We bought the boat that prompted the inquiries about Lake Erie and will be
sailing it from Gibraltar, MI to Maine in the spring.

Insurance took some calling around. I've been so involved professionally
with boats over the last three decades that I never needed or got around to
owning one that you couldn't put on a car. I've done plenty of sailing and
cruising though. Underwriters saw somebody buying 32 foot, first boat and
planning to set right out on 900 mile trip and freaked. Had to dig up all
my old sailing buddies for references.

Got insurance for half the price of anyone else from Liberty Mutual. They
only write boat insurance for holders of existing auto and homeowner
policies. It isn't a significant part of their business so they don't pay
much attention to it and haven't raised rates since 1986! Only drawback is
they won't cover Canada on the ocean coast so we'll have to switch when we
are ready to start going to Nova Scotia. Great Lakes and seaway up to
Quebec is covered though.

--

Roger Long