THE YACHTING YEAR 2018 | 105
S
imon Winter tells a good story about hanging
head first over the windward side of a fishing
smack, banging along in a head sea, trying to
squirt ‘gunk’ into a tiny seam in the hull that
was threatening to sink the boat on the other tack. “We
made it home, let’s put it that way,” he recalls with a
laugh.
Tales of derring-do on working boats don’t quite fit
with the stereotypical image of an insurance broker, but
Winter was toddling around on smacks before he can
remember and his family have owned working boats all
his life – the smacks Rosa & Ada (1908), Unity of Lynn
(1906 and on the National Register of Historic Vessels)
and Maria (1886) and Bristol Channel pilot cutters
Cornubia (1911) and Mascotte (1904 and also on the
National Register of Historic Vessels).
His father left school to work on the Thames sailing
barges in the last days of trading under sail, and ended
up becoming chairman of Medway Ports. Winter Jnr
went to the highly academic Canterbury school, before
university and a stint in the City as an investment banker.
He was running the yacht account for an insurance
broker, thinking he’d found the best way of combining a
passion with work (‘and to date I haven’t tired of it –
that’s the danger!’), when family reasons persuaded him
to move south west in 2006. He set up as Simon Winter
Marine, specialising in classic boats (75% of his business
is classic), and today insures most of the working boat
fleet along with many classic yachts around the world,
from 21ft canoe yawls to 100ft Fifes.
His oce in Seaton, Devon, is perhaps more working
boat than Edwardian yacht, and Winter himself is
agreeably unshowy, exuding the energy and quick-
thinking of the City broker, coupled with a sleeves-
rolled-up approach to things that is typical of many
sailors. The company’s insurance policies, while
standard in many respects, sometimes reflect his
no-nonsense approach.
“I don’t believe in discounts for qualifications,” he
says. “You find people with a certificate in their hands
who are calculating whether or not to anchor in exactly
3.62m of water. A lead line and some common sense
will tell you where you can anchor, not a one-week
course.”
A large part of his job involves putting a value on
yachts that are often irreplaceable objects. “The adage
is that the boat is only worth what someone is prepared
to pay for it,” he says. “As far as insurances are
concerned, we would always prefer to insure on the
market value, not replacement or new build value.
Market value can be dicult. We work closely with
surveyors and owners and yacht brokers on this. We’ve
never had one where we haven’t been able to reach
some accommodation between parties.
“Obviously you can’t replace a lot of these boats.
They’re unique. But they still do have a value.”
Can you ever add on the restoration cost to a boat’s
value?
“Possibly,” he says, “but it’s unusual. The rebuild
would have had to have been done recently.”
Winter is happy enough to talk insurance, but really
he wants to talk boats, and sitting in front of a massive
photo of the 2012 St Mawes Pilot Cutter Review on his
oce wall, he launches into ‘what is a classic boat’.“If it looks right, it probably is right,” he says, before
adding: “I think that’s actually a Tommi Nielsen quote!
There’s a long development of what most people would
call a classic, boats like Mariquita or Kelpie, and then
there is where we are today. A Twister, for example, or a
Vertue and all those pocket cruisers – are they classics?
I would describe them as design classics, but not classic
yachts.
“If you row away from your boat and think ‘that’s
beautiful’, then you have a classic. On a smack, the look
of them, at anchor particularly, they’re just amazing.”
Refreshingly, Winter is not short of an opinion and in
a lively conversation about yachts old and new – amid
which he laughs at himself as a ‘ruddy-faced insurance
broker’ – he shares thoughts garnered through first-
hand experience of the classic scene big and small.
“It’s day in, day out what we do, but you can always
learn,” he says. “We have built up a huge network of
experts around the world to help assess claims and
support customers.
“We describe ourselves as specialist, which by
definition means that we do understand the market. We
understand how the boats are constructed, how they
should be maintained and run, the type of sailing they
are doing and from a practical background, the areas
where they are sailing and mooring.
“Generally all yacht policies will cover and exclude
the same things, but as far as the classic yacht policy is
concerned, it’s as much to do with the broker you’re
dealing with, plus the support that we have from
underwriters in settling claims.
“At the information-gathering stage, pre-inception of
the policy, we’re asking all the relevant questions, which
if you’re not immersed in this work you may not
consider. That means there’s less chance of a claim
potentially being declined.”
He says there is no common claim among wooden
boat owners, although the nature of the material means
‘gradual deterioration’ is seen by insurers as a higher
risk than on plastic or steel boats.
“If a claim is made, a specialist broker will understand
the nature of the issue and can assist with managing
repairs, locating suitable surveyors, yards, shipwrights
and can have a sensible discussion on the type of repair,
or how the repair is carried out. These are all three or
four way discussions between the owner, surveyor,
insurance broker and shipyard.”
As a sailor himself, he is more than aware that having
to make a call to the insurance broker is precisely what
every client wants to avoid. “A five-yearly survey means
problems can be picked up early,” he says, “and
meanwhile, even though in the majority of cases it is
like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, we
continue to remind clients of the importance of
checking boats regularly, ensuring moorings are
adequate and in good condition, lines doubled if
necessary. The basic rules of seamanship never change.”
Winter is a family man with children at home aged
from five to 16. He relishes the Devon life and his
eight-minute commute to work by bicycle, but he’s less
than complimentary about Lyme Bay as his home
waters. “I used to sail in the Bristol Channel, which
could be called ‘interesting’, but at least there you can
sail a pilot cutter!”“
If you
row away
from your
boat and
think ‘that
is beauti-
ful’, then
you have a
classic”
TYY4 Simon Winter.indd 105 04/12/2017 17:08