The City of Long Beach Marine Bureau has very strict requirements for vessel insurance and proof of ownership for boat owners. These requirements are easy to follow, however, and most boat owners already meet them.
Even thought it is not a state law, the Long Beach Marine Bureau requires all vessels renting city docks to have liability insurance. Liability insurance, sometimes written as “Protection and Indemnity”, “P&I”, or “Property Damage”, covers you in the event that your vessel damages city property, or another vessel in the city marinas.
The insurance needs to be current, written in the permittee’s name, and the limits of liability must be at least $100,000. Along with that, anyone with a permanent slip, or looking to get a permanent slip, must add the City of Long Beach as “Additionally Insured”. This can be done at no extra cost by calling your agent and requesting it. The official wording must be:
The City of Long Beach
Its Officials, Employees, and Volunteers
200 B Aquarium Way
Long Beach, CA 90802
The City of Long Beach Marine Bureau requires this so that renewals are sent in automatically by your insurance company, and also to be notified in case of any changes, ie sale of the vessel. This does not mean the city has any ownership interest in the vessel, or the city is in any way a loss payee. In fact, if the city is listed as “Loss Payee” instead of “Additionally Insured”, the Marine Bureau will not accept the insurance.
Also, you will notice the address that needs to be listed is not Long Beach City Hall’s, and is probably different from the marina your vessel is at. This is because the Rainbow Harbor/Marina office handles the insurance for all of the permanent slips and commercial docks in the city.
The Long Beach Marine Bureau requires updated insurance every year for their permittees (those with permanent slips). As was mentioned earlier, if the city is listed as Additionally Insured, and the address is correct, the Rainbow Harbor office should get sent a renewal every year by your insurance company. However, sometimes there are mistakes, the insurance company does not send the renewal, or it gets sent to the wrong office. If the Marine Bureau does not get the renewal, they will contact you by phone, then by mail, and give you 30 days to provide the updated insurance before cancelling the slip.
Guest/transient boaters, subleasees, and temporary assignments do not need to add the city as Additionally Insured. You will only need to provide your insurance once, but it is up to you to keep your file up to date. Many boaters who frequent the marinas will add the city anyway. Keep in mind, though, that the insurance still needs to have $100,000 in liability coverage.
It is best to get your insurance through a dedicated marine insurance company, such as BoatUS ( click here for boat insurance quotes,) as they have the knowledge and resources to better help their customers.
The Long Beach Marine Bureau has a few different requirements for proof of ownership.
To get a permanent slip, a sublease, or a temporary assignment, a current DMV registration (CF numbers) or Certificate of Documentation from the U.S. Coast Guard must be supplied. The vessel must also be documented or registered in the applicant’s name; other names are allowed, but the person applying for the slip must own at least as much of the vessel as the others. If the vessel is owned by a corporation, then the applicant must provide the articles of incorporation, showing the applicant as an officer of the company. Out of state and foreign vessel documentation will be accepted initially, but, in accordance with California state law, the vessel will have to be registered in state or documented with the U.S. Coast Guard within 90 days, and the updated paperwork must be supplied to the marina office. Temporary DMV registration and travelling letters provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, or the Mary Conlin or Dona Jenkins companies are also accepted. Pink slips and transfers of ownership are accepted on a case by case basis.
For guest slips, the vessel merely needs to be currently documented or registered. Out of state registration and foreign certificates of documentation are accepted.
If you own a vessel with one or more partners, and have a permanent slip in the Long Beach Marinas, you might want to get them on file to give them some rights to the slip. If they are not on file, they will have no access to the vessel or the permit. As far as the Marine Bureau is concerned, they may as well not even exist. To give your partners limited rights to the permit, you will need to do a few things.
Keep in mind, though, that partners only have a limited amount of rights to the permit. Partners can sleep on the boat (up to 12 nights per month), and get a parking pass or keys, but that’s it. A partner cannot cancel a permit, request a transfer or live aboard status, change any contact information, or request any billing information. The only person able to do those things is the person who originally signed up on the waiting list and got the permit.
These are the major points of the insurance and ownership policies at the Long Beach Marinas. For any more detailed or specific questions you can call the marina offices during normal business hours.
