Rupert Wagstaff - Plain sailing

Please tell us about your company.

Yacht Havens was established in 1972 with the construction of our first marina in Lymington. The group has since grown and now operates six marinas across Britain. It also has dry berthing storage sites and its own boat repair company.

What insurances do you place and who do you place them with?

We place insurance through Marsh and across a wide variety of insurers that includes cover for: motor fleet, computers, engineering inspections, directors' and officers', combined marina, employer's liability, excess public liability and travel.

What challenges do you face in the current economic market?

Many of our tenants in boat sales have reported a sharp decrease in the sale of new boats, although the second-hand market still seems resistant with buyers from across Europe taking advantage of exchange rates. The more expensive marinas are showing signs of the economic slowdown and some owners are looking for cheaper ways to keep their boats.

We are not attracting as many new customers into the marinas as we would like, however the business is still doing very well and we believe that we offer a better service than our competitors so will be able to retain more customers in hard times.

Are you cutting back your insurance spending in the current economic market?

As we only insure what is required, we cannot cut back on our insurance spending because we must have it in order to operate. We fixed our premiums for a three-year deal last year.

Describe your relationship with your broker.

We have been using Marsh for five years and I am confident that they secure us the best cover. We have changed client advisers in the past due to not being entirely happy with the service we received; this was done immediately and the problem was rectified.

Have you made a claim recently?

We seem to have a fairly consistent claims history, which fortunately is low. A fair proportion of our claims are due to extreme weather events, high winds and freezing conditions.

We recently made a claim for boat damage at one of our marinas; the claims process was an easy one for us with Marsh helping to smooth the process.

What would you like to see improve in the insurance sector in order to help your business?

Insurance companies should do more to reduce premiums and make it less tedious to make a claim. Insurers are in a position to help stop the ridiculous claims that are made against us by people tripping over as a result of their own stupidity. Insurers seem to settle too many claims to avoid costs. Finally, ban all no win, no fee solicitors.