What’s actually covered? A quick dive into ITC Hulls 312

Our Marine team at Geo are specialists in marine insurance, and have a deep passion for the maritime industry. As part of an ongoing series of articles to help to ensure our broker partners are expertly informed when speaking to your marine clients, we asked the team to provide some top tips on Institute Time Clauses. 

You may not be a marine specialist, but you have a vessel to place, and we can help — but you do need to know what’s actually covered. Here’s the short version for Institute Time Clauses – Hulls CL. 312 (Port Risks & Limited Navigation), which is a common policy cover for physical loss and/or damage for vessels operating in and around the UK and Europe, particularly in brown water operation.

Key perils covered

Even though the vessel’s not out on the open ocean, things can still go sideways. Here's what’s typically insured along with some examples:

• Fire and explosion: Sparks in dry docks, welding incidents, or machinery mishaps? Covered.
• Perils of the sea: Bad weather or freak swells, underwater objects? We’ve got you.
• Jettison: If gear needs to go overboard to save the vessel? Covered.
• Stranding, grounding, sinking or capsizing: Happens more often than you'd think.
• Collision: If the vessel bumps another, or something else, that’s in scope.
• Latent defects in machinery or hull: If something breaks because it was faulty (not worn out), this kicks in.
• Negligence of master, crew or repairers: Self-explanatory there, but this is one of the main machinery damage perils.