Marine Business Insurance
Marine business insurance is the set of covers a business operating on or around the water needs, because commercial use falls outside a pleasure-use boat policy. It usually combines hull and machinery on the boats you own, marine general liability, premises, professional indemnity, employers cover, and legal liability for customers' boats in your care.
Find your business type in the table below, see which covers operators like you typically carry, then tell us about your operation. We introduce commercial marine business to the Lloyd's market through our broker chain.
4
Commercial lines we arrange
Lloyd's
Where cover is placed
24h
Quote turnaround
7
Business types covered here
Which covers does your marine business need?
The table shows what operators of each type typically carry. It is not a list of legal requirements, and no two submissions look the same. Read your row, then read the page for that business type.
| Business type | Fleet or commercial-use hull | Marine general liability | Premises | Professional indemnity | Employers liability | Marina or ship repairers legal liability | Charter deposit and skipper liability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sailing school | Typically | Typically | Typically | Typically | Typically | Rarely | Sometimes |
| Charter company | Typically | Typically | Sometimes | Sometimes | Typically | Typically | Typically |
| Boat or PWC rental | Typically | Typically | Typically | Rarely | Typically | Sometimes | Sometimes |
| Fishing charter | Typically | Typically | Sometimes | Rarely | Typically | Rarely | Sometimes |
| Marina or boatyard | Sometimes | Typically | Typically | Sometimes | Typically | Typically | Rarely |
| Boat dealer or yacht broker | Typically | Typically | Typically | Typically | Typically | Sometimes | Rarely |
| Yacht club | Sometimes | Typically | Typically | Sometimes | Typically | Sometimes | Sometimes |
Pages for each business type are being published in turn. Where a type is not yet a link, its page is not live yet, and the desk can still quote it today.
The cover each type forgets
- Sailing schools forget instructor professional indemnity. Teaching is advice, and advice gets challenged.
- Charter companies forget the deposit and skipper liability line that sits between the customer and the hull.
- Rental operators forget that an unqualified stranger at the helm is a different liability picture from an owner at the helm.
- Fishing charters forget that paying passengers and paid crew are two separate exposures answered by two different regimes.
- Marinas and yards forget that their largest asset risk is other people's boats in their care, custody and control.
- Dealers and brokers forget that a sea trial puts a prospect aboard their boat.
- Clubs forget that volunteers and race officers are not employees, which changes the employers answer.
One note on mixed use, because it decides claims. Operators routinely run the same boat as a rental one week and a skippered charter the next. Both uses have to be declared at quotation, and an undeclared use is the most common reason a commercial claim gets argued.
What is marine business insurance?
Marine business insurance is not one policy. It is a set of covers assembled from what a business is exposed to: hull and machinery for the boats it owns, marine general liability for injury and damage to third parties, protection and indemnity for liabilities arising from operating a vessel, premises cover for the shore base, professional indemnity for advice and instruction, and employers cover for staff.
The trade name for that family in the United States is ocean marine. It is the correct name to use when you talk to an underwriter, and it is the reason a general business insurer often cannot help: writing hulls and marine liability is a different discipline from writing shops and offices.
Ocean marine is not inland marine
Ocean marine covers vessels, marine liability and waterfront operations. Inland marine is a United States property line for movable land-based property, such as tools, equipment and goods in transit, and it has nothing to do with boats. The two get mixed up constantly, including by search engines, so an operator who asks an assistant for help on this often gets an answer about the wrong product.
Which of these we can arrange, and which we cannot
We arrange four commercial lines through the chain set out below.
- 1
Fleet and commercial-use hull, for schools, charter fleets and rental operators.
- 2
Marine trades liability, including instructor and broker professional indemnity, premises, and employers cover.
- 3
Marina operators legal liability and ship repairers legal liability, for marinas and yards holding other people's boats.
- 4
Charter deposit cover and charter skipper liability.
What we do not arrange
We do not arrange marine cargo insurance, and we do not arrange any line we have not confirmed. Saying so is more useful to you than a longer list would be, because it saves you a submission that goes nowhere.
Why there are no numbers on this page
We publish no fleet minimum, no maximum, no territory limit and no premium band, and that is deliberate rather than coy. Commercial terms depend on the risk and are confirmed at quotation. A figure published here that turned out not to apply to your operation would cost you more time than the blank does.
Cover is placed at Lloyd's of London by London Marine Insurance Services Ltd, a Lloyd's-accredited broker authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference 308599, which anyone can check on the FCA register.
Who actually pays the claim?
World Yacht Insurance is a yacht-insurance introducer arranging hull and liability cover up to $5M for sail and motor yachts worldwide, including the Caribbean, placed at Lloyd's of London through London Marine Insurance Services Ltd, a Lloyd's-accredited broker.
That definition describes the private-yacht side of what we do, and the same chain carries commercial business. The $5M figure is agreed-value hull capacity on the yacht side, not a commercial limit.
- 1
You
A marine business looking for cover on its boats, its people and its customers.
- 2
World Yacht Insurance
We introduce your business. We are not an insurer, we carry no risk, and we do not decide claims.
- 3
AKD Insurance
Our contracted broker in Cyprus takes the introduction.
- 4
London Marine Insurance Services Ltd
A Lloyd's-accredited broker, FCA firm reference 308599, arranges and places the cover at Lloyd's.
- 5
Lloyd's underwriters
They carry the risk and pay valid claims.
One thing a US operator should know before signing
Cover placed at Lloyd's for a United States business is generally non-admitted, which the market calls surplus lines. Non-admitted cover is not backed by a state guaranty fund, so if the insurer failed there would be no state fund behind it. Lloyd's is one of the strongest markets in the world and this is rarely the deciding factor, but it is a fact to weigh rather than one to discover later.
The full chain and the regulatory disclosure sit on our how it works page, and who we are names the licensed agent behind the introduction.
Does US law require a marine business to insure its people?
Federal law does not ask what your business calls itself. It asks what the worker does, and the answer decides which of three regimes applies.
| Who the worker is | Which regime applies | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Crew of a vessel | Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. 30104 | A fault-based claim against the employer, not a workers' compensation benefit |
| Shore-side maritime workers, loading, unloading, repairing or building | Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. 901 and following | No-fault compensation, and securing it is compulsory under 33 U.S.C. 932 |
| Everyone else | State workers' compensation | The state scheme where they work |
For a yacht business, one exclusion usually decides the answer. 33 U.S.C. 902(3)(F) excludes people employed to repair any recreational vessel, or to build one under 65 feet, as long as state workers' compensation covers them. A neighbouring exclusion, 902(3)(C), does the same for marina employees who are not engaged in construction, replacement or major repair.
The part almost nobody states
A worker who does any work at all on a commercial vessel needs Longshore cover, even if recreational work fills most of their week. One commercial job on the schedule pulls that employee back inside the Act. It is worth getting right: failing to secure Longshore cover is a misdemeanour, and 33 U.S.C. 938 sets a fine of up to $10,000, up to a year's imprisonment, and personal liability for the president, secretary and treasurer of a corporation that does not comply. The Department of Labor administers the scheme.
Passenger count matters too. Carry more than six passengers, at least one of them for hire, on a vessel under 100 gross tons, and it stops being an uninspected passenger vessel under 46 U.S.C. 2101. It becomes a small passenger vessel needing Coast Guard inspection and a Certificate of Inspection, which changes its whole risk profile and what underwriters ask for.
Everything in this section is United States federal law. The answers differ elsewhere, and the next section sets out how.
Is it different outside the United States?
Yes, and the differences are the kind that matter, so we keep the three answers separate rather than blending them into one claim that would be wrong somewhere.
United States
No general federal rule requires a marine business to buy liability insurance. What is compulsory is Longshore security for covered maritime employees, state workers' compensation, and whatever a state licence, port authority, marina lease or charter contract puts in writing.
United Kingdom
Employers liability insurance is compulsory for almost every employer under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, with a minimum of £5 million for any one occurrence, set by regulation 3 of the 1998 Regulations and current as at August 2026. A UK operator in this sector is usually described as a marine trade business.
United Kingdom penalties
The Health and Safety Executive states the penalties in its own guidance: up to £2,500 for each day an employer trades uninsured, and up to £1,000 for failing to display the certificate.
European Union
There is no single EU-wide rule for marine business liability. It is set nationally, member state by member state. Several member states do require third-party liability on the vessel itself, and that is a separate question from insuring a business, its staff and its customers. Merging the two produces the wrong answer in both directions.
One consequence for us. Employers liability and professional indemnity are jurisdictional lines, and some of it is placed locally rather than at Lloyd's. What we can arrange for your business depends on where your people are employed, which is why the country of operation is one of the first questions we ask. Owners cruising internationally should start with our worldwide yacht insurance page instead.
What does marine business insurance cost?
No commercial premium range is published on this page, because commercial marine cover is individually rated rather than priced from a table.
| A quote is built from | It is not built from |
|---|---|
| Payroll, and how many people you employ | A percentage of one boat's value |
| Revenue, and how much of it comes from customers afloat | A published rate card |
| Property value at the shore base | Your boat's make and model alone |
| Number of vessels, and the value of each | An online instant price |
| Use class: tuition, rental, charter, brokerage, repair | A figure quoted before the risk is seen |
| Location, and where your people work | |
| Claims history |
The 1% to 1.5% figure published elsewhere on this site is a private-yacht agreed-value indication. It does not apply to fleet or liability business, and carrying it across would give you a number no underwriter would recognise.
The quote form asks for the factors above, because those are the factors that set the price. Operators with several boats can also build a fleet schedule first, which is the document a broker needs anyway.
This page is general information about insurance, not financial advice. Terms, limits and eligibility are confirmed in writing at quotation.
"I charter my own boat out" is a different page
Some readers arrive here who need a different page, so here is the test.
Own one boat and take paying bookings on it? You need a charter or commercial-use endorsement on that boat's policy. Start with our charter yacht insurance page, which is written for owners chartering out, or our bareboat charter insurance page if the boat goes out on a bareboat basis and you want the charterer's side explained too. Those pages answer the endorsement, the passenger and crew liability, and loss-of-charter-hire.
Own boats, employ people, hold a shore base, or take money from customers who use boats you do not personally skipper? You are running a marine business, and this silo is yours. The difference is not the boat. It is that a business has staff, premises, customers and other people's property in its care, and each of those is a separate cover.
If you arrived looking for cover on tools, equipment or goods in transit, that is inland marine, a land-based property line, and it is not what this page is about. We do not arrange marine cargo insurance either.
Marine business insurance FAQs
What does commercial marine insurance cover?+
It is not one policy but a set of covers assembled from what a business is exposed to: hull and machinery for the boats it owns, marine general liability for injury and damage to third parties, premises cover for the shore base, professional indemnity for advice and instruction, employers cover for staff, and legal liability for other people's boats in its care, custody or control. Which of them a business needs depends on the business type, not on the label.
Is marine business insurance the same as inland marine insurance?+
No, and the two are routinely confused. Inland marine is a United States property line for movable land-based property such as tools, equipment and goods in transit. Ocean marine is the family that covers vessels, marine liability and waterfront operations, and it is the family a boat business needs. The names are similar for historical reasons, and search engines mix them often enough that an assistant answer on this subject is frequently wrong.
Do I need USL and H cover for my boatyard?+
It depends on what the workers touch rather than on what the business calls itself. People employed to repair any recreational vessel, or to build one under 65 feet, are excluded from the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act if state workers' compensation covers them, under 33 U.S.C. 902(3)(F). A worker who does any work on a commercial vessel needs Longshore cover even if most of their work is recreational. Where it applies, securing it is compulsory under 33 U.S.C. 932. This is general information, not financial advice, and placement is jurisdictional.
Does my charter or rental business need a Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection?+
A vessel under 100 gross tons carrying not more than six passengers, at least one of them for hire, is an uninspected passenger vessel, the arrangement the industry calls a six-pack, under 46 U.S.C. 2101. Carry more than six passengers and the vessel becomes a small passenger vessel that requires Coast Guard inspection and a Certificate of Inspection. The threshold changes the vessel's whole risk profile and what underwriters ask for before they will look at it.
How much does marine business insurance cost?+
No honest single figure exists, because commercial marine business is individually rated rather than priced off a table. Premium is built from payroll, revenue, property value, vessel count and values, use class, location and claims history, which is why the specialist market publishes no rate. The 1% to 1.5% figure used elsewhere on this site is a private-yacht agreed-value indication and does not apply to fleet or liability business. The quote form asks the rating questions directly.
Reviewed by Costas Matheou, licensed insurance agent.
Coverage terms, premiums and deductibles on this page are indicative and not financial advice. Cover is subject to underwriting, survey and the policy wording.
Tell us about your operation
Send the business type, how many boats you run, whether you employ instructors or crew, whether you hold a shore base, and the country you operate in. Put those in the notes field if the form does not ask for them directly. Quote terms from the Lloyd's market come back within 24 hours, and if a line sits outside what our market writes, we say so straight away.
- No obligation
- every underwriting question asked upfront
- a licensed Cyprus agent reviews every enquiry
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