Yacht.com Blog

Win free personal calling cards for your yacht or yourself.

Have you set your reply-to address on your mail program yet?  See our instructions here if you’re not sure how.

To participate in our contest, simply send an e-mail to IDidIt@Yacht.com with your reply-to address properly set, and you will be eligible to win a free set of custom calling cards from our store.

We will select one winner at random each month until the contest ends.  If you win you may make any purchase(s) in our calling card store and we will reimburse you up to a total of $75.

Marine insurance has been backing vessels for over 4 centuries. It is the oldest type of insurance and has inspired many other insurance types in its wake. Whether you’re an avid or leisurely sailor, boat insurance is in your best interest considering the myriad of accidents that can occur. A sailing vessel is a magnificent piece of equipment and should be protected against “what ifs” on the water.

Boat insurance provides protection against physical damage losses to the boat, machinery and equipment. This is referred to as Hull Insurance. While the boat insurance industry does not use the terms comprehensive and collision, if you are familiar with these terms for automobile insurance, this would be the equivalent coverage. Each boat insurance company will have a different definition of Hull Insurance. It may include coverage for spars, sails, machinery, furniture, dinghies/tenders, outboard motors, fittings, and other equipment normally required for the operation or maintenance of the vessel.

Each insurance company will vary on how your motor is covered. Engines can be insured on replacement cost or depreciated value. If the boat insurance policy is written on actual cash value, then the engine will always be depreciated in the event of a loss. If the boat insurance policy is written on agreed value, some boat insurance companies will replace new for old without a deduction for depreciation, but only until the engine becomes a certain age. As the engine ages, the replacement cost may change to depreciated value. The age that a boat insurance company will apply depreciated value varies. Some will apply depreciated value on all outboards or stern drives regardless of age. The age when depreciated value is applied can be different for outboards, stern drives and inboards.

There are so many different policies available and ways to mix and match them that you have incredible options when purchasing marine insurance. The “all risk” policy is an example of staying guarded against unforeseen situations that one would not think to name specifically. The “all risk” policies insure everything except for situations that are specifically excluded. For example, wear and tear and manufacturer’s defects could be exclusions to your “all risk” policy. It really depends on the insurer and what you are willing to pay when dealing with the exclusions. On the other hand the “named peril” policy would only cover what is specifically named or stated within the policy.  Fire, lightning, wind, and theft would be common named perils. A “named peril” policy cannot effectively guard against all the odd, unexpected situations that can happen to a boat owner. Think of the oddest situation you have experienced as a boat owner. With an “all risk” policy, if it is not specifically excluded, then it is covered.

For yacht owners it is important to remember to cover your Dinghy or Tender used to service your yacht. Some policies automatically include a Tender as a covered item in the hull (boat, machinery and equipment) definition. Some companies do not provide any coverage automatically and you have to provide them the details on the tender or it will not be covered. Many companies provide specific requirements regarding size or horsepower in order to qualify as a tender; others just say small boat. Personal Watercraft are normally specifically excluded and not considered a tender.

So when thinking about purchasing boat insurance, have a look at what’s available, ask the questions that are going to help you get the best coverage you can, and sail away happy.

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Thanks to Marine Insurance experts at United Marine Underwriters (UMU) for providing this informative piece on the myths of boat insurance.  Leave a comment here or visit their site for more information.

We want Yacht.com to become your home port for your boat and your boating interests on the web; an open platform not just for boating news and information but also a safe and convenient hold for your yachting identity with an e-mail address and a place to store information important to your boating experience.  We plan to have a public side of Yacht.com where you can show information and discuss boating and also a private side where you can store boat and maintenance data, privately receive information from manufacturers and vendors in a way that you control, and construct your own customized topics of interest so we can scour the boating web community to alert you of web sites, blogs and articles of interest.  Our plan is to be an open platform, and that means our goal will be to find and alert you to resources and information of interest throughout the web, not to keep your “eyeballs” captive on our site.

For each feature we are always asking ourselves – will this be valuable?  Is this simple?  Is this the most elegant and practical way to do this?  It just has to make sense.   We’d like to share our vision of the site as it is and what’s soon to come so we are publishing this short slideshow of what the next few steps will be.  We want feedback and we’ll keep writing here about development as we bring out new pieces of the picture.

Click below to see our plans.

Yacht.com Vision

Over the past few days we have rolled out our new Beta version of Yacht.com – just as many of you may be launching your boats for the northern summer season.  The team at Yacht.com has been brainstorming, designing our site, and laying our keel and now we’ve started rolling out features.  This is the first installment on a set of features and improvements that we think you will be very excited to be a part of.

We know how powerful this community can be for connecting you as a boater to the information, resources and enjoyment you need, while having it in a simple place and helping you stay in control of your information and privacy. We have stuck to the basics and are happy to have a place now for you to dock your boat online.  We know this is unique in its own right and are happy that you can come to Yacht.com and find a reliable, growing and interesting mix of news articles you can easily view while we build additional features to make this home port a compelling one.

Just like any great and lasting yacht that is imagined, designed and built – there is a long road from the day that first stringer is laid, or the hull skins are laminated to the day she crosses an ocean.  It also takes a lot of input from builders, engineers, designers and boaters along the way.  We have built the hull, laid in the structure and now we are adding all of the layers and mechanics to make her a true home port for you and your boat.

Consider yourselves part owners of Yacht.com – just as excited as we builders are to see her completed, made unique, polished and ready to roll out of the shed for commissioning in the next few months.  We want you to be informed of new features, we want your input on what dream concepts you have for something you wish there was a place to do on the web.  We do a lot of storyboarding here (technical design storyboards, as well as the story of how our users and partners should interact) and we wanted to share with you the story of some of the features we have in yacht.com, along with many of them we are currently working on rolling out next.  This development blog will serve as our communication link with you, so check back often and leave us a comment.

A lot of Boston sports enthusiasts have much excitement in their lives right now with the Celtics game 7 playoff win, the Bruins providing some post season action with a bid for the Stanley Cup, Patriots speculation for heading into a strong football season and of course, the devotees beloved Red Sox already bringing in late nights with extra innings and gripping 3-game early season series.  This all while the most publicized 2 minutes of horse racing is also taking place as people everywhere were gripping their mint juleps and watching in amazement while MINE THAT BIRD charged ahead at the 16-pole and took the Kentucky Derby win in one of the better 2 minutes of horse racing I’ve ever seen.

All of this is going on, but what about the 8 thouroughbreds right there in Boston Harbor?  I’m talking about the Volvo Ocean Race Maxis currently docked at Fan Pier in Boston.  Ericsson 4 led the fleet completing Leg 6 from a long, but fast leg up from Rio de Janiero.  Telefonica Blue came in second, but only holds a .5 point lead over USA TEAM PUMA, the local favorites in unmistakable bright red.  Team PUMA has been getting some good press with a bit on the Today Show in NY last Friday.  Its not oftent hat a world sailing event comes to the US, espceially Boston, sot eh organizers have gone all out at Fan Pier.  If you have missed it so far, there is still plenty of daily action with some collegiate inshore racing and night events on Fan Pier.  The fleet departs on Saturday, May 16 at 3:00 for Leg 7 to Gallway, Ireland.  You can bet there will be a big spectator group to see them off.

It seems there has been an abundance of press lately on the downturn of the boating industry in these global troubled economic times.  Friends are sending me links daily to reports they are seeing on general interest outlets.  The mystery behind the big money yachting companies has always been a source of interest to my friends who work in other sectors, but now they are seeing that the percentages of loss have been massive for some of the most successful and profitable builders we have seen in the past decade.  Sportsfishing giant, Viking Yachts last week reported its final round of layoffs – 540 out of a New Gretna, NJ workforce of 1400.  40 percent is a big number for a small town.  Maybe it’s because of tax season, or possibly because of the highly publicized seizing of Madoff’s 2m yacht in Florida and subsequent repossession of his larger $7m yacht in the French Riviera. It could just be that mainstream media wanted a new story beside the demise of the US auto industry in Detroit and the nationwide housing crisis. CNBC covered the growing inventory in a boat repossession company in South Florida last night.  Watch below.

Here at Yacht.com, we know it is important to boaters to know what is going on with their associated organizations, manufacturers and dealerships.  We have the function to pull news relating to all of these things and deliver it in a concise format right in your news tab.  We know that getting your boating news in one place will simplify things.  In the meantime, here are some links of articles I have been following.  We want to stay informed, no matter what the headlines are – and we know you do to.  Feel free to send me comments, links or articles.

Viking Yacht cuts nearly 600 jobs Forbes Magazine / Associated Press.  April 10, 2009

Anxiety Is Up as Orders Fall at Boatyards New York Times. April 3, 2009

Stormy Seas for Europe’s Luxury Yacht Makers Business Week.  April 10, 2009

The spinnakers of the 2009 St Barths Bucket on the final round island race day.

I have just returned from one of the more fun yachting events in the world – the St. Barths Bucket.  The participants racing on the  34 superyachts were treated to 3 perfect days of 15-20 kt winds, Caribbean blue water and the spirit of taking a 100′+ boat and racing it like a 36′ club champion.   Typically, these yachts live in sailors worlds as the lovely ladies gracing calendar pictures on the walls of our homes and offices, or the screensavers of people wanting the distraction to dream of luxury cruising in million dollar style.  That’s what makes a Bucket Regatta so unique – these boats not built for racing dominate courses and maneuver around marks like their smaller cousins.

This years fleet ranged from the massive 289′ tri-masted MALTESE FALCON to the 76′ W-Class boat Wild Horses.  There were 9 Perini Navi’s, including the new BARRACUDA, unmistakable with its purple sails outfitting the massive ketch rig.  After 3 days of racing, the 2 year old 170′ Huisman-built schooner, METEOR won with a 1-13-4 record.  The race committee was busy as on the final day of racing, the complex handicapping of the fleet paid off having 12 boats cross the finish line within 3 minutes of one another.  That’s an incredibly close finish considering the course was around St. Barths, a 2+ hr trip and piling 12 boats next to each other across the line takes some communication to finish safely.

Look for photos coming to a marine photographers calendar near you and certainly stay tuned for next year.  Much of the industry may be suffering from downturns but this fleet does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

This blog post was supposed to be about a beautiful wooden yacht that is on the brokerage market up in Lake George.  That’s all fantastic to hear about (and you can still find the story here), but I suspect many of you might find more use in the back story of how the presence of a boat like this on the web can be influenced and enhanced by all of our new social media tools.

Two days ago, an very Internet savvy marine entrepreneur, Guy Mitriano, who is one of the founders of Burlington Boatyard started following YachtDotCom on Twitter.  He sent us a message about this particular Windsor Craft 36 that is being sold through Boats by George that he has offered to help ‘get out there’ in some new and atypical ways in terms of the brokerage world.  I looked into it, found Guys’ blog article about the boat, also found an interview on YouTube about the boat and then was able to find the broker and Burlington Boatyards website.  I could have simply blogged here about it, or pointed a link to Guys’ post about it, but knowing the appeal of these types of unique stunners in the yachting world, I figured this yacht might benefit a larger and more suited audience.  I sent along the information to my friend John Burnham, who is the editor of Yachtworld.com and Boats.com and happens to also pen their blog.  [John and I are also LinekdIn... in case you wanted to know another useful tool we use on the internet to pass along information.]

As luck would have it, John found the story interesting to their readers and it appears today on the boats.com blog.  Who would have guessed that a little Twitter message from Guy to Yacht.com could have generated a whole little write up on Boats.com.  John and Guy have spoken and now more Lake Champlain-related content might be appearing there (as well as here) as they celebrate their 400th year of boating on the lake.

As our Yacht.com community develops, this is just one small example of how a boats have a life on the web – and how we can use the tools out there to help promote and highlight them.  The moral of the story is don’t be afraid to use these social media tools, get out here and find creative ways your boat might reach more eyes on the Internet – you never know who might be paying attention.  Look for more inter-activity here in the coming months and years!

Today marked the opening of the 17th Annual Dubai International Boat Show.  This largest yacht event in the Middle East has been gaining popularity among the super yacht crowd as well as some international manufacturers who recognize the wealth available and natural market demand due to all of the marine amenities being developed in the region and the amount of waterfront property that has been built and snatched up by the worlds richest.  There are major partnerships between the event organizers and the New Zealand marine trades exhibitors to help boost the island-nations critical and struggling export market.  The DIBS website states that the show has grown in exhibitors again this year and that all of the marina dockspace has been filled with boats for sale and on exhibit – a statement organizers of every other boat show in the world have not been able to make in 2009.

Still, it seems some of the news coming from the region is that incentives are required – with Island Global Yachting Group offering an incentive for any yacht purchased at the show to be guaranteed one of their exclusive slips at the newly opening Anchor Marina, a pretigious high profile dockspace in Dubai.  Furthermore, any visitor to their booth who fills out an enquiry card is given a free weeks dockage.  We’ve seen some creative and aggressive incentive packages to help move inventory and keep the flow of sales moving with shows in the US this year.  Is it accurate to say that even in one of the wealthiest luxury-goods buying regions of the world – the buyers are still needing incentive to pull out their checkbooks?  We’ll see the reports on attendance and sales after the show closes next week and see how 2009 has stacked up for DIBS.

Since leaving Miami, I have flown back and forth to the Caribbean, up to New England and then drove down the East Coast to spend a few days with the 120 members of the Yacht Broker Association of America this week in Baltimore before landing again in Charlottesville to continue the development of the site.  I enjoyed spending 2 days with this group talking bout how they are using the web to connect to their clients.  During their Annual International Conference predictably many of the conversations about the business of yacht brokerage were colored by the climate of our down-turned economy.  The interesting thing is that for the most part, this group remains positive and understands that there are still great opportunities to have a good year of sales.  Good brokers are finding ways to provide value, customer service and opportunity through creativity, outreach, utilizing new tools on the web and good old fashioned hard work.  Dawn Speros of The Gowrie Group which provides insurance, gave a great talk where she highlighted that economy aside, people love boating, it’s an emotional connection not found in other aspects of their lives and they will always find a way to incorporate it into their life.  It is a true statement.

We know manufacturers are still building new boats, listings are still being posted and boats bought and sold and I can assure you as the temperatures begin to climb, boats are getting geared up to go back in the water.  Remember this time last year?  We were all talking about how many boats would be tied to the dock because of rising fuel costs.  Its always something, but this year we know boaters can take off, leave the stress on land and get back to the activity which bonds us all together.  We’re busy building the full yacht.com site for you and its easier knowing there is one common bond and activity we can surely support as a resource to connect you all.