I talked with fellow boater last night about a recent incident. I'm hoping that Phil will weigh in with a report as well.
These friends keep their boat at a well known marina/restaurant on the Mokelumne River. He stayed Monday night on the boat a couple of weeks ago. Late the following Friday night, they got a phone call at home from the USCG asking about how many people were on board their boat. Replying that there were none and the boat was moored in its slip. They were shocked to learn that the boat had been stolen, stripped and sunk in the deep water channel between Decker Island and Rio Vista.
Apparently no one from the marina or their security department noticed the boat being taken so they are not sure when it was stolen, but the engines showed 24 hours of running time. The dirtbags had stripped everything of value from the boat including stove, refrigerator, generator, electronics, dinghy, etc. They aren't sure why the boat had been sunk, but the thieves had cut the hoses from the thru hulls and scuttled her. This was a 28' Bayliner and it contained enough flotation to prevent it from sitting on the bottom, but apparently it went just below the surface. A rock barge had passed over doing additional damage to the exterior.
The boat was actually discovered by another tug/barge going downstream that spotted it on their depth sounder and reported it to the USCG.
Now for the sad part ..... They had recently switched insurance coverage to BoatUS and thought they had everything covered. Their previous coverage included separate amounts for personal property, the dinghy, electronics, etc. and they had asked for an equivalent policy. When they submitted their claim, BoatUS informed that the dollar amount on the policy was the total coverage and included everything on board. The wife went back and checked the actual policy and found that to be true, BUT she tells me that the actual policy differs from the emails she was sent when making the decision to go with them. When she received the actual policy, she didn't read it and just filed it away, her bad. Long story short, they received barely enough money to pay off the loan on the boat.
I haven't seen any of the paperwork associated with this and she should have read her policy, but I would encourage any of you insured with BoatUS to pull out your policy and give it a good read now. It's a lot easier to make a change now rather than when you have experienced a loss.
These friends keep their boat at a well known marina/restaurant on the Mokelumne River. He stayed Monday night on the boat a couple of weeks ago. Late the following Friday night, they got a phone call at home from the USCG asking about how many people were on board their boat. Replying that there were none and the boat was moored in its slip. They were shocked to learn that the boat had been stolen, stripped and sunk in the deep water channel between Decker Island and Rio Vista.
Apparently no one from the marina or their security department noticed the boat being taken so they are not sure when it was stolen, but the engines showed 24 hours of running time. The dirtbags had stripped everything of value from the boat including stove, refrigerator, generator, electronics, dinghy, etc. They aren't sure why the boat had been sunk, but the thieves had cut the hoses from the thru hulls and scuttled her. This was a 28' Bayliner and it contained enough flotation to prevent it from sitting on the bottom, but apparently it went just below the surface. A rock barge had passed over doing additional damage to the exterior.
The boat was actually discovered by another tug/barge going downstream that spotted it on their depth sounder and reported it to the USCG.
Now for the sad part ..... They had recently switched insurance coverage to BoatUS and thought they had everything covered. Their previous coverage included separate amounts for personal property, the dinghy, electronics, etc. and they had asked for an equivalent policy. When they submitted their claim, BoatUS informed that the dollar amount on the policy was the total coverage and included everything on board. The wife went back and checked the actual policy and found that to be true, BUT she tells me that the actual policy differs from the emails she was sent when making the decision to go with them. When she received the actual policy, she didn't read it and just filed it away, her bad. Long story short, they received barely enough money to pay off the loan on the boat.
I haven't seen any of the paperwork associated with this and she should have read her policy, but I would encourage any of you insured with BoatUS to pull out your policy and give it a good read now. It's a lot easier to make a change now rather than when you have experienced a loss.
