It might pay to live on a boat

While many Westchester homeowners have seen rising home insurance

"Certainly, we're not seeing the dramatic change in the market like you see with personal homeowner insurance and commercial property," said Russell Grant, metrosuburban regional director for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York.

The "dramatic change" Grant refers to is the recent decisions by several insurance companies to pull out or restrict coverage in coastal areas of New York.

Last year, Allstate Insurance Co. announced it would not renew some homeowner policies in Westchester County, Long Island and New York City and would stop writing new policies in parts of the area.

More recently, MetLife Inc. implemented a 3 percent "hurricane" deductible to homes within 1,000 feet of Long, Island Sound, and 2 percent deductibles to homes in several landlocked communities, such as Bedford, Armonk and Katonah.

Grant, a producer at Grant Smith & Dassler Inc., an insurance agency in Pearl River, said the cost of boat insurance can increase if the vessel usually travels on open water, like the Sound, rather than inland, like on the Hudson River.

Grant said there have been some restrictions on boat insurance recently, such as some insurers not covering damage sustained by boats operating south of the midAtlantic region during hurricane season, for example.

"But aside from a few restrictions, we're not seeing an increased cost, or decrease in availability (of insurance)," he said. "The exposure in dollars when you compare boats versus homes is a huge difference."

Similarly, insurance rates for marinas have not followed the same recent trends as homeowners insurance in coastal area, said Grant Westerson, executive director of the Connecticut Marine Trades Association.

Westerson believes the reason marinas haven't been hit as hard is because most marine facilities are built to withstand an excessive flood of water.

"Also, a lot of the costs for the insurer are personal property a homeowner might have," such as television sets, furniture and other valuables, he said. "You don't have that with marinas."

Westerson believes the minimal amount of damage marinas suffer also adds into the equation.

"Even with hurricanes we've had (in the United States) in the last 20 years, we've had minimal commercial damage (to marinas)," he said.

He said insurance rates for marinas generally increase each year, but he doesn't think that has anything to do with potential hurricane damage.

"That's just the trend; rates have been going up pretty regularly for a while," he said.