Most people treat cover as paperwork to do after they've chosen the boat. Loopers who've been through it treat it as the first phone call.
We don't sell insurance, we're not brokers, and nothing here is advice. These are the constraints Loopers report running into, so you can ask the right questions early. What you buy is between you and a professional.
The advice from experienced Loopers is consistent and slightly alarming in its phrasing: talk to an agent early to make sure you can get insurance at all.
Cover is not assumed. It depends on the boat, on your logged experience, and on where and when you plan to be. Finding that out after you've made an offer is a bad time to find it out.
Underwriters commonly apply thresholds by length — and they use the manufacturer's stated model length, not the boat's measured LOA.
That produces results that feel arbitrary until you know the rule. A boat that actually measures about 35½ feet but is marketed as a 36 can be difficult. A boat that genuinely measures 38 feet but is sold as a 35 can be straightforward. Same water, same skipper, different answer — and the difference is the name on the brochure.
Worth checking the model designation, not just the tape, before you assume you're under a threshold.
Insurers may require a documented number of hours — often with a licensed captain aboard, often on a boat of similar size and type — before they'll write a policy for a Loop.
It's satisfiable. It is also not satisfiable in a week. If you find out about it after you own the boat, you're paying slip fees while you accumulate the hours.
On older boats, the figure an underwriter will insure for may be less than the purchase price. One owner described being covered for $150,000 on a boat he'd paid more for — and treating the difference as part of the cost of the adventure rather than a surprise.
Check the insurable value before you close, not after.
Loopers describing what happened when they went to get covered. AGLCA's published sponsor directory lists several insurance specialists, and members routinely point each other there — a better starting point than a general marine agent. We haven't verified anyone's policy, and we don't sell insurance or take a referral fee from anyone who does.
If we've got something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — support@caniloop.net. A correction from someone who has actually run it is worth more than anything we can write.