Our fixed costs for 2014 were £1157-57
This was made up of C&RT Craft Licence...........833-38
Insurance..................................................................198-19
River and Canal Rescue Bronze cover.....................126-00
The C&RT Licence is required by all boats and depends on your length, Our boat is 59'. The figure also has the benefit of an early payment discount of 10% which you would be silly to miss out on. Payment can now be completed over the internet and I have found it to be very efficient. The Licence comes through in the post though and should be displayed on either side of the boat. We meet many boaters who complain about all the boats that do not have a licence. I don't think there is a bye law that says you have to display the licence, just that it should be as it saves money when checkers need to waste time etc checking if a certain boats index number is licensed. Just because there is no licence displayed doesn't mean that the boat isn't licensed. I think there is a C&RT website that you can input an index number and check if it is licensed. C&RT have said the number of un-licensed boats has fallen to 4%. If there are 40000 boats on the canals that would be 1600 boats. If the average license fee was £650 that would be still over £1 million lost. With all the checking on the canals I wonder how long it will be before the system is robust enough to do away with the window display and rely on the computer checks like for road vehicles? Not for a good while yet I suspect
We are insured with Towergate Mardon and we have found them to be very good. We have the standard insurance cover I think. I checked that it covered us for our trips out on the tidal Thames and that was all in too. You have to have £3 million third party indemnity which is required by C&RT. They were very good when we bent our prop. We didn't think about our insurance until the boat was in the dry dock and the propeller off. I called them and quickly established that yes it was covered and no, it didn't matter that the work had already started. I sent them proof of the work done, photos and the bill etc and the money was transferred into our bank account very quickly. I was worried that the next years premium would increase greatly but it looks to me that it has only increased about 5%. I would recommend Towergate Mardon after our experience with them this year.
I have taken out Bronze cover with The River Canal Rescue this year that entitles you to four call outs a year. I suppose at a boat gets older higher cover maybe needed but so far we haven't had to call them out at all.
This was made up of C&RT Craft Licence...........833-38
Insurance..................................................................198-19
River and Canal Rescue Bronze cover.....................126-00
The C&RT Licence is required by all boats and depends on your length, Our boat is 59'. The figure also has the benefit of an early payment discount of 10% which you would be silly to miss out on. Payment can now be completed over the internet and I have found it to be very efficient. The Licence comes through in the post though and should be displayed on either side of the boat. We meet many boaters who complain about all the boats that do not have a licence. I don't think there is a bye law that says you have to display the licence, just that it should be as it saves money when checkers need to waste time etc checking if a certain boats index number is licensed. Just because there is no licence displayed doesn't mean that the boat isn't licensed. I think there is a C&RT website that you can input an index number and check if it is licensed. C&RT have said the number of un-licensed boats has fallen to 4%. If there are 40000 boats on the canals that would be 1600 boats. If the average license fee was £650 that would be still over £1 million lost. With all the checking on the canals I wonder how long it will be before the system is robust enough to do away with the window display and rely on the computer checks like for road vehicles? Not for a good while yet I suspect
License displayed.
We are insured with Towergate Mardon and we have found them to be very good. We have the standard insurance cover I think. I checked that it covered us for our trips out on the tidal Thames and that was all in too. You have to have £3 million third party indemnity which is required by C&RT. They were very good when we bent our prop. We didn't think about our insurance until the boat was in the dry dock and the propeller off. I called them and quickly established that yes it was covered and no, it didn't matter that the work had already started. I sent them proof of the work done, photos and the bill etc and the money was transferred into our bank account very quickly. I was worried that the next years premium would increase greatly but it looks to me that it has only increased about 5%. I would recommend Towergate Mardon after our experience with them this year.
Our propeller after being straightened and re-balanced and ready to be refitted in Bulbourne dry dock.
The fourth or is it fifth emergency service!
4 comments:
Hi, As a follower of your blog I have been particularly interested in your propeller repair, we have a bent blade, got it clobbered by a piece of wood on the end of some rope. Checked with our insurer's (craftinsure) & found we have a £300 excess :((
So are debating what to do, she still steers okay though reverse is iffy! On a winter mooring now & booked in dry dock for blacking end of May so we're hoping to manage till then & sort the prop when in the dry dock as may be fixable for less than excess ? & won't incur increased premiums. Insurance is up for renewal in March so considering changing insurers. So hope you don't mind if I ask what your excess was/is
Hi There and thanks for reading the blog,
Our excess was £150 pounds but could set it at what ever we wanted. Of course the the bigger the excess the cheaper the insurance. We got £767-80 to cover the work on the propeller/dry docking etc which actually was £125 less for some reason! It was the second time we have bent a propeller blade as we did it last year and never thought to claim. This year as we knew we were going on the Thames I wanted to make sure we would have no problems. How ever on our trip north again we have managed to bend a blade again. We must be doing some thing wrong. This time I have managed to partially straighten it and as we are due for a blacking next year we will get it sorted then. I am seriously thinking of getting an Axiom prop or at least on with more 'meat' in the blades. I think when they refurbish the blades after being bent they have to shave some off it to get it balanced and this must make them more likely to get bent. I suppose if you pay more for a better quality propeller there will be more metal in it and lees prone to problems. I will have some research to do over the winter. I hope this helps and thank again for reading.
Cheers for now, Tony
Hi, really helpful, thankyou. Will definitely be changing insurers in March! The issue with the prop metal being thinner would make sense, have you thought of giving Crowthers a ring ?
We are booked into Portland Basin dry dock on the Ashton for blacking & as Crowthers are in Oldham will be getting their advice on what's best to do, new or refurb ( or what the insurance will pay for !)
Cheers, Julia nb Poppy
Hello Again,
We had our first bent prop straightened at Portland basin and Crowthers did the straightening and balancing. I think you are right, a conversation with them would be rewarding and help to point the way. Best of luck with the insurance company.
Cheers, Tony.
Post a Comment