Nautilus Marine Insurance is extending its New Zealand commercial business to marinas, yacht clubs, boat dealerships and most marine trades. It will sell the cover only through brokers. The agency, backed by Zurich, has mostly been known in New Zealand for recreational boat insurance.
Nautilus is a brand of NM Insurance, a trans-Tasman underwriting agency that marked 20 years in operation last year. Andrew McFetridge, who became executive director for New Zealand in 2024, said the agency wanted to give more marine businesses access to its team. He said these businesses face specialised risks and that the cover was designed around how they operate.
The target market is modest in size. The New Zealand Marine Industry Association (NZ Marine) puts the industry’s annual sales at about $3 billion, including $800 million in exports, with around 8,000 people employed. The association’s executive director, Callum Gillespie, said earlier this year that members were dealing with rising fuel costs and weaker consumer demand.
The commercial insurance backdrop matters too. New Zealand’s large insurers have reported falling premium income in a soft commercial market, and competition for commercial business is strong. McFetridge has previously encouraged brokers to look for terms outside the large insurers. Whether a specialist agency can win marine business on price or wording in that environment is still an open question.
Nautilus has also signed on as official insurance partner of NZ Marine’s Auckland Boat Show, which runs on the Auckland waterfront from April 1 to 4, 2027. Gillespie and Suzanne Davies, chief executive of Australia’s Marine Industries Association, both welcomed the expansion. Both associations have commercial relationships with Nautilus: NZ Marine through the boat show partnership, and Davies’s association, where Nautilus has been insurance partner for several years.
