Your Marina Wants a Certificate of Insurance: What the Slip Contract Is Actually Asking For
Additional insured, loss payee and waiver of subrogation are three different things, and a slip contract may ask for all three. Here is what each one does to your policy and how to get a certificate the marina will accept first time.
The Certificate Is Not the Coverage
A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary evidencing to a third party that a policy exists - who is insured, what limits, what dates, and any additional interests. It is not the policy, it does not add coverage, and issuing one does not change what you are insured for.
That distinction is the source of most of the friction. A marina asks for "a certificate showing us as additional insured," and if your policy has not actually been endorsed to add them, a certificate saying so is worth nothing. The endorsement is the substance. The certificate is the receipt.
The Three Things a Slip Contract May Ask For
1. Additional insured
Marinas typically require boat owners to name the marina as an additional insured on the owner's liability policy and to furnish a certificate evidencing it. This extends your liability coverage to protect the marina in the same way it protects you.
The practical scenario: a marina employee moves your boat and puts it into a bulkhead, or someone is injured in connection with your vessel while it is in the marina's care. Naming the marina means your policy responds on their behalf as well as yours.
2. Waiver of subrogation
This one deserves more attention than it usually gets, because it works against you rather than for you.
Subrogation is your insurer's right to pay your claim and then pursue whoever caused the loss. A waiver of subrogation gives that right away: if the marina damages your boat, your insurer pays you and then cannot recover from the marina.
Two consequences. First, your insurer has to agree to it - you cannot waive a right on their behalf by signing a contract, and doing so without telling them can put your own coverage at risk. Second, over time this is what pushes the cost of marina-caused damage onto boat owners collectively. It is standard in the industry and usually not negotiable, but you should know you are giving something up, and your agent needs to know you signed it.
3. Loss payee
Less common from a marina than from a lender. A loss payee is named as a co-payee on physical damage claim payments. If your marina asks for this rather than additional insured status, ask why - the two are not interchangeable and the request may simply be a template error.
The Limits They Will Ask For
Requirements vary by marina, and the only limit that matters is the one in the contract in front of you. As a rough sense of the range, slip agreements commonly specify liability of at least $300,000, with some stepping up to $500,000 where the vessel is valued above a stated threshold.
Two practical notes. Check the limit before you need the certificate, because increasing a liability limit mid-term is usually straightforward but not instant. And if you are financing, check the lender's requirement at the same time - the lender wants different things than the marina does, and it is easier to satisfy both in one pass.
Read the Rest of the Contract Too
The insurance clause is rarely the only thing in a slip or storage agreement that shifts risk onto you. Watch for:
- Exculpatory clauses - language absolving the marina of liability for damage to your vessel while in its custody, sometimes including its own negligence
- Hurricane and named-storm plans - who is responsible for hauling or securing the boat, and by when. Some agreements make it your obligation while giving the marina the right to move the boat at your expense
- Wreck removal - if your boat sinks in the basin, who pays to raise it
- Winter storage terms - whether the boat is covered while ashore, and by whose policy
None of these are unusual, and none are reasons not to sign. They are reasons to make sure the policy you hold actually matches the obligations you are accepting.
Getting a Certificate Issued Without a Second Round
Certificates get rejected and re-issued constantly, almost always for avoidable reasons. Give your agent all of this at once:
- The marina's exact legal name as it appears in the contract - not the trading name on the sign. Marina groups often operate individual locations under separate entities
- Their mailing address as the contract states it
- The required liability limit
- Which endorsements they want - additional insured, waiver of subrogation, or both
- The slip dates, so the certificate period covers the whole season
- Where to send it - most marinas want it direct from the agency rather than forwarded by you
The simplest way to get this right: photograph the insurance page of the slip contract and send it to your agent. Everything needed is on it, in the wording the marina will check against.
Timing
Marinas allocate slips well before the season and many will not confirm one without the certificate. If you are chasing a slip in Connecticut for the coming season, treat the certificate as part of the application rather than paperwork to finish afterwards. A certificate can usually be turned around quickly once the policy is in force with the right endorsements - the delay is almost never the document, it is discovering that an endorsement is missing.
Related
For whether coverage is required in the first place, see boat insurance requirements at Connecticut marinas. If you operate the marina rather than rent from one, marina operators legal liability is the other side of this.
Get a Connecticut-Specific Quote
Coastal CT Insurance is an independent agency based in Bridgeport. Send us the insurance clause from your slip contract and we will tell you whether your current policy satisfies it - and if you need cover, we compare carriers rather than placing everything with one. Request a free quote or talk to an agent about your situation.
