Bruce
It's like a house, the value to you is what it would cost following a
total loss to rebuild or bring another up to the standard you currently
enjoy. The higher the value the higher the premium obviously, but ask
yourself if you could find something as good as you have if you had to
look around the current market and pay the current prices expected. Our
barge valuation was done by a ship surveyor in 2009 and he came up with
almost double what we bought her for in 2006 based on the cost to start
again with a nice historic hull and fund the conversion back to what we
have by a professional shipyard. If anything, we are probably under
insured in this respect as we have done much of the work ourselves but
would not expect or wish to if the worst should happen. If the ship is
your home, you also need to take into account the true cost to your life
of having no-where to live while you sort this out. Chris Grant
Bruce said . . . Thank you for your replies. I think I must have worded
my question badly because I was not enquiring about the cost of
insurance. I shall try again. When my barge insurance renewal occurs it
asks the value of the vessel to be insured. Until now I have put the
value for which I paid for the barge when new. I do not know if the
barge has depreciated or appreciated in value since 2007. Do I pay a
marine surveyor to value it? Pay a boat brokerage to value it? Advertise
it for sale to get a true market value (assuming I can sell it in the
current economic conditions)? I don't like the thought of the last idea.
It would be a subterfuge because I have no intention of selling.