The first time a customer kissed the side of one of our Sea-Doos against a coral shelf was the summer of 2022. He was an excellent rider — surfed in California most of his adult life, knew his way around an outboard, ran his own tinny back home. He just misjudged the water depth at low tide outside Naka Yai by about eighteen inches.
The result was a six-inch crack down the side of the hull. The repair bill from our marine technician was ฿9,400 — parts plus labour. The customer wanted to pay. We didn't let him.
That's a true story. And it's the reason every Sea-Doo, Yamaha and Yamaha FX on our 9-Point Grand Tour now carries full jet ski damage insurance built in.
What jet ski repairs actually cost in Thailand
A new hull on a Sea-Doo GTI Pro 130 in Thailand is ฿78,000 for the part alone — about £1,800 or $2,200 at today's rates. Labour adds another ฿15,000-ish, plus a couple of days in the workshop. The impeller, if you've sucked sand, is another ฿8,000 and a half-day strip-down.
These aren't catastrophic numbers in absolute terms. But they're the kind of numbers that ruin a holiday if they land on your card unexpectedly. And most Phuket jet ski operators — even the legitimate ones, the ones running real tours with guides and life jackets — pass that risk straight through to the guest.
Every other Phuket tour operator we know charges damage out-of-pocket. We think that's the wrong way to price the day. The right way is to put the cover on the machine, build it into the booking fee, and never have the awkward conversation on the beach.
What the 9-Point Grand Tour damage cover includes
Plain English. No fine print:
- Hull cracks from low-tide contact, coral, submerged rocks, sandbars
- Cosmetic scratches on the gel coat — the white side panels, the rub strakes, the saddle
- Plastic damage on the fairings and storage hatch
- Impeller wear from sandbar or shallow-water contact
- Towing back to base if you ground the ski beyond rider recovery
- Pump cleaning if you suck up debris
In short: anything a competent rider can do by accident on a guided 4-hour tour, on the route we've planned, while doing what the guide is doing. You ride normally. You don't pay for an accident.
What it doesn't cover
Three things, and they're all the same thing dressed differently — doing something the guide hasn't asked you to do.
- Collision with another rider in the group caused by ignoring the briefing distance (this is genuinely rare — in four years we've had two)
- Going off-route away from the lead guide. The cover is on the planned route, not your private exploration
- Deliberate damage or operation under the influence — alcohol, drugs, racing other riders. That's the same exclusion every insurer in the world has, including yours at home
That's it. Three exclusions. Compared to a typical travel insurance policy that runs to forty pages, three feels honest.
Run the math on your own booking
Open a calculator on your phone right now. Two scenarios:
Scenario A — uninsured Phuket jet ski tour
฿6,500 tour fee · +฿0–10,000 if you scratch the hull · +฿0–78,000 if you crack the hull
Real cost range: ฿6,500 to ฿84,500. Most of the time, you pay ฿6,500. Sometimes you pay a lot more.
Scenario B — 9-Point Grand Tour, insurance included
฿6,900 tour fee (Yamaha VX-C 1,100cc) · +฿0 if you scratch the hull · +฿0 if you crack the hull
Real cost: ฿6,900. Every time. No variance.
The difference is ฿400. The price of a coffee and a coconut. That's what we charge for the peace of mind.
Why this isn't on the other Phuket tours yet
Two reasons. One is cost — adding fleet-wide damage cover raises the wholesale per-tour cost by about ฿800 per machine per day, and most of our competitors compete on the bottom price, not on the all-in price.
The other reason is more uncomfortable. Some operators on this island make a meaningful share of their revenue from "damage" claims (see our piece on the Phuket jet ski scam if you haven't yet). Insuring the machine destroys that line of income. That's not a bug for them. That's the business.
The 9-Point Grand Tour is the only one on our menu with this cover today, but we're rolling it out across the Monkey Island, Yamu, Scenic and Elephant routes this autumn too. The plan is full-fleet by Songkran 2027.
The Californian came back
The customer who cracked our Sea-Doo in 2022 brought four friends back the next year. They booked the 9-Point as a private group. He asked for the same Sea-Doo. We had it ready, repaired, freshly polished, no story attached.
He spent the first ten minutes of the briefing running his hand along the side of that hull like he was checking a watch he'd dropped. When he saw it was perfect, he grinned, and we got on with the day.
That's what the insurance buys. Not just the parts. The peace.
Question about what's covered for a specific scenario? WhatsApp us at +66 95 483 3119. Reply in under an hour during business hours.
