Yacht & Superyacht Insurance Market 2025/26

In 2025, yacht and superyacht insurance remained a market where risk quality and loss prevention increasingly determined outcomes. While capacity remained available for well-managed risks, insurers continued to respond to high-severity claims, marina/yard aggregation exposure, and weather volatility by tightening terms, pushing deductibles and taking a more cautious view on navigation, seasonality and operational controls. Looking to 2026, we expect this "disciplined underwriting" approach to continue—with sharper differentiation between best-in-class risks and the rest.

What Shaped the Yacht Market in 2025

1) Claims Severity Stayed in the Spotlight

Large yacht losses continue to remind the market how quickly total insured exposure can escalate beyond hull value once liability and associated costs are included. Reuters reporting on the Bayesian loss (Aug 2024, with market implications discussed into 2025) cited early expert estimates of at least USD 150m to insurers, and highlighted insurer concerns around worsening weather volatility and tightening coverage responses.

Why this matters: even isolated major casualties can harden sentiment around pricing adequacy, deductibles, and trading limits—especially for high-value yachts with complex operations.

2) Catastrophe and "Aggregation" Risk Remained a Structural Issue

Yachts cluster in the same marinas, anchorages and yard locations at the same times of year. That means a single event—windstorm, flood, fire, or port incident—can generate multiple losses simultaneously. The Sea Lady II casualty in Saint-Tropez (10 July 2025), where a major onboard fire led to the yacht being partially sunk and subsequently salvaged/refloated, is a textbook example of why underwriters obsess over high-density marinas and peak-season exposures.

Practical outcome in 2025: more emphasis on storm plans, named-storm deductibles, marina selection, watchkeeping, and yard controls—because the insurer's real exposure is often the location, not the individual yacht.

3) Underwriting Became More Operationally Forensic

Across 2025, "good presentation" increasingly meant more than a schedule of values. Underwriters wanted clearer evidence around:

• captain and senior crew experience/tenure
• maintenance governance and refit/shipyard controls
• fire prevention measures (detection, suppression, hot-work procedures)
• navigation limits, cruising patterns, and charter usage
• tender/watersports/guest-liability controls

Accounts that could demonstrate strong controls tended to retain better access to capacity and pricing stability.

Key Indicators (2025 → 2026)

• Market posture: tighter underwriting focus on severe loss trends and weather/aggregation exposure.
• Terms trend: upward pressure on deductibles and more restrictive wording for higher-risk profiles/geographies.
• Claims reality check: major losses can reach nine figures when hull + liability impacts combine (e.g., Bayesian estimates).
• Aggregation illustration: 2025 marina fire loss (Sea Lady II, Saint-Tropez) reinforces location/port accumulation risk.

What to Expect in 2026

1) Continued Differentiation: "Best Risks Win"

We expect 2026 to remain selective rather than uniformly hard. Well-managed yachts with clean loss records, transparent operations, and strong maintenance governance should continue to attract capacity. Risks with adverse claims, unclear usage, high-exposure cruising, or weak documentation should expect firmer pricing and more restrictive terms.

2) Deductibles and Warranties Will Remain a Key Lever

Given severity and aggregation concerns, insurers are likely to keep leaning on:

• higher named-storm / windstorm deductibles
• stricter storm-plan requirements and relocation triggers
• tighter controls and reporting requirements for yard periods and hot works

3) Greater Scrutiny of Operational Change

In 2026, anticipate detailed underwriting questions when there are changes such as:

• new captain/crew structure
• extensive refit schedule or yard period
• new charter profile (or increased charter weeks)
• change in cruising areas or longer-range itineraries
• major systems upgrades (including battery systems/toys)

Practical Renewal Guidance for Owners, Managers and Captains (2026-Ready)

• Start early—especially with complex cruising plans and charter activity.
• Underwrite your risk story: crew CVs, maintenance history, refit controls, storm plan, loss-prevention measures.
• Be precise on usage (private vs charter) and navigation (where/when).
• Model deductibles and ensure the programme matches operational reality.
• Plan yard periods carefully, and document fire/hot-work procedures and supervision.

Disclaimer: This commentary reflects Orion Insurance Group's general market view based on publicly available industry reporting and sources as at July–December 2025 and is subject to change as 2026 underwriting appetite, capacity and catastrophe experience evolve. This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute advice.