Yacht insurance matched to your vessel, your sailing area, and your situation.
Not every insurer can cover every owner or vessel. If you have a yacht in Europe, sail internationally, or hold a non-EU passport, finding the right policy is not always straightforward. We know which insurance companies can help, and we make the introduction.
The right insurance for a yacht is not always easy to find
Yacht insurance exists to protect you against the costs of accidents, damage to your own vessel, damage you cause to others, and injuries to people on board. Those three risks are distinct, and the policies covering them are too. Most yacht owners need at least the first two; many benefit from all three.
The challenge is that not every insurer offers every type of cover, and not every insurer will cover every owner. Non-EU passport holders, vessels sailing between flag states, and owners who occasionally charter their vessel all face limitations that standard insurance routes do not always accommodate.
Lorrendraaier is not an insurer. We are specialists in yacht registration who have built up a network of insurers over more than a decade. When registration and insurance intersect – which they often do – we help you find the right cover alongside the right register.
How our insurance matching works
- We start by understanding your vessel, your sailing area, and your nationality
- We identify which insurers are able to cover your specific situation
- For non-EU passport holders, we approach only the insurers who can offer cover
- We put your details to those insurers and gather offers on your behalf
- You receive the offers and assess them at your own pace
- If you accept an offer, the policy is finalised directly between you and the insurer
- Our role ends at the match, we are not party to the policy itself
What types of cover are available?
Three distinct types of insurance are relevant to most yacht owners. They cover different risks and are often arranged together, but they are separate policies.
Hull insurance
Hull insurance covers physical damage to your vessel, the structure itself, the machinery, and the equipment on board. It applies when the vessel is damaged through circumstances outside your control, as well as in accidents and collisions.
The scope of a hull policy varies. Some cover the vessel only while sailing; others include cover in the marina or on a mooring. The geographical limits also matter, a policy covering North Sea sailing may not automatically extend to the Mediterranean.
Typical covered events
- Collision with another vessel or fixed object
- Grounding or running aground
- Storm or weather damage
- Fire on board or in the marina
- Sinking or capsizing
- Material defect causing structural failure
Liability insurance
Liability insurance covers you when your vessel causes damage or injury to someone else. A collision in a busy harbour, a swinging boom that catches a person on the dock, a wake that damages another vessel’s dinghy, the costs can accumulate quickly, and they fall on you if you are not insured.
It also protects you against unjustified claims. If someone holds you responsible for something that was not your fault, liability cover means a legal defence is available without coming out of your own pocket.
Typical covered situations
- Damage to another vessel in a collision
- Damage to marina infrastructure, pontoons, mooring posts
- Injury to a third party caused by your vessel
- Medical expenses for others injured in an incident
- Legal defence costs against unjustified claims
Passenger accident insurance
When guests come on board, you take on a degree of responsibility for their safety. Standard hull and liability insurance may not fully cover the costs arising if a guest is injured on board, on the gangway, or on the pontoon.
Passenger accident insurance fills that gap. It covers medical costs, and in serious cases disability or death benefits, for guests involved in an accident connected to your vessel. For anyone who regularly sails with others on board, this is worth considering alongside the other two types of cover.
Typical covered situations
- Guest injured on board during sailing
- Accident on the gangway, pontoon, or jetty
- Guest falling overboard
- Injury during crew handling or sail changes
If you take paying guests on board – even occasionally – a standard private yacht insurance policy does not cover you. If an incident occurs during a paid charter, the insurer can refuse the claim. The same applies to bareboat charter. Commercial or charter use requires a specialist policy, usually alongside a commercial registration.
If you are considering chartering your vessel, speak to us about both the registration and insurance implications together. The two are closely connected, and it is easier to arrange them in parallel than to retrofit one after the other.
Non-EU passport holder with a yacht in Europe?
This is one of the situations where finding yacht insurance independently becomes genuinely difficult. Many standard European insurers do not cover non-EU nationals, or only do so under restrictive conditions. Going directly to a general insurer often means a series of rejections before finding one that can help, if at all.
We know which insurers can and do offer cover in this situation. Rather than approaching companies at random, we go directly to those who have the appetite and the structure to underwrite non-EU owners with vessels in European waters. That saves you significant time and frustration.
The same applies if your vessel is registered under a less common flag state, sails between multiple flag state jurisdictions, or has other characteristics that fall outside a standard policy. We assess your situation and find the insurers best placed to cover it.
Situations we can help with
- Non-EU passport holders with a vessel registered in an EU flag state
- Owners who sail regularly outside EU waters
- Vessels registered under less common or recently changed flag states
- Owners in the process of switching flag states who need cover to continue
- Vessels sailing under a provisional registration
- Owners considering occasional charter who need to understand policy implications first
- Situations where standard insurer applications have already been rejected
How the matching process works
We keep it simple. Our job is to connect you with the right insurer, not to add steps between you and a policy.
Tell us about your vessel and situation
Vessel type, size, sailing area, your nationality, and what cover you are looking for. A short call or message is enough to get started.
We identify the right insurers
Based on your situation, we identify which insurers in our network can actually cover you, filtering out those who cannot, so your details only go to relevant companies.
Offers come back to you
We approach the selected insurers on your behalf and pass the offers to you. You review them at your own pace, there is no pressure and no obligation to accept any particular offer.
Policy finalised directly with the insurer
If you accept an offer, the policy is arranged directly between you and the insurance company. We make the introduction; the relationship that follows is between you and your insurer.
By the numbers
9/10
Client satisfaction score, ten years in a row
10+
Years specialising exclusively in yacht registration
ISO 9001
Certified – one of the only specialists in the EU
15+
European ship registers covered
Why come to us for insurance?
We are not an insurance broker in the general sense. We are maritime registration specialists who know how insurance and registration intersect, and who have the network to make useful introductions.
We know which insurers can actually cover you
There is no point approaching insurers who will turn down your application. We know the landscape, which companies cover non-EU nationals, which handle unusual flag states, which can accommodate vessels sailing across multiple jurisdictions.
Registration and insurance handled together
The flag state you register under can affect which insurers will cover you and on what terms. When we handle your registration, we can also look at insurance at the same time.
You reach a person, not a service desk
You call and Boudewijn answers. If you have questions about what a policy covers, how it interacts with your registration, or whether a particular type of use is likely to be insurable, you can get a direct and informed answer.
Your data is handled with care
We share your details only with the insurers we approach on your behalf, and only with your knowledge. All data is handled in strict accordance with GDPR, stored securely, and never used for any purpose beyond finding you suitable cover.
Questions about yacht insurance
Things owners commonly want to understand before getting in touch. If your question is not here, just give us a call.
Looking for cover for your vessel? Drop us a note and we will point you in the right direction.
Tell us about your vessel, where you sail, your nationality, and what type of cover you are looking for. We will come back to you with a clear picture of the options and which insurers we recommend approaching.
Lorrendraaier is not a licensed insurance broker or underwriter. We act as an intermediary connecting yacht owners with insurance companies. Policies are arranged directly between you and the insurer. The information on this page is for general guidance only and does not constitute insurance advice.