Saturday, April 5, 2008

Wreck Removal Coverage

I was snooping around on the Progressive Insurance website, when I came across this item about boat insurance:


Wreckage Removal coverage is automatically included with Comprehensive and Collision coverage. If you use Comprehensive or Collision coverage, Wreckage Removal pays for reasonable costs you incur for any attempted raising, removal or destruction of the wreckage of your insured boat or PWC. Wreckage Removal limits vary based on whether or not you are legally required to raise, remove or destroy a boat or PWC.

Comprehensive & Collision is what we would call hull insurance. I guess its hard for them to break out of the auto insurance vocabulary. The part I find so interesting is their statement that the "removal limits vary based on whether or not you are legally required to raise...."
Last summer, I had a case where a boat settled on top of a mooring anchor's shank. Thats right - a 500# mushroom anchor shank came right up through the bilge between the engines. Pictured here is the top of the shank in his bilge, surrounded by our Rule 8000 pumps and hoses. The hole was about 4" in diameter. The job was an adventure in its own right, but back to the wreck removal issue.
The boat owner was insured with Liability only insurance through Progressive (not Comp & Collision). The local Harbor Master wrote a letter (after the job) that said that the owner was liable to remove his vessel from the town mooring field. We charged a six figure fee to get this boat safely on to a trailer, and Progressive re-imbursed him the entire amount. Now that's a happy ending for everyone.