Free tool

What is my boat worth for insurance?

A boat has two values. Market value is what a buyer pays. Insured value is what an underwriter agrees to pay if the boat is destroyed, fixed at inception on evidence. This tool does not estimate either one. It takes the figure you would insure for and shows what it covers, what it leaves out, and what it costs you.

If you want the resale number, the price guides are the right place and we are not one of them. N.A.D.A., Kelley Blue Book, J.D. Power, BUC and ABOS all publish market values. What none of them tells you is what your insurer does with a figure once you name it.

No valuation: We show what your figure does, not what your boat is worth
4 sums: The form asks for hull, tender, personal effects and trailer separately
1% to 1.5%: Typical premium band, share of agreed value per year
10%: Named-windstorm deductible, taken off the scheduled hull value

Put in the value you would insure it for

One figure in, and the arithmetic is deliberately simple enough to check by hand. Everything below is a percentage of the number you type, and every rate comes from the wording we hold.

The part owners get wrong

What your agreed value does not include

One number does not cover everything on the boat. The yacht questionnaire underwriters price from asks for the hull, the tender or dinghy, personal effects and the trailer as four separate sums insured, and the grid they sit in is headed COVERAGES WILL NOT BE PROVIDED UNLESS REQUESTED HEREON. A sum you do not ask for is a sum you do not have.

This is the quietest way to be underinsured. An owner works out what the boat is worth, puts that figure on the schedule, and assumes it stretches over the dinghy on the davits, the chartplotter, the ground tackle and the trailer it sits on over winter. The form does not read it that way, and neither does a claim.

The sums the form asks for separately

HULL - PHYSICAL DAMAGE: The boat itself. This is the figure people mean when they say what the boat is worth, and it is the base every percentage on this page is taken off.
TENDER/DINGHY: Its own line, with its own sum. A tender is frequently worth more than owners remember once the outboard is counted.
PERSONAL PROPERTY: Effects on board. Not the boat, not the fixed equipment, and not covered by the hull figure.
TRAILER: Its own line again, with its own year, purchase price and present value asked for separately.

Engines are asked the same way, per unit, each with its own purchase price and present value. The practical reading is simple: go down the list and put a figure against everything you expect to see paid for.

Primary source

Why the form asks for purchase price and present value separately

The yacht questionnaire underwriters price from captures PURCHASE PRICE and PRESENT VALUE as two different fields, next to DATE PURCHASED, and it repeats all three for every engine. What you paid is a fact about a past transaction. What it is worth now is a separate fact needing separate evidence. The form is built on the assumption that the two differ.

That structure settles an argument owners have with themselves. A boat bought three years ago for $400,000 and offered for cover at $400,000 raises a question, and the form is designed to surface it rather than bury it. Sometimes the answer is a refit and a repower with the invoices to prove it. Sometimes the answer is that the figure has not been looked at since the day of purchase.

Engines carry the same pair of fields, which is why a repower shows up in the agreed value only when the paperwork does. We publish no depreciation percentage and no rule of thumb here, because a curve we cannot source is a made-up valuation with a straight face.

Purchase price is evidenced by the bill of sale, and a boat bill of sale generator is on this site if you need to produce one.

The underwriter's own question set

What evidence an underwriter agrees the value on

The agreed value is not a number you pick, and it is not a number we pick. You propose it, and an underwriter agrees it on evidence. This is the evidence, taken field by field from the questionnaire this desk submits rather than described in general terms.

The vessel's identity

YEAR and LENGTH (ft)
MANUFACTURER/MODEL
HULL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER
HULL MATERIAL: wood, metal or fibreglass
TYPE OF HULL: sailboat mono or multi, performance, runabout

The value evidence

PURCHASE PRICE with DATE PURCHASED
PRESENT VALUE, asked separately
DATE VESSEL LAST SURVEYED, and whether ASHORE or AFLOAT
Documented refit and equipment value, with invoices rather than estimates
Comparable sales for the same model, age and specification

The sums, plural, and the context around them

A separate SUM INSURED for hull, tender or dinghy, and personal property
Engines listed per unit, each with purchase price and present value
LAID UP dates and location, and whether ON SHORE or AFLOAT
WATERS TO BE NAVIGATED, and the home port
LITHIUM BATTERIES INSTALLED, and ANTI-THEFT PRECAUTIONS

An appraisal and a survey are not the same document, and the form asks for the survey. A marine survey reports condition and is what underwriting conditions attach to.

The survey and photograph conditions that attach to the figure are set out on the agreed-value guide, and we do not restate them here.

One point of market practice worth knowing in advance: if the figure comes back lower than you proposed, that is information about the boat rather than an opening bid.

The consequence

What a total loss pays: the figure fixed now, or the figure argued later

Under an agreed-value policy the figure in the schedule is the measure of indemnity on a total loss. Under actual cash value the figure is market value at the date of loss, after depreciation, determined then rather than now. That is the whole difference, and it is why the number you are choosing today matters.

Fixed now

The value is agreed at inception on the evidence above, and it is a valued policy under the Marine Insurance Act 1906. There is no valuation argument after the loss because the valuation happened before it.

Argued later

An actual cash value settlement is worked out after the event, and it is priced from the published reference books: N.A.D.A., BUC and ABOS. Condition, hours, equipment and the state of the market on the day all become live questions at the worst possible moment.

We do not work an actual cash value figure on this page. Doing it honestly needs a sourced depreciation curve for your boat, we do not hold one, and inventing one would be the exact failure this tool exists to avoid.

The statutory treatment, the partial-loss case and the worked settlements are on agreed value versus actual cash value, which is the page that owns this subject.

Age

When your boat's age makes a survey a condition rather than a question

The questionnaire asks DATE VESSEL LAST SURVEYED of every applicant, whatever the year of build. Age does not decide whether a survey exists. It decides the point at which the survey stops being a question on a form and becomes a condition of cover, and past about twenty years it generally is one.

Age is not the only trigger. Wood and metal hulls draw a survey at any age, because on those materials condition governs rather than the year on the paperwork. A well-kept older boat with a clean survey is an easier risk than a neglected newer one, and underwriters read it that way.

We do not publish a pass mark and we do not put a price on a survey. The surveyor's figure can move the agreed value in either direction, which is more useful to know in advance than any reassurance we could offer.

Thresholds, survey types, what the surveyor inspects and what happens when recommendations are left open are all on yacht survey requirements for insurance.

Read this with the result

What this tool does not do

It is not a valuation, a survey or an appraisal, and it is not financial advice.
It does not estimate what a boat is worth. It shows what a value you propose implies.
The agreed value is set by underwriters at inception on evidence, not by this tool and not by you alone. It can sit above or below book value.
The premium band is an indication rather than a quote. Cruising ground, claims record, hull material, age and laid-up arrangements all move it.
Figures assume cover placed at Lloyd's of London through London Marine Insurance Services Ltd.

And the question underneath the question

People search for what not to tell an insurance company. The duty runs the other way. The things owners hesitate to declare, such as living aboard, chartering, single-handed night passages or a prior loss, are on the form precisely because non-disclosure is what actually costs a claim. Declaring them gets them underwritten. Leaving them out gets them argued about later.

Primary sources

Where these figures come from

Rates and definitions on this page trace to the policy wording and questionnaire this desk holds, and to the primary sources below. The questionnaire is not a public document, so it is cited in prose rather than linked.

The yacht insurance questionnaire underwriters price from, and the London Marine Insurance Services policy wording, clauses and endorsements. Held by this desk and quoted from the documents themselves.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is there a Kelley Blue Book for boats?+

Yes, several, and for insurance they answer a different question. N.A.D.A., Kelley Blue Book, J.D. Power, BUC and ABOS all publish market values, which is what a buyer might pay. An agreed value is set by an underwriter on evidence at inception and can sit above or below book. Use the price guides for resale, and use the evidence list on this page for cover.

Is it better to insure a boat for market value or agreed value?+

Agreed value fixes the total-loss measure at inception, so the valuation argument happens before the loss instead of after it. Market value, settled as actual cash value, is determined after the loss and net of depreciation. The trade is premium against certainty, and the agreed-value guide works both settlements through on the same boat.

Can I insure my boat for more than it is worth?+

You propose the figure and an underwriter agrees it on evidence, so an inflated number rarely survives the survey and the comparables. An honestly agreed figure is conclusive between the parties under the Marine Insurance Act 1906, but that protection does not extend to fraud. An inflated figure also raises the premium and raises the base the percentage deductible is taken off.

Does the agreed value change during the policy year?+

It is fixed at inception for that period. Review it annually and after any major refit, because the market will adjust it mid-policy on documentation. Unrepaired damage is the exception worth knowing about, and the agreed-value guide covers how that endorsement works.

How much is boat insurance on a $20,000 boat?+

At 1% to 1.5% of agreed value the arithmetic gives roughly $200 to $300 a year. In practice a $20,000 boat is mass-market territory rather than the agreed-value Lloyd's market this desk places, so the figure is indicative of the rate rather than of what you would be quoted. The cost calculator prices the band properly.

Where to go next

Agreed value vs actual cash value
The concept, the statute and both settlements worked through on one boat.
Yacht insurance cost calculator
Prices the cover from the value, with deductibles and eligibility.
Yacht survey requirements
Thresholds by age, survey types and what underwriters read.
Named-windstorm deductible
Why 10% comes off the scheduled value, and what the hurricane plan changes.

Reviewed by Costas Matheou, licensed insurance agent (Cyprus).

Coverage terms, premiums and deductibles on this page are indicative and not financial advice. Cover is subject to underwriting, survey and the policy wording.