around I figured it makes sense to start with revisiting a basic topic: How to read your insurance policy. Once you get past various legal notices, billing options and marketing messages, insurance policies have five parts: Declarations, insuring agreements, conditions, exclusions and endorsements. The smart mariner will take the time to review each of ..read more

By Chris Richmond For July 2022 WorkBoat Magazine. Chris Richmond, CIC, AAI, CMIP Whether you are interested in purchasing a new vessel or have owned the same boat for years chances are at some point you will need a marine survey. Depending on the circumstances and who is requesting the document the survey you receive can vary greatly. In terms of insurance, when purchasing a new vessel you will almost always need a survey in order to get an underwriter to provide you with coverage. And don’t try to use the seller’s pre-listing survey, because the underwriter most likely will not accept it ..read more

By Chris Richmond For WorkBoat Magazine Recently we were reviewing insurance coverage with a local marine contractor. Through the course of our conversation, we learned that one of their employees had been operating a crane aboard another contractor’s barge for that contractor’s project. While this happened only rarely, it did open up a big gap in their coverage. Fortunately, there was a solution: Maritime Employers Liability. Commercial vessels will carry Protection and Indemnity. As we know, P&I provides coverage for the insured’s crew members. But this only applies to crew members who ..read more

By Chris Richmond Originally Submitted to WorkBoat Magazine  Building boats can be the primary part of your business or just an occasional project. Regardless of how many or how often you do this, one thing is common: You will need a Hull Builders Risk insurance policy. And don’t think that this applies only to a new build. A vessel undergoing a major refit can be covered under this as well. The policy can be extended to cover not only the hull but also material and equipment that has not yet been installed on the vessel. For the occasional new hull build or the major refit, your policy ..read more