In the Keys, a fuel sheen is a federal matter and a part takes a week.
Two things make marine artisan work here different from anywhere else in Florida, and both of them change what your policy needs to do.
The waters around the Keys sit inside a national marine sanctuary, which means a discharge during your work is an environmental and regulatory event rather than a cleanup bill. And everything reaches the islands down one road, which means that when something goes wrong, the time it takes to put right is measured differently than it would be on the mainland.
Neither of those shows up on a standard contractor’s policy, because neither was contemplated when it was written.
Pollution exposure in sanctuary waters
Every marine trade carries pollution exposure. Fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, solvents, and bottom paint residue are all part of the work, and general liability forms exclude pollution as a matter of course.
What changes here is the consequence. A discharge in sanctuary waters draws regulatory attention that a similar incident in a mainland basin might not, and remediation obligations are set by agencies rather than negotiated with a marina.
Coral is the sharper version. Damage to protected coral — from a grounding during a sea trial, from an anchor, from a vessel you were moving — can produce restoration claims that bear no relation to the value of the work you were doing. It is one of the few exposures in this trade where the number is effectively uncapped by anything about your own operation.
Confirm that marine and operational pollution coverage is on your policy, at what limit, and whether that limit sits inside or above your liability limit.
In-water work draws more scrutiny here
Hull cleaning, bottom work, and anything generating residue in the water is looked at more closely in sanctuary waters than it is elsewhere, and practices that are routine on the mainland may not be acceptable here.
If your operation includes divers, that is a separate underwriting question again. Commercial diving is a difficult placement and a policy that does not disclose it will generally exclude it. Anyone going in the water needs to be on the application.
Groundings are the routine claim
Shallow water, coral heads, and narrow channels mean running gear damage is ordinary business in the Keys, both as work you perform and as something that happens to a vessel while you have it.
A sea trial that touches bottom, a repositioning move that goes wrong, a boat that drags at your dock: all of it is damage to property in your care, custody, and control, which every general liability form excludes. Ship repairers legal liability is the coverage that answers it, and our care, custody, and control guide covers sizing it properly.
Size it against the most valuable vessel you could have in your possession, not the average one.
One road makes every time element longer
This is the part that is easy to underestimate.
Parts arrive slowly. Specialty materials arrive more slowly. Heavy equipment and haul-out capacity are limited, and major work often means moving a vessel to the mainland. When your own shop is damaged, the contractors who would repair it are coming from Homestead or further, and they are booked.
The practical consequence is that business income and extra expense coverage need a longer period of restoration here than the same business would need in Fort Lauderdale. A limit built on mainland assumptions runs out while you are still waiting.
The same logic applies to any vessel you are holding. A boat that sits in your yard waiting on a part for six weeks is six weeks of exposure, and if the owner is a charter operator, six weeks of their lost income too.
A lot of what you work on is commercial
The Keys fleet includes a large charter, dive, and guide component, and working on a commercial vessel is a different proposition from working on a recreational one.
Delay costs the owner revenue, and a dispute over a job that ran long can become a loss of use claim rather than a complaint. Those vessels also carry crew, which means the people aboard during a sea trial or a dockside test may have maritime remedies against you that a recreational owner’s guests would not.
If a meaningful share of your work is on commercial vessels, say so when the policy is written. It affects both the liability side and how a carrier views the account.
Storm season, and nowhere to put them
The Keys have the most exposed geography in the state and the least room to maneuver. There is one road, it runs the length of the islands, and moving a fleet of vessels off them is not something that happens in a day.
Irma remains the reference point for what that means to the marine trades here, and carriers underwrite the region with it in mind.
Three things to settle before June. Your care, custody, and control aggregate against everything you could be holding at once. What your storage and repair agreements say about storm preparation and whose responsibility it is. And what your own property and business income coverage does if the shop is unusable for months in a place where rebuilding is slow and expensive.
Our hurricane damage guide for marine artisans covers the coverage mechanics.
Your employees and the compensation question
Employees working on or near navigable waters can fall under federal maritime compensation law rather than Florida’s workers’ compensation system. A state policy without the federal endorsement may not respond at all, and in an operation where nearly all work happens on docks and vessels, that describes most of your people most of the time.
See USL&H coverage for Florida marine artisan contractors. If anyone in your operation works from a vessel rather than on one, there is a third category again, and it needs its own conversation.
What we write in the Keys
Prestige Insurance Group places marine artisan and marine contractor coverage throughout Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine, and Key West.
The trades include engine and outboard repair, fiberglass and gelcoat, running gear and prop work, welding and fabrication, rigging, canvas and upholstery, marine electronics, refrigeration, bottom painting and detailing, hull cleaning and diving, dock and lift installation, and mobile repair operations.
This is a specialty class anywhere in Florida. In the Keys the pollution exposure, the time element, and the storm concentration all sit further out than they do on the mainland, and the policy has to be built for that rather than adapted to it.
Worth confirming
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Whether pollution coverage is on the policy, at what limit, and whether it is separate from your liability limit
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Your care, custody, and control limit against the most valuable vessel you could hold
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Whether diving operations are disclosed, if applicable
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Your business income period of restoration, against Keys logistics rather than mainland assumptions
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Whether commercial and charter vessel work is disclosed
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Your aggregate exposure during storm season
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Whether your workers’ compensation includes the federal maritime endorsement
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What your storage and repair agreements say about storm preparation
Send us the policy
We will read it against what you actually handle and where you handle it.
Miami: 305-969-8776 Orlando: 407-993-2331 Stuart: 772-247-3788
Or request a quote online. Related reading: what insurance marine artisan contractors need in Florida and the biggest marine artisan claims in Florida.
General information only, not legal advice. Federal maritime law, sanctuary regulations, coverage forms, and carrier requirements vary and change over time; confirm the requirements that apply to your operation before relying on any of the above.
