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What is the insurance deposit?

The charter company that provides you the boat also insures it against all the damages. However, a typical insurance contract does not cover the first few hundred Euros of the loss, called “deductible”, so as to avoid negligence. If something gets broken on board during the charter, the crew must compensate the owner up to the amount of this deductible. To guarantee this, the charter company asks to leave such sum in their custody as an insurance deposit. It will be refunded when the boat is returned undamaged. It is habitual that all the participants of the charter bear equal share of such an expense, regardless of who can or cannot be blamed for the actual damage, if it happens. Full or partial refund of the deposit is therefore distributed equally.

Sometimes, there can be an option to pay a much smaller “non-refundable deposit”, which is retained by the charter company regardless if you damage the boat or not. If the boat fixtures look fragile or you expect to fight aggressively on the starting line, it may be smart to opt for non-refundable deposit and worry less for scratching the boat or losing something. A word of caution, however, that losing the expensive outboard motor is not covered by insurance deposit, refundable or non-refundable, and must be compensated separately.