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Taking out sailing insurance before heading out to sea on your sailing trip is essential. You may need to cancel your trip due to ill health, your flight may not make the start date, your luggage could get damaged or lost, or you may need medical care away from your home country. Sailing insurance is designed to provide cover in these scenarios, providing peace of mind and financial security and ensuring you are well-prepared and protected if you need further treatment or have medical expenses or legal expenses. The exact cover you need will depend on which type of sailing you are looking to do, whether you intend to sail more than once a year and where you are resident.
Make sure you have insurance that specifically covers sailing
Many standard travel insurance policies that cover personal accident do not provide sailing cover, so if you are planning on using your existing cover, check it carefully. It is also unusual for general travel insurance policies to cover sailing more than 12 miles offshore, so again check this carefully. Unless you are certain, we always recommend taking out a specific policy for sailing insurance.
Get the right coverage: territorial waters or beyond
Most sailing policies will differentiate between policies that cover you up to 12 miles offshore and those which don’t. They may use the term territorial waters, which is usually considered to be the same thing as 12 miles offshore. Most Rubicon 3 coastal trips stay in territorial waters, but check the specific notes for your trip. All our offshore sailing and ocean trips and our Passage Making Masterclass will sail outside territorial waters. If you’re not sure, get in touch.
Single trip travel insurance or annual multi trip cover
Think about whether you are likely to sail more than once in a 12 month period. Maybe you have some flotilla sailing planned as well as your Rubicon 3 adventure? If you are, it is going to be better value to buy an annual multi trip policy or a policy that covers round the world trips. If this is a one off for the year, then a single trip policy is probably best.
Ensure the policy will cover cancellation
If Rubicon 3 cancel the trip, you get an automatic and rapid refund of any money you have paid us for your sailing holidays, so you do not neet insurance for this type of cancellation. However, sometimes crew have to cancel their trip with us, such as when a medical condition arises. In this instance, it is essential that you have insurance as we will not be able to refund you any money you have paid us.
Declare pre existing medical conditions
Make sure you disclose a pre existing medical condition when you buy the sailing travel insurance, as your sailing holiday insurance or rescue cover may be invalidated if you do no not.
Personal liability insurance
You are not required by Rubicon 3 to have insurance that covers you for personal liability. Standard sailing travel insurance policies should give you all the cover you need. The policies also usually cover any legal expenses.
When to buy insurance: start and end dates
Some policies require you to buy it within a set period of time after booking your sailing holiday, so it’s worth checking. We recommend buying it when you book the holiday as you want to ensure that any disruption or medical conditions that arise prior to departure are covered wherever possible.
Travel insurance for sailors resident in the United Kingdom
For sailors based in the United Kingdom, you have a number of options. These include:
Travel insurance for sailors resident in the EU
For sailors based in the EU, options include:
Travel insurance for sailors resident in the USA
For sailors based in the USA, options include:
- Rick Bagnall at Gowrie. He has proved superb for our US clients in the past. You will also need to fill in the Gowrie Form here to send to him.
- Danboater.
Travel insurance for sailors resident in Canada
For sailors based in Canada, options include:
