I got insurance with Travelers through a local agent who checked several companies for me. It was abput 60% of the cost from several of the other big companies. And I am sure the paper work as noted by others is not worth the effort. And I am not sure many insurers would appreciate the back and forth? I am not an expert but I am thinking that a boat would not be covered under home owners if a tree fell on your boat in the yard or it got stolen. Before I did anything with dropping the boat insurance I would check on that.
That's interesting... I had Travelers for my homeowners insurance, automobile insurance and had them for the insurance with my previous boat as well. Then I bought my Grady White, initially insured it through them until they told me that I could only insure the boat for what I bought it for. I explained that I bought the boat back on the east coast for $26.5k but that one almost identical to mine just sold on the local Seattle Craigslist for $55k. They said it was now their new policy to only insure a boat for what someone paid for it and so I switched everything from Travelers to Progressive. Which was kind of annoying because I'd been with Travelers on all of my policies for just over 5 years and I even gave them the opportunity to match Progressive. They said no. It's all for the best though as I didn't want my boat only insured for $26.5k because I'd likely not be able to replace it for that price, unless I found a fantastic deal again back on the east coast. I'm happy I looked elsewhere though as I'm saving about $400 a year just on my auto insurance policy now since I switched to Progressive and that savings basically pays for my entire boat policy with them. I've also got the boat insured for an agreed upon value of $45k as well as added vessel assist towing for an extra $30 a year and roadside assistance for free. I was quite surprised by how much Travelers was overcharging me for my auto insurance policy and very glad that I switched everything over.
To the OP... it really depends on the insurance company for your boat, if they'll let you only have insurance for part of the year, if your homeowners insurance will cover any damages to it and how much your premium is as well as what you value your boat at. I personally do what I can to save as much as possible with insurance in the sense that I'll purchase the policy and pay the annual price so that I'll get a better discount than paying month to month. With all of my insurance policies, but especially my auto policy, paying the annual price as opposed to paying month to month was a savings of a couple hundred dollars. It really just depends on how much you're spending now, how much you have your boat valued at and so on. If your policy is say $300 or less a year then you probably aren't going to see a ton of savings where it's worth it to potentially not have coverage, if you were to have a claim you needed to file. If your insurance company let you only insure the boat for 6 months out of the year and your homeowners insurance covered any issues with the boat then it might be something to think about. I think you'd probably money ahead of the game if you paid for an annual insurance policy instead of paying month to month, and that might even save you enough to keep your boat insured year round, or be a wash. I've always insured my boats year round in the event that a tree or something fell on them or that I had an issue but I've got a 12' Lund that isn't worth more than probably $500-$1000 and isn't worth spending the money on it for insurance. I know your Grady and my Grady are a bit of an apples to oranges comparison so it really depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend, what you're comfortable with and if your homeowners insurance will cover your boat. I personally don't think it's worth the risk and think you could save a decent chunk of the money you're spending paying for month to month when you could pay for the annual policy. That, or you could possibly shop around and see if you could get a cheaper boat policy to help offset the costs as well?
