By the time you read this, most boaters in the northern states will probably have their boat out of the water or getting ready to be out of the water. In our area, even though we have had a few rain storms move through, we are still in a drought. The local marina sent out a reminder that if you have a “deep” keel boat or any sort of deep draft, you will need to get out early. That means a bunch of the sailboats will not be able to sail until the end of their slip “contract” time, which is October 31.
I don’t think this is a problem just for my marina, it is happening around the country. Low water levels are making owners pull their boats early or not put them in at all. Which means there are many boats being stored around the country. That’s not really anything new.
We store our pontoons in storage facilities, back yards and driveways all the time. But it might be earlier than normal in some places. Recently, in my area, there has been an increase in theft of trailers/boats. Reason? Economy, crime groups, kids–who knows? But as boat owners we should be aware. Plus, as an insurance agent I hate to see our customers’ boats, cars or aircraft be stolen.
A quick Internet search of top claims pulled up the BoatUS Marine Insurance program's “Top Ten Claims” list. I think I have discussed top claims before, but this seems like a great time to update. I was not surprised that the number one claim is striking a submerged object, damaging the pontoons or the lower end of the engine.
Number six was theft of equipment and number nine was the theft of the boat. Theft was further down the list than I expected, although BoatUS did state that, “While boat theft only ranks as number nine on our list in terms of number of claims, it's number one in terms of the average payout.” Which I am not surprised about; boats are high priced.
It was also noted that 90 percent of stolen boats are taken while on their trailers. The study indicated that the most common stolen boat was shorter than 26 feet and on a trailer. Oh, it also found that only about 15 percent of the owners had a lock of any kind installed.
What brought this boat theft topic up? I was having a phone discussion with one of my potential airplane customers. He was discussing why I had not heard from him before now. He related the story of standing in his house hearing sirens that seemed very close. You know how it is, you hear stuff but can’t figure out what’s going on. Then he is watching someone run across his yard toward his boat tied up in the water behind his house. Behind the runner were several legal authorities. In disbelief he stood there and watched the runner jump in his boat and take off. His boat was later found on the rocks (it was being chased by the police, who apparently caught the thief). His boat was a crime scene for numerous hours. This story got me thinking about boat theft.
Okay, insurance premiums are always going up. Fires, hurricanes, price of parts, supply chain issues, the list goes on. So it is in our best interest to reduce claims, especially big claims such as boat theft. I'm also going to go out on a limb here and state that I think many criminals are lazy and don’t care about your stuff. So they will take whatever is easiest to steal. And if they damage it, well, that’s not a big issue, it isn’t theirs to begin with.
So if most boats are stolen on a trailer, make it more difficult to steal (locks, block it in, etc.). If you keep your boat in the water all the time, take the keys out or put some sort of a lock on it. If you can slow the thief down or make it harder to steal, maybe they will move on from your boat to someone else.
