Emergency Contact Yachtowners launch Pre-Delivery Liability Policy Home Latest updates News Yachtowners launch Pre-Delivery Liability Policy 1 Aug 2016 Download Sign up for alerts The Yachtowners syndicate at The Shipowners’ Club offers for the first time a liability insurance solution for super yacht custom build projects. Yachtowners, the specialist yacht syndicate of The Shipowners’ Club, today announces the launch of a liability insurance solution that addresses the unique risks arising from super yacht custom build projects. To date, insurance buyers have been faced with ‘add-ons’ to standard yacht navigating policies and makeshift cover from traditional yacht liability insurers that is limited in scope, only responding to the risks associated with crew. As a leading super yacht liability insurer, with the largest book of yachts over 24 metres, the Club has worked closely with the industry to assess the risks and to build an in-depth understanding of the way in which these projects are carried out. The primary issue facing owners is that the crew, who are not at sea while the yacht is constructed, are more akin to conventional shore based employees and need to be treated as such. There are also numerous professionals employed over the duration of a build – from project managers to acoustic engineers – who present the owners with potential liabilities, as often they have little or no insurance themselves and arrange contracts to pass on all or some of the responsibility for their actions to the Owner. In addition to 25 years’ experience insuring the liability risks of the yacht market, the Club’s experience in analysing contracts for the specialist vessels engaged in the offshore industry has meant that they are comfortable with the concept of an ‘Owners Group’. It is this understanding of the wide variety of people for whom the Owner is potentially responsible that has enabled the Yacht syndicate to protect these land-based exposures and potential liabilities.