Every year there are an estimated 360,000 deaths worldwide related to drowning making it the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death and a cause for major concern (World Health Organization). Unfortunately, children make up a large percentage of these drowning accidents particularly if they are under 9 years of age. The chance to drown is exacerbated for kids when boating because of a variety of additional factors that can make the environment more difficult for inexperienced swimmers. Beach and Boating Safety Tips Water Safety When Around The Ocean Swimming from your boat in the ocean, in a river, or... Continue Reading →

Protection & Indemnity Insurance – What is it??? If you own a boat and have an insurance policy, you may have noticed in your policy you have Protection and Liability (P&I).  Has it ever been explained?  We will try to offer a brief explanation and highly encourage you to speak to your agent. If you look at your policy and you don’t have P&I coverage, please contact a marine Insurance specialist like Gallagher Charter Lakes.  This is a brief overview of P&I. FOR THE VERY LARGE OCEAN VESSELS P&I is liability coverage for the boat or ship owner.  Most of... Continue Reading →

1st, as with all insurance products, find a company with a strong financial outlook.  Is the policy from an “A rated” company?  Standard and Poors, Moodys and A.M. Best, provide letter ratings on insurance carriers; ‘A’ being the top rated and it goes down from there.  The insurance is only good if the company can financially stand behind the product, even in the case of a catastrophe.  That means, paying claims. Also, will you speak with people when you call claims or have to follow endless prompts, only to leave messages on a machine and wait for a return call?... Continue Reading →

Hurricanes-Threatening the East Coast and Hawaiian Islands.  There are several storms spinning along both coasts. Want to remind our policy holders that most yacht and charter boat policies cover some portion of the cost to haul out and secure your vessel on the hard.  Review your policy and execute your storm plan sooner rather than later. Now is the time to get your boats secured until the storm passes. As boaters, there is nothing we can do to change severe weather.  We must be prepared and execute a plan for our safety and the safety of your boat and other... Continue Reading →

Claims service should be one of your primary concerns when purchasing any boat or yacht insurance policy. After all, isn’t that the reason you’re buying the policy in the first place?  Here at Charter Lakes we believe claims service is the value behind any marine insurance agency and the policies they sell.  Not to toot our own ‘ships whistle’, but proof is in the pudding as they say, so we thought we would share a few recent email comments from our clients who had to make a boat insurance claim…. “I can’t thank Charter Lakes enough for everything they have... Continue Reading →