On Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:49:43 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

There was just a post on the owner's forum for my boat that someone is
having trouble getting insurance in the Gulf and Florida region for a
boat more than five years old. Has anyone heard anything similar?
Any chance this is the first high cirrus clouds of approaching bad
weather?

Getting insurance on older boats has been an issue for quite awhile
but now it is getting worse, a lot worse in places like Florida and
the Gulf Coast. It's not just boats either, houses also. Our home
insurance just doubled last week and we've had no claims. It just
happens to be a 1978 house however, built before the new FL codes went
into effect. We are on the water but 10 miles inland from the Gulf,
and about 1,000 ft in from the river.

Two years ago when we bought our 1981 GB trawler, insurance almost
broke the deal because it was so difficult to get, and that was before
the latest bunch of bad storms. We know people who have clauses in
their policy stating that the boat can not be below latitude 31
degrees during the hurricane season (roughly the South Carolina
border).