The Norwegian Hull Club has turned a near $30m pre-tax profit in a year with a once-in-a-century claim. It is a result that the club’s CEO has labelled “satisfactory”.

Underwriting plunged into the red as a result of claims from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. But there would have been a positive outcome has it not been for those natural catastrophes.

As is frequently the case, the investment result came to the rescue, so Bergen-based Norwegian Hull rang up an overall pre-tax profit of $29.8m for 2017, dropping back to an after-tax $20.25m.

The A-rated club makes a return of premium to members when it is justified by the result.

There was a 5% return in 2016, after a $21m profit, but chief executive Hans Christian Seim gave no hint if this would be repeated, saying it is for the club’s shipowner directors to decide in due course.

Seim characterises 2017 as a year of change for the chronically soft hull insurance market, with brokers accepting there are no more reductions to be had.

“It is a flat to upward market — not going down,” Seim said. “We are seeing a stable market on good [claims] statistics and, where there is room for improvement, we might get an increase.”

Seim is figuring on modest growth in premium income throughout 2018 and is “confident that the underwriting portfolio performance is sustainable going forward”.

There was an underwriting loss of $6m in 2017, reflected in a combined ratio of 104%. But the combined ratio would have been well into profit at 92% had there not been the 100-year claims event.

Investment income ran to $34.9m, with foreign exchange gains lifting the financial total to $38m. The investment return was a strong 8.62% in dollar terms and 6.48% in local currency terms.

The result boosted equity to $290.8m, up from $270.5m over the course of 2017.

Gross premium income at $167.7m was lower than expected, as a result of reduced insurance values, laid-up vessels and the soft market, although slightly above the previous year.

However, gross claims jumped by $102m to more than $237m, compared to $135m in the prior year.

The huge increase was down to hurricane claims but reduced after reinsurance recoveries to $126m, which was just $4m up on the previous year.

Norwegian Hull was hit by a more than $100m claim from holiday yacht charterer Sunsail and the need to increase reserves on an old energy claim.

During the long, lean years of the soft hull market, Norwegian Hull has put emphasis on diversification, with its latest initiative being a move into wind-farm and renewable energy insurance from the start of this year. This is a response to members such as Statoil becoming involved in this business.