A question about insurance?

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler

Ok, how about this as an example. My mates stepson crashes his Impreza through a garden wall in Bournemouth a couple of years ago, no alcohol or speeding involved, just a pure accident, he writes the car off, but the insurance company refuse the claim as he neglected to tell them that he fitted different wheels/tyres.

18 months later he's still fighting with them, and still paying the finance on the motor!

OK - call me a sceptic , but the words Impreza, accident and no speeding dont go together .

However the ins com can do this under what is called 'non-disclosure' of a material fact . Again material is anything that may affect risk - if in doubt just tell them everything chapter & verse ! Cars are however very differant to boats & in my experiance most marine insurers will take a sensible view in most cases.

[Jim Robinson]

If it is an older boat -pre rcd I guess it is up to you to decide what is safe, this can be difficult as the now common four strokes can weigh double the old two strokes, so you need more power to get the same performance and the weight aft sticks the nose in the air. Racing is the same as a pure race build doesn’t have to comply.
Modern RCD covered hulls. I would be surprised if insurance companies would cover hulls that they new were over powered? I guess you would loose any warranty if it were a newer hull, but that is your choice.
I think it all comes down to the chain of responsibility, If I produce a boat, I have to take responsibility for its design, in turn safety to those who will use it (some not so capable). We run it through the RCD tests and from these we have to decide what the Max Hp should be. We then have to advertise this in the manual and CE plate. If you follow these and the boat has handling problems, crashes and or hurts someone it’s down to us. If you choose to ignore them its down to you, insurance policies won’t save you from prosecution.
Dull dull dull I know, but you also have to imagine the amount of huge Ribnet fingers that would be pointed at you for being irresponsible, not a forgiving lot!!.