Taking Photos for Motor Cruiser Insurance

It’s a good idea to take photos for your motor cruiser insurance before the need actually arises. Hopefully, you won’t have to make a claim, but having a good photographic record could make the process easier and help to avoid any disputes. Take photos of the general condition of your motor cruiser as well as recording any extra equipment, fittings or accessories.

The quality and availability of camera phones is increasing all the time, and this guide to taking photos for your motor cruiser insurance should make the process easier.

Why take photos for motor cruiser insurance?

Having a good photographic record of your motor cruiser is important as many boats are custom-built and modified throughout their lives, so they are unique. This is in contrast with cars, for example, which are usually built to a set of more clearly-defined specifications.

If you do have to make a claim on your motor cruiser insurance, a good photographic record will help you to construct the claim, supporting any written information that you provide. It can also help to speed up the claims process, clearly demonstrating what you’re claiming for.

When to take photos for motor cruiser insurance

As a proud owner of a motor cruiser, you’ll probably take some photos when you’ve just bought your boat. However, it’s also a good idea to take photos after any refurbishment has been done, or you’ve added some new equipment. Taking photos of your motor cruiser at the beginning of each season, after its spring-clean and de-winterisation, is a good habit to get into.

What to photograph on your motor cruiser

Take photographs of the outside – each side as well as the bow and stern. Take the opportunity to photograph the hull if your motor cruiser is out of the water for any reason. Photograph the engine(s) as well as the interior and any important optional extras that you’ve bought.

If you have any restoration work done on your motor cruiser, then photographs showing work in progress during the restoration will help to record the extent of the work.

Photographs of restoration work in progress could also be useful if you believe that you should receive more than you’ve been offered when making a claim.

Organising photos of your motor cruiser

Digital photographs are usually automatically date-stamped, which can help you to organise them. It’s also a good idea to copy them to a specific folder on your PC, laptop or tablet. This will make them easier to find and save you valuable time if you do have to make a claim.

It’s important to back up your photos – this goes for all of your computer files. Photos may be backed up to cloud storage automatically (for example photos taken on an iPhone are backed up to an iCloud account). On a PC, you can schedule back ups to run on a regular basis and a separate manual back-up to an external hard drive is another way of protecting your files.

Photograph your documentation

Service records, receipts for work done on your boat or accessories that you’ve bought are usually paper-based. They are often different shapes and sizes, so if you’re not good at filing paperwork into a system, then photograph or scan your documentation and save it on your computer – not forgetting to back it up. Not only will this help you if you need to make an insurance claim for your motor cruiser, it can also help you to maximise the value if you want to sell your boat. It will provide evidence of regular servicing and maintenance, and that you’ve kept your boat in good condition.

Hopefully, you won’t have to make a claim, but we hope that you find this guide to taking photos for motor cruiser insurance helpful. It is a marketing article from Assist Insurance.

This is a marketing article from Assist Insurance Services, a UK based family run business with more than 41,000 leisure policyholders. Each of our policies provide comprehensive cover as standard, with plenty of optional extras to choose from. For more information about our insurance services, please call one of our boat insurance specialists on 01604 946 779. Alternatively choose your product of interest below to find out more:

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