Spanish cruise line Pullmantur has signed up for both protection and indemnity and hull cover with Gard, in a move that sees the Norwegian club increasing its involvement in the sector.
Gard has historically shown little interest in insuring the cruise fleet but that turned around at the 2016 renewal when it signed up both Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Pullmantur’s switch from UK Club cover to Gard follows Royal Caribbean Cruises’ sale of a majority stake to the private equity outfit Springwater Capital.
The UK Club, along with Steamship Mutual and Gard, are the P&I mutuals mostly focused on the cruise business.
UK Club members include the two industry giants, Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises, but it also has a share of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and Disney Cruises.
Royal Caribbean Cruises vice president and treasurer Antje Gibson remains a shipowner director of the UK Club.
Steamship Mutual has probably the biggest cruise account, with directors drawn from Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises and NCL, as well as ferry companies, on its board.
Gard is also a major hull insurer with a following lines share of the Carnival fleet, led by the Royal & Sun Alliance group, and a share of Royal Caribbean Cruises’ ships, led by the Norwegian Hull Club.
MSC Cruises has entries with Steamship Mutual, as well as the UK and West of England clubs.
The UK Club may have lost one of its cruise members but this was more than compensated by picking up the charterers account of new Japanese liner shipping giant Ocean Network Express.
The venture, established by NYK, MOL and K Line, is putting eight million gt of charterers business into the UK Club in one of the big gains of the renewal.
All three Japanese lines are existing UK Club members but have entries with other clubs that were also bidding for the chartering account.
