When planning a vacation, especially a yacht charter, no one wants to dwell on “what ifs.” After all, you’re taking a well-deserved break from the hustle and bustle of your working life. You might even be escaping a bitter cold winter to lounge in the Caribbean sun. But sometimes the best laid plans get interrupted. A family emergency, an unexpectedly severe storm—things like this can make a good trip go very bad and become very costly very quickly, even before you leave home. That’s why charter brokers are increasingly educating charterers about travel insurance.
Some charter brokers have insurance licenses and can sell you a policy from a major agency. Others refer clients to travel-insurance firms. Either way, for your ease, travel insurance companies often offer bundled services. Most provide for trip cancellation and interruption, medical expenses and transportation, lost or stolen baggage coverage, and 24-hour travel-assistance services (rebooking tickets or replacing a lost or stolen passport, for example). The differences lie in the limits, as well as whether they’re booked for a single trip or for annual coverage.
But the number-one reason why it’s recommended—and obtained—is to protect against trip cancellation. It’s not uncommon for illness or a sudden death in the family to lead to a cancellation. Insurance can reimburse you for the charter cost; otherwise, you’re sunk. “This is a very, very expensive vacation,” explains Jennifer Saia, president of The Sacks Group Yachting Professionals, whose firm recommends obtaining insurance with every contract it sends. “You could be liable for the entire cost of the charter” if the yacht can’t be rebooked for the dates you’d planned to cruise aboard. Saia relates the story of one client whose son had pneumonia and couldn’t board a plane, leading the woman to cancel the charter only days before her family was scheduled to depart. That same client didn’t have travel insurance. While she was lucky that the yacht owner offered the chance to rebook within a year, Saia says, not all owners take that approach. “It’s not like a hotel room; this is an expensive boat that has been taken off the market” for your dates, she explains.
Insurance agents point to weather being another common cancellation cause. Snowstorms have wreaked havoc with charterers heading off on Caribbean cruises. Even if your departure is delayed just a day or two, you can get reimbursed on a pro-rated basis.
Remember the volcanic explosions in Iceland? And remember how the talking heads on the evening news kept stating that acts of God like this weren’t covered? False, at least where travel-insurance firms like Travel Guard and On Call International are concerned. Dan McGinnity, vice president of Travel Guard North America, says his team contacted travelers to alert them to flight cancellations and rebooked them automatically. If clients couldn’t embark on travels or had trips interrupted, they were covered. Gary Tice, vice president of sales for On Call International, says his firm will begin covering tsunamis and other natural disasters in September. He cautions that not all travel policies cover acts of God. “You have to ask and make sure it’s included,” he recommends.
While medical emergencies during a charter are thankfully rare, according to McGinnity, Tice, and even Saia, it’s worth requesting coverage if for no other reason than peace of mind. Tice says that without insurance, medevac costs can range from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on where you are in the world. “Even if you’re wealthy, you don’t want to pay that out of pocket,” he affirms. He relates the story of four couples who chartered a yacht to explore the coast of Chile, with occasional day trips ashore. On one day trip, they hired a driver to take them up into the Andes, and they encountered a truck around a curve on a narrow road. Their driver swerved to avoid hitting the truck, but he veered off the road, and the vehicle plummeted a few hundred feet down a cliff. Six of the eight charter guests were killed on impact, with the two survivors sustaining serious injuries.
It’s an extreme example, but if you’ve ever been injured on vacation, you may know the unease associated with treatment at an unfamiliar hospital—so imagine being in a foreign country. Imagine also the nightmare of trying to arrange for bodies to be flown home: legal red tape that can take days to untangle, plus tens of thousands of dollars. In the situation just outlined, thankfully everyone had purchased travel insurance. For about $1,000 each—a small additional percentage of the six-figure charter cost—the charterers acquired policies that provided medical evacuation to a hometown hospital. Recovery of and flying home the deceased’s remains were also covered.
So what’s it all cost? McGinnity says the rule of thumb is six to eight percent of the trip cost, plus factors related to the ages of the travelers and the coverage limits. There are also single-trip policies and annual policies. But for a $20,000 charter with four people ages 40 to 55, Platinum coverage (one of Travel Guard’s popular packages) would cost $375 each. The same coverage on a $200,000 charter with 10 people in the same age range would cost about$1,900 apiece.
Bottom line: “Why gamble? For spending a relatively small amount, everything is covered,” Tice says. Better to have someone working on your behalf than trying to tackle the problems yourself. After all, as Tice puts it, “They do it every day.”
Editor’s Note: Diane M. Byrne is the founder and editor of the website Megayacht News. A longtime yachting writer, she contributes to Super Yacht World, Superyacht Business, Boat Exclusive, and other magazines. She is additionally a member of the International Superyacht Society Board of Directors and a founding member of the U.S. Superyacht Association.
Diane M. Byrne is the founder and editor of the website
Megayacht News. A longtime yachting writer, she contributes to Super Yacht World, Superyacht Business, Boat Exclusive, and other magazines. She is additionally a member of the International Superyacht Society Board of Directors and a founding member of the U.S. Superyacht Association.
This entry was posted
on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 9:46 am and is filed under Commentary, Crewed Yacht Charter, Yacht Charter, YW UK Features Landing Page, YW US Features Landing Page.
Tags: charter insurance, Diane Byrne, travel insurance, weather
Yacht Charter Travel Insurance Can Make the Difference
For a fraction of your overall charter cost, you can obtain travel insurance to cover nearly everything from a medical emergency to an act of God.
Some charter brokers have insurance licenses and can sell you a policy from a major agency. Others refer clients to travel-insurance firms. Either way, for your ease, travel insurance companies often offer bundled services. Most provide for trip cancellation and interruption, medical expenses and transportation, lost or stolen baggage coverage, and 24-hour travel-assistance services (rebooking tickets or replacing a lost or stolen passport, for example). The differences lie in the limits, as well as whether they’re booked for a single trip or for annual coverage.
But the number-one reason why it’s recommended—and obtained—is to protect against trip cancellation. It’s not uncommon for illness or a sudden death in the family to lead to a cancellation. Insurance can reimburse you for the charter cost; otherwise, you’re sunk. “This is a very, very expensive vacation,” explains Jennifer Saia, president of The Sacks Group Yachting Professionals, whose firm recommends obtaining insurance with every contract it sends. “You could be liable for the entire cost of the charter” if the yacht can’t be rebooked for the dates you’d planned to cruise aboard. Saia relates the story of one client whose son had pneumonia and couldn’t board a plane, leading the woman to cancel the charter only days before her family was scheduled to depart. That same client didn’t have travel insurance. While she was lucky that the yacht owner offered the chance to rebook within a year, Saia says, not all owners take that approach. “It’s not like a hotel room; this is an expensive boat that has been taken off the market” for your dates, she explains.
Insurance agents point to weather being another common cancellation cause. Snowstorms have wreaked havoc with charterers heading off on Caribbean cruises. Even if your departure is delayed just a day or two, you can get reimbursed on a pro-rated basis.
Remember the volcanic explosions in Iceland? And remember how the talking heads on the evening news kept stating that acts of God like this weren’t covered? False, at least where travel-insurance firms like Travel Guard and On Call International are concerned. Dan McGinnity, vice president of Travel Guard North America, says his team contacted travelers to alert them to flight cancellations and rebooked them automatically. If clients couldn’t embark on travels or had trips interrupted, they were covered. Gary Tice, vice president of sales for On Call International, says his firm will begin covering tsunamis and other natural disasters in September. He cautions that not all travel policies cover acts of God. “You have to ask and make sure it’s included,” he recommends.
While medical emergencies during a charter are thankfully rare, according to McGinnity, Tice, and even Saia, it’s worth requesting coverage if for no other reason than peace of mind. Tice says that without insurance, medevac costs can range from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on where you are in the world. “Even if you’re wealthy, you don’t want to pay that out of pocket,” he affirms. He relates the story of four couples who chartered a yacht to explore the coast of Chile, with occasional day trips ashore. On one day trip, they hired a driver to take them up into the Andes, and they encountered a truck around a curve on a narrow road. Their driver swerved to avoid hitting the truck, but he veered off the road, and the vehicle plummeted a few hundred feet down a cliff. Six of the eight charter guests were killed on impact, with the two survivors sustaining serious injuries.
It’s an extreme example, but if you’ve ever been injured on vacation, you may know the unease associated with treatment at an unfamiliar hospital—so imagine being in a foreign country. Imagine also the nightmare of trying to arrange for bodies to be flown home: legal red tape that can take days to untangle, plus tens of thousands of dollars. In the situation just outlined, thankfully everyone had purchased travel insurance. For about $1,000 each—a small additional percentage of the six-figure charter cost—the charterers acquired policies that provided medical evacuation to a hometown hospital. Recovery of and flying home the deceased’s remains were also covered.
So what’s it all cost? McGinnity says the rule of thumb is six to eight percent of the trip cost, plus factors related to the ages of the travelers and the coverage limits. There are also single-trip policies and annual policies. But for a $20,000 charter with four people ages 40 to 55, Platinum coverage (one of Travel Guard’s popular packages) would cost $375 each. The same coverage on a $200,000 charter with 10 people in the same age range would cost about$1,900 apiece.
Bottom line: “Why gamble? For spending a relatively small amount, everything is covered,” Tice says. Better to have someone working on your behalf than trying to tackle the problems yourself. After all, as Tice puts it, “They do it every day.”
Editor’s Note: Diane M. Byrne is the founder and editor of the website Megayacht News. A longtime yachting writer, she contributes to Super Yacht World, Superyacht Business, Boat Exclusive, and other magazines. She is additionally a member of the International Superyacht Society Board of Directors and a founding member of the U.S. Superyacht Association.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 9:46 am and is filed under Commentary, Crewed Yacht Charter, Yacht Charter, YW UK Features Landing Page, YW US Features Landing Page.
Tags: charter insurance, Diane Byrne, travel insurance, weather