Spain requires liability insurance on most boats, but not a survey. Mapfre sums up who must be insured: motor boats, boats over six metres, and foreign boats sailing in Spanish waters. Cover for the boat itself is optional, and Ocaso, a Spanish insurer, publishes its general conditions in full.
How Ocaso values a claim
- Partial damage. Valued at the new value of the damaged parts, with no deduction for use.
- Total loss. Valued at the boat's market value, its sale value at the time of the loss.
- Constructive total loss. When repair would cost more than 75% of the boat's real value, Ocaso may settle it as a total loss, less the value of the wreck.
- Sum insured. Should match the boat's new value: hull, sails, engines, fittings, masts, rigging, gear and tender.
When the two sides disagree
If Ocaso and the owner haven't agreed the amount within 40 days of the claim, the procedure in article 38 of Spain's insurance contract law applies. Each side appoints an expert, and a third if the first two can't agree. Their decision is binding on both, unless the owner challenges it in court within 180 days or Ocaso within 30. Once the experts' figure is accepted, Ocaso pays within 5 days.
What isn't covered
Damage caused by a defect in the boat itself, or by an obvious lack of maintenance, is excluded. That's where a surveyor's earlier report, or its absence, matters.
For the surveyor
In Spain a surveyor is most often in an insurance file as one of the two experts after a claim. Write the cause, the extent and the cost of each item separately, so the figure can be argued item by item. Axsail builds a damage report from what you say on board, one finding per item, with the photo on each.