Third party boat insurance
Third party boat insurance pays other people. On a third party only policy it never pays for your own boat, in any circumstance. It exists to satisfy a marina berth, a mooring contract or a harbour authority that wants proof of liability cover. Whether it satisfies yours turns on three things your berthing agreement may ask for.
This is a UK and European route. The third party only product the partner publishes covers UK and European waters, and an enquiry from a United States resident falls outside it.
6
Berthing contracts read at source
2
Of the six that third party only cannot satisfy
£15,000
Wreck removal sub-limit in one scheme wording
up to £5m
Third party limit the partner publishes
Will third party only satisfy what your marina is asking for?
Sometimes. Six UK berthing contracts were read at source for this page and they set three different tests. Two ask for a third party figure and nothing else. Four also require removal of wreck. Two of those four require the boat itself insured against loss or damage however caused, which third party only cannot meet at any limit.
Two different tests are usually running at once and they are written by different people. The navigation authority that licenses the water sets one. The marina, harbour or club that rents you the berth sets the other, in a contract you signed, and it can ask for more. Owners conflate them constantly, because both arrive as a request for an insurance certificate.
The clearest published statement of that split comes from the independent commission that reviewed boat licensing for the Canal & River Trust. Its report on licence conditions says the insurance required for boat certification is third party only, that there is no obligation on licence holders to carry cover for other insurable events including the cost of recovery if a boat sinks, and that such cover is nonetheless a common condition in mooring agreements (paragraph 140, read 28 August 2026). An authority saying in public that its own licence test is lower than what the berth next to it asks for is the whole reason this page exists.
| Operator | The limit the clause sets | What else the same clause asks for | Third party only enough? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier Marinas | At least £3,000,000 for any one event, public and third party liability | Insurer, policy reference and expiry at every change or renewal, and a copy of the certificate within seven days if asked. Nothing about the boat itself. Clause 8.2, terms for annual berthing, contracts starting on or after 1 September 2024 | Yes |
| Exmouth Marina | Not less than £2,000,000 third party liability | Employers liability to the statutory minimum where relevant, and evidence within seven days of a request. Clause 5.4 | Yes |
| Plymouth Boatyard and Marina | Not less than £2,000,000 third party liability | Cover against wreck removal and salvage, named separately from the liability figure. Evidence within seven days, and a copy seen at contract renewal. Clause 3.1.3 | Only if wreck removal is included, and adequate |
| Bembridge Harbour | Not less than £5,000,000 | The clause reads third party liability insurance including salvage and wreck removal, so the salvage exposure has to sit inside that figure. Evidence within seven days. Clause 3.1.3 | Only if wreck removal is included, and adequate |
| boatfolk | Not less than £3,000,000 for each accident or damage | The owner must comprehensively insure the boat against loss or damage however caused, plus adequate removal of wreck insurance, and may not cancel or materially alter the policy without written consent. Clauses 11.1 and 11.2, terms dated July 2025 | No |
| Milford Marina | Not less than £3,000,000 for each accident or damage | The owner must insure the vessel adequately against loss or damage however caused, plus adequate removal of wreck insurance, with the policy produced on demand. Clause 3.8 | No |
Every clause above was read on the operator's own published terms on 28 August 2026 and is quoted by its clause number so you can check it against the version you signed. Two of the six are named without a link, because Premier Marinas sells insurance under its own name and boatfolk introduces two insurers to its berth holders, and this site does not link to anyone who sells the product it is writing about. Their clauses are quoted exactly as published. Note how differently the six date themselves: Premier's terms state that they apply to contracts starting on or after 1 September 2024 and boatfolk's are dated July 2025, while Exmouth still offers its terms for download as a 2019/20 season document. Berthing terms are revised, and the one that binds you is the one attached to your own agreement.
Three of the six are the same drafting with different things added to it
Exmouth 5.4, Plymouth 3.1.3 and Bembridge 3.1.3 are recognisably one template. Plymouth and Bembridge inserted wreck removal and salvage into it. Exmouth did not. So the fact that your last marina never asked is not evidence about the next one, and neither is the size of the operator: the largest group in the list sets the simplest test.
The same contracts also say the marina will not save your boat
Exmouth 5.3, Plymouth 3.1.2 and Bembridge 3.1.2 all carry the same pair of sentences. The company is under no duty to salvage or preserve a vessel from the consequences of a defect in it, or of an accident it is not responsible for. It reserves the right to do so anyway where people, property or the environment are at risk, and where it does, it may charge the owner on a normal commercial basis and claim a salvage reward. That bill is the reason the wreck removal clause exists, and on a third party only policy it lands on the owner unless the policy reaches it.
Six questions to take to the marina office
Print your berthing agreement and answer these in order. The first three decide whether third party only is even in play.
- 1
Does the clause require you to insure the boat itself, in any words at all? Look for insure the vessel, comprehensively insure, or against loss or damage however caused. If it does, third party only fails the clause no matter how high the liability limit goes.
- 2
Is removal of wreck, recovery of wreck or salvage named as a separate item? If it is, ask your insurer for the sub-limit on it in writing, not for confirmation that it is included.
- 3
What is the figure, and is it per event or in the aggregate? Every clause in the table above is written per accident or per event, which is the wider of the two.
- 4
Does the clause say when it applies? A berth that is occupied over winter is asking the policy to respond while the boat is ashore and out of commission, which is a schedule question rather than a policy question.
- 5
What proof does it want, and how fast? Four of the six give you seven days from a request. One wants the insurer, policy reference and expiry at every renewal whether or not you are asked.
- 6
Does it restrict changing the policy? One of the six says you may not cancel, surrender or materially alter the policy without the marina's prior written consent, which makes moving to a cheaper third party only policy mid-term a contractual question.
The licence side of the question, meaning the minimum a navigation authority sets before it will issue a boat licence, is a different table and it lives on the boat insurance hub, which compares twelve UK authorities. This page is about the contract for the berth, not the licence for the water.
Nothing here is financial or legal advice. It is a reading of six published contracts on the date shown, offered so you can ask your own operator a sharper question.
What third party only never pays for
Your own boat. Not when it sinks, not when it burns, not when it is stolen, not when it is holed on a mooring, and not when it has to be lifted off the seabed. The saving is real and so is the exposure, and the two are the same decision.
The right way to read a third party only policy is as a liability policy that happens to be sold to boat owners. It answers to the person your boat hurt or the property it damaged. It has nothing to say about the asset. Every scheme in this market draws that line the same way, and it is the line the price is on.
What it does answer to
- Death of or injury to another person, including anyone getting on or off the boat or travelling on it
- Damage to any other vessel or to any other property
- Legal costs of settling or defending a claim, and fees for attending an official enquiry or a coroner's inquest, where the insurers agreed to them in writing beforehand
- The raising, removing or destroying of the wreck of your own craft, which sounds like an exception to the rule and is the reason the next section exists
- Pollution caused by your craft, subject to a condition set out below
What it does not
- Any loss of or damage to your own boat, from any cause
- Theft of the boat, its engine, its gear or anything on board
- Fire, grounding, sinking, storm damage or collision damage to your own hull and machinery
- Salvage of your own boat, as distinct from removing its wreck
- Anyone you employ in connection with the boat, and fare paying passengers
- Water skiers and anyone being towed, until they are back on board, unless the water skiers endorsement is on the schedule
- Liability while the boat is in the custody or control of a yard, a slipway, a yacht club, a marina, a delivery skipper or a sales agency
Read from the FreeTime Pleasure Craft policy wording, version GS_MAR_PC_PW_v08.3, captured 26 August 2026, Section 2 and Section 9 Endorsement 9. The grants and the carve outs above are that section's own list. Your schedule decides which endorsements apply to you.
If any of the second column matters to you, the answer is not a bigger third party limit. It is comprehensive cover on the boat, which is a different quote and a different conversation. The vessel pages linked further down carry it, and for a sea going yacht the starting point is worldwide yacht insurance.
Removal of wreck, and why two scheme wordings answer it differently
Removal of wreck is advertised on third party only products with no figure beside it. On one of the two wordings behind this route it is capped at £15,000 any one claim. On the other it is withheld where the damage to the boat is not substantially covered, which on this basis it is not.
This is the single most useful thing on this page, because it is the item three of the six berthing contracts above ask for by name, and because it is the one place where reading the actual wording changes the answer. Two policy wordings are live on this route. They both address wreck removal. They do not address it the same way, and which one your policy runs on is a question for your schedule rather than for a website.
The small craft wording caps it at £15,000
Section 2 grants the raising or attempted raising, removing or destroying of the wreck of your craft as item 2.1 iii. Endorsement 9, headed Third Party only insurance, then says the most the insurers will pay under 2.1 iii is £15,000 any one claim. So on this wording the third party only version carries a wreck limit of £15,000 inside a headline liability figure of up to £5,000,000, in the same policy. A marina clause that asks for wreck removal cover without naming a sum is satisfied by that in form. Whether it is satisfied in substance depends on what it would actually cost to lift your boat.
FreeTime Pleasure Craft policy wording, version GS_MAR_PC_PW_v08.3, Section 2 and Section 9 Endorsement 9, captured 26 August 2026
The yacht and motor boat wording ties it to your own damage
Section 2 of the other wording says no cover is provided for the cost you may be legally liable to pay for the removal or disposal of the vessel if there is no accidental damage to the vessel, or if the damage to the vessel is not wholly or substantially covered by the policy. Read that second limb against a policy with no own boat section and it does real work. This wording is not written as a third party only product, and we are not saying it is issued as one. We are saying that if your certificate names it, the wreck question has a different answer, and you should ask before you sign a berthing agreement that requires the cover.
Topsail Yacht and Motor Boat Policy, Version BW1 dated June 2026, Section 2 clause 4.1
What the rest of the market publishes, including where it beats this scheme
Of the five third party only products ranking on this term in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2026, only one publishes a wreck removal sub-limit at all. Basic Boat states wreck removal costs up to £50,000 where you are legally liable for them, which is more than three times the £15,000 in the small craft wording behind this route. Craftinsure and Navigators and General publish no sub-limit figure, and Craftinsure names removal of wreck as the minimum level harbours, marinas and the Canal and River Trust require without naming any authority's actual published figure. We are publishing the comparison that does not flatter us, because a reader whose berth needs more wreck cover than £15,000 needs to know that before they buy, and because a sub-limit nobody discloses is worse than one that is lower and stated.
And the marina cannot claim on it for you
The commission report quoted above adds a sentence almost nobody publishes. Where recovery of wreck cover does exist, it is only the policyholder who can claim on it unless other arrangements have been made, and if the policyholder does not claim, the authority cannot act in their place. It would have to proceed against the insured person for whatever the recovery cost it. So a wreck removal requirement in a berthing contract is not the marina buying itself a direct route to your insurer. It is the marina making sure you can pay it back.
What the same report says it costs to add
One broker told the commission that for boats in good condition the additional cost of recovery of wreck cover ought to be minimal. The same paragraph adds that some insurers might insist on a prior survey, particularly for boats over 25 years old, and that cover might be refused altogether for poorly maintained boats. That is an official body writing down the two things that decide whether this is a cheap tick box or a real obstacle, and both of them are about the boat rather than the premium.
Pollution is a separate grant with a condition on it
The small craft wording grants pollution caused by your craft as item 2.1 iv, and the grant is written as pollution caused by your craft as a result of loss or damage that your insurers insure. The condition at the end of that sentence is doing work on a policy where the own boat section is not in force. The partner's product page lists pollution among the things third party only covers. Both statements are published, we are quoting them accurately, and the reconciliation belongs in the quote rather than on a page. Ask for it in writing if your berth is a fuelling berth.
Wording extracts above are quoted from the documents we hold, with the version and the capture date beside each. The commission material is paragraphs 140, 142 and 145 of section 5 of the Canal & River Trust boat licensing commission report, read 28 August 2026.
Ashore, laid up, and the lift itself
Third party only cover is sold as running ashore and afloat, in commission or laid up. Both wordings behind this route then exclude in commission use during the laid up period shown on your schedule. The cover follows the dates you declared, so a boat used out of season is using a policy that is not awake.
This is the question a boatyard raises every autumn and every spring, and the one that catches owners out. In commission and laid up are defined states rather than places. In commission means fitted out and ready for immediate use, including while ashore ready to be launched. Laid up means not fitted out and not ready for immediate use, including while ashore but not ready to be launched. A boat on a hardstanding can be in either state, and which one it is in is a matter of readiness, not of geography.
Using the boat during your own laid up period is excluded
Both wordings say the same thing in almost the same words. The small craft wording lists in commission use during the laid up period shown in your schedule among its general policy exclusions. The yacht and motor boat wording lists in commission use during the laid up period shown in your certificate of insurance in the same place. Because both say it, it is safe to treat it as a feature of the route rather than a quirk of one scheme.
There is a fifteen day grace period, and it is automatic
The small craft wording carries an in commission period extension: if the craft is not laid up out of commission at the start of the laid up period shown on the schedule, the insurers will automatically extend the in commission period for up to fifteen days without you telling them. That is the answer to a lift out that slips a fortnight. It is not the answer to a lift out that slips a month.
The lift itself is a question to ask before you book it
Boatyards routinely require liability cover that responds during the crane in and the crane out, and owners routinely discover at the counter that a given cheap policy does not extend to it. Ask specifically about the lift, in those words, rather than asking whether the policy covers the boat ashore. They are different questions and they get different answers.
Why there is no excess on a third party only claim
The partner's product page advertises no excess to pay, which is accurate, and the mechanism is worth knowing because it tells you what the policy is. The excess endorsement in the small craft wording attaches the first part of each claim under Section 1, Your Insured Property. A third party only policy does not carry Section 1. There is nothing for the excess to attach to. The same fact that removes the excess is the fact that removes your boat from the cover.
Definitions, general policy exclusion 4.7.7, clause 7.3 and Endorsement 1 are from the FreeTime Pleasure Craft policy wording, version GS_MAR_PC_PW_v08.3, captured 26 August 2026. Section 10 clause 1.7.6 is from the Topsail Yacht and Motor Boat Policy, Version BW1 dated June 2026. The dates that bind you are the ones on your own schedule.
Which boats a third party only policy is written for
The partner's third party only product page names seven classes. Its individual class pages name more, each saying third party only can be arranged in most cases. The standard third party limit is not one number across them: £5,000,000 on the coastal classes and £3,000,000 on the inland and personal watercraft schemes.
This page is organised by cover type rather than by hull, which is why it sits across the rest of the silo instead of beside it. Every page linked below answers the vessel question. This one answers the question of how little cover you can buy and still meet an obligation, and the answer is broadly the same shape whichever hull it is written on.
| Class | Standard third party limit on comprehensive cover | Third party only stated as arrangeable |
|---|---|---|
| Sailing yacht | Up to £5,000,000 | Yes, stated as offered |
| Motorboat | Up to £5,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| RIB | Up to £5,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Speedboat and powerboat | Up to £5,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Sailing dinghy | £5,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Narrowboat | Up to £3,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Inland craft | Up to £3,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Jet ski and personal watercraft | £3,000,000 | Yes, in most cases |
| Houseboat | Up to £3,000,000 | Not stated |
| Small commercial craft | £3,000,000 | Not stated |
Read from the partner's own class pages, captured 26 August 2026. In most cases is their hedge, not ours, and it appears on seven of those pages. It means the downgrade is a quoting decision on the individual boat, so treat the right hand column as a starting point and not as a promise.
Two things that follow from that table
The first is that a marina asking for £3,000,000 is asking a narrowboat owner for the whole standard grant and a motorboat owner for part of it. The second is that the phrase in most cases appears seven times, so nobody, ourselves included, can tell you from a web page whether your boat qualifies for the downgrade. The only honest version of that sentence is that it is quoted, not assumed.
The classes the third party only product names for itself
The partner's third party only page lists sailing yachts, motorboats, RIBs, speed boats, weekender boats, fast fisher boats and sailing dinghies, cruising UK and European waters. That is the product's own list, captured on 26 August 2026. The class pages in the table above go further, which is why the two are published together rather than one instead of the other. No nautical mile limit is stated here: the offshore distances evidenced on this route belong to specific vessel schemes rather than to this cover type, and borrowing one onto this page would be asserting a boundary nobody has confirmed for it.
The page for your boat
Each of these answers the vessel question in full, including what the comprehensive fork carries and where the cover stops.
- Motorboat insurance
The £5 million class, and the same buyer one size band up from a speedboat.
- RIB insurance
Where the tender question and the 12 nautical mile limit are answered.
- Speedboat and powerboat insurance
The 17 knot definition, the racing exclusion and the inboard fire warranty.
- Sailing dinghy insurance
The 6 nautical mile scheme, and racing cover as an endorsement rather than a given.
- Jet ski insurance
Where the launch permit and the policy clause meet, and the residency limit that governs both.
- Narrowboat insurance
The licence condition, the £2 million Canal and River Trust minimum, and the inland non tidal boundary.
- Houseboat insurance
The two definition tests a permanently moored boat has to pass before any of this applies.
- Inland waterways insurance
Nine navigation authorities, and what each asks for beyond a figure.
All of them, plus the register of what this route can and cannot place, sit under boat insurance.
If the boat is a sea going yacht rather than a UK and European one, the third party only question is the wrong end of the telescope and the place to start is worldwide yacht insurance, which is a different market, a different chain and a different conversation about agreed value.
Who arranges this cover, and what our part in it is
We are an introducer. We do not insure, underwrite or carry risk, and we hold no permission of our own. What we do is take the enquiry, put it to the partner whose scheme fits the boat and the water, and stay with it. The full chain, and the other route this site uses for sea going yachts, are set out on how it works.
Our principal on this route is Topsail Insurance Ltd, and any firm arranging insurance for you in the UK appears on the Financial Services Register, which is worth checking against the firm named in your paperwork.
Reviewed by Costas Matheou, licensed insurance agent (Cyprus), 28 August 2026. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a quotation. Berthing terms and policy wordings are both revised, and the versions that bind you are the ones attached to your own agreement and your own schedule.
Third party only, answered
How much is third party boat insurance?+
No price is published for this route, and we will not invent one: the premium is quoted on the boat, its value, where it is kept, how it is used and your claims history, and it comes back from the quote form rather than from a table. For a sense of the market, Craftinsure publishes a self-reported average of £94 a year for third party only across all boat types, accurate as of July 2026. Treat that as one provider's own figure for its own book, not as a quotation and not as a market average. The saving over comprehensive cover is real, and what it buys you is the liability grant and nothing on your own hull, which is the trade this whole page is about.
What does third party only boat insurance not cover?+
Your own boat, from any cause. Not fire, not theft, not sinking, not storm damage, not grounding, not collision damage to your own hull. It also does not cover anyone you employ in connection with the boat, fare paying passengers, or people being towed until they are back on board unless the water skiers endorsement is on your schedule, and it excludes liability arising while the boat is in the custody or control of a yard, a slipway, a yacht club, a marina, a delivery skipper or a sales agency. What it does cover is injury to other people, damage to other property, defence costs agreed in advance, removal of the wreck of your own craft subject to the sub-limit discussed above, and pollution subject to a condition in the wording.
Will third party only satisfy my marina?+
It depends on the clause, and the clause is in the agreement you signed. Of six UK berthing contracts read at source on 28 August 2026, two set a third party figure and nothing else, which third party only meets. Four of the six also name removal of wreck or salvage as a separate item, so a policy that meets the figure can still fail the clause. Two of those four go further again and require the owner to insure the boat itself against loss or damage however caused, which third party only cannot meet at any liability limit. Read the clause for the words insure the vessel and for the words wreck or salvage before you assume either way.
Does third party only cover removing my boat if it sinks?+
Partly, and the amount matters. The small craft wording behind this route grants the raising, removing or destroying of the wreck of your craft, and its third party only endorsement then caps that grant at £15,000 for any one claim. The yacht and motor boat wording withholds removal and disposal costs where the damage to the vessel is not wholly or substantially covered by the policy. Ask which wording your quote is on and ask for the wreck limit as a figure. Note also that where the cover exists it is the policyholder who claims on it: the Canal and River Trust licensing commission recorded that an authority cannot claim in the policyholder's place and would have to pursue the owner for its costs.
Does third party only cover the boat while it is ashore for the winter?+
Liability cover follows the states and dates on your schedule rather than the boat's location. In commission means fitted out and ready for immediate use, which includes being ashore ready to be launched. Laid up means not fitted out and not ready for immediate use. Both wordings on this route exclude in commission use during the laid up period shown on the schedule, and the small craft wording adds an automatic fifteen day extension of the in commission period if the boat is not laid up out of commission when that period starts. If your boatyard requires cover during the lift itself, ask about the lift specifically, because that is a narrower question than cover ashore.
Is there an excess on a third party only policy?+
The partner publishes no excess to pay on this product, and the reason is structural. The excess endorsement in the scheme wording attaches the first part of each claim under Section 1, Your Insured Property. A third party only policy does not carry Section 1, so there is nothing for the excess to attach to. That is worth understanding rather than just enjoying: the same absence that removes your excess is the absence of any cover on your boat.
Send us the clause, not just the boat
The fastest way to get this right is to tell us what your berthing agreement or licence actually requires, in its own words, along with the boat and where it lives. That decides whether third party only is enough, whether the wreck item is satisfied, and whether the comprehensive quote is the one you should be reading instead.
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