Marine Insurance Gran Canaria

Marine Insurance in Gran Canaria — Generali Boat Cover

In Spain — the Canary Islands included — marine third-party liability insurance is obligatory for any vessel above 6 m or with an engine over 25 kW. Few Gran Canaria owners stop there: the usual choice is a complete casco y maquinaria (hull and machinery) policy adding theft, fire, storm, collision and grounding cover, with liability limits acceptable to the marina’s berthing contract. We are authorised exclusive Generali agents and look after owners across Gran Canaria and the rest of the Canary Islands (Islas Canarias), in English, from our Javea office.

Every November the pontoons of Las Palmas fill with ocean-going crews, because Gran Canaria is where Atlantic crossings traditionally begin — the ARC rally leaves from here for the Caribbean. Alongside that transient fleet sits a settled one: cruisers, sports fishers and RIBs kept at the southern marinas the whole year round. We insure both, and we re-flag UK, Dutch, Belgian and German owners onto Spanish (LE bandera) policies without losing no-claims records, accepting recent surveys done abroad. The wider rules are explained in our boat insurance in Spain guide.

Las Palmas to Mogán — Insuring Boats at an Atlantic Crossroads

The Muelle Deportivo de Las Palmas is unlike any other marina in Spain: it is the country’s Atlantic staging post, the harbour where ocean-bound yachts gather, provision and wait for a weather window before taking the trade-wind route to the Caribbean. The weeks before the ARC departure each November are the busiest of the year — riggers and sailmakers working down the pontoons, dinghies everywhere, and a fairway full of crews whose minds are already mid-ocean. Insurance conversations here are about passage extensions, crew and fit-out as much as the berth itself.

The south of the island lives at a different tempo. Pasito Blanco is a quiet residential marina near Maspalomas; Puerto Rico runs a dense leisure and excursion trade; and Puerto de Mogán — the canal-laced “little Venice” of the island — mixes fishing boats with visiting cruisers. The NE trade wind blows for most of the year, the north coast takes the brunt of the Atlantic swell, and the southern harbours sit in the island’s lee — which is precisely why the leisure fleet lives down there.

Claims from Gran Canaria have an Atlantic flavour: warps and fenders worn through by relentless trade-wind pressure, sun-perished lines and canvas, outboards stolen from tenders in the big city harbour, and occasional berth damage when a southerly blow finds the leisure coast. None of it is exotic, and all of it is routine for us — reported, surveyed and settled in English, following the steps in our marine insurance claim guide.

Base by base, what matters for cover:

• Muelle Deportivo de Las Palmas — transatlantic staging; tell us early if an ocean passage is planned, because extensions are individually agreed and take longer than a marina renewal.
• Pasito Blanco — residential berths in the lee of the island; straightforward hull-and-liability territory for resident owners.
• Puerto Rico — a busy excursion and leisure harbour; commercial use must be declared, and liability limits matter where the fairway is crowded.
• Puerto de Mogán — small, pretty and tight; low-speed manoeuvring contact is the characteristic claim.