My boat is NOT afloat

[Ocklepoint]

Unlike other Rivals of this parish, "Hirta" still languishes ashore at the MRC.

After an expensive and lengthy refit over the winter, and just as she was about to come out of the shed, she was discovered to have a very badly seized engine. Oh dear.

But the good news is that the insurance company have just agreed to pick up the tab for a very expensive repair, so expensive that I may dig deep to pay the difference for a new engine. The damaged one is 17 years old.

My response to this calamity was to contact a delivery company I sometimes sail for: so I'm just back from La Coruna and I'm off to Nuku Hiva in Polynesia to take a 44fter from there to Seattle via Hawaii.............I know but someones got to do it.

By the time I get back the beautiful "HIrta" will be fully restored, I hope

[wully]

Life's ups and downs perfectly encapsulated...

[Nick]

.
How did the engine seize with the boat in storage?

[Ocklepoint]

.
How did the engine seize with the boat in storage?

That's a great question.

The engine was running perfectly when I left her on a mooring at the MRC last October. MRC staff then shifted her without using the engine.

I thought I had turned her over manually using the fan belt fairly regularly through the winter but on reflection it may only have been the water pump that I heard gurgling.

The boat has been moved five times over the winter and I can only think that she may have been lifted "stern up" on one occasion which allowed the salt water lying in the exhaust pipe to flow forward and up into the head of the engine.

The exhaust pipe does not have a water lock and is not fitted with a "high lift" bend. This was not mentioned in the survey and although I had noticed the lack of muffler I had not noted the lack of "high lift".

I'm still a bit puzzled though as to why this should have happened this year rather than any of the previous 16 years. She was out of the water at the MRC when i bought her last year.

According to the engineer, Robert, the head is a write off, the injectors need to be sent away, the barrels need honed and so on and so..........

The insurance pay out represents just over 60% of a new engine.

[Nick]

The insurance pay out represents just over 60% of a new engine.

. . . in which case I think I would try to find the other 40% and fit a new one.

[Alan_D]

Who are your insurers? They sound worth knowing about.

[Ocklepoint]

The insurance pay out represents just over 60% of a new engine.

. . . in which case I think I would try to find the other 40% and fit a new one.

That's the plan.

Who are your insurers? They sound worth knowing about.

GJW, a Liverpool crowd

This is the first time I have made a claim: I wrote a report, they sent a surveyor, the engineer submitted some figures, the surveyor wrote a report, bingo, all in ten days

[SteveN]

Who are your insurers? They sound worth knowing about.

Agreed, they sound like a good company to be with.

Just wondering why MRC would need to move a stored boat 5 times over the winter - to do with the refit I guess?

[mm5aho]

On GJW...

We've been insured with them for a long time. Only 1 claim, that a few years back from storm damage while on pontoons at Dunstaffnage, requiring some new toe rail, new fairleads and a new pulpit. Absolutely no issues with the claim all done by emailed pictures.
This year, wanting to check competitiveness, I filled a few on-line forms for new quotes from others. GJW were the highest. Wondering if this was a bit like the utility companies - where unquestioning renewal gets rewarded with annual increased premiums, I sent them the process received, and separately requested a new quote as if I was a new customer, (wondering if they'd spot that this was for an existing customer).
Original quote about £400 and something (I don't have it here). New competitor quotes ranging down from that to £175. Fresh GJW quote £150. So I was now the possessor of 2 quotes from the same company for the same thing, one >£400, and one at £150. Emailing them all the facts, and suggesting that they give me a quote with 3 digits starting with a "2", they said, no, they'd honour the £150.

Think I'll stick with them for a while...

That saving pays for all the diesel used last week motoring Rhu to St Kilda and back to Oban!

[marisca]

Every 2nd year or so I go through the insurance quotes process and so far have stuck with Pantaenius. Others' baseline quotes are definitely cheaper but when I demand cover for racing, new for old, single-handed, swinging mooring, and decline the more restrictive clauses they either give up or add on an unrealistic amount, plus there is the non-trivial matter of a survey. Well done Geoff, I may try the new customer approach for next year.

[SteveN]

plus there is the non-trivial matter of a survey.

That is always the problem, so Geoff's done well.
This year is my 11th. renewal since survey on a 34 year old boat so I was expecting to find that the renewal would be subject to a survey, in which case I would have shopped around, but it isn't so I'll just pay up (£441 ) even though the value insured is probably double what it really is in today's market.

[mm5aho]

My GJW renewal does stipulate a new survey by 2017, and that would be 10 years after the last one, still insured with them at that time.
The survey was less complicated when I told the surveyor what the purpose was. The surveyor can then pay less attention to cosmetics that might affect a valuation and concentrate on the things an insurer is interested in.

[Ocklepoint]

GJW required a survey for my last boat a number of years after she was initially surveyed.

I explained to them that the boat was ashore for the winter in Galicia at the time and that I had no idea how I might get hold of a surveyor there or how I might get a survey in a language that they (GJW) might understand

GJW sent me a proforma "Condition Report" for me to complete asking me to score the condition (very good, good, fair etc) of various parts of the boat, about 22 questions. They were happy to proceed based on my responses