Safeguarding your boat from severe weather
This week, we revisit a conversation with Todd Shasha of Travelers about how boat owners can protect their vessels from catastrophic weather events.
The United States saw it’s second-warmest-ever first half of the year (January through June) in 2024, the NOAA reports. Globally, June 2024 was the warmest June recorded in the NOAA’s 175-year history. Many have taken to the water to find some relief from this extreme heat this summer, but temperatures aren’t the only extreme boat owners have to contend with these days.
The NOAA also reports that as of July 9, the U.S. has experienced 15 confirmed climate disaster events with losses over $1 billion each in 2024 – with 13 of these events related to severe weather.
According to claims data from Travelers, 19% of boating-related claims over the past five years were a result of severe weather events.
For this episode of Insurance Speak, which originally aired last summer, we were joined by Todd Shasha, assistant vice president of personal insurance at Travelers, who has lead the company’s boat and yacht business for around a dozen years.
Shasha explained that some of the most important things boat owners can do to protect their waterborne investments from extreme weather conditions are to simply be aware of the forecast and have a plan in place in case they are caught on the water.
“Check before you go out there, make sure you’re aware of your surroundings,” Shasha explained. “If you see dark clouds coming up, if you are able to, you probably want to get back to the dock as soon as feasible or to your mooring just to safeguard the vessel and those who are on it with you… Probably the principle loss-avoidance technique is to make sure that you do have a plan in place to anticipate any type of severe weather. A CAT event like a hurricane, you should have advanced notice, but if you have severe thunderstorms, that really comes down to monitoring the weather forecast and taking action to make sure that you and your vessel are not imperiled.”
To hear our full conversation with Todd Shasha about how boat owners can keep their boats safe amidst extreme weather, listen to the full episode of Insurance Speak podcast above or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music or Libsyn.