I am also a lawyer, even an Alaska one, but insurance isn't the focus of my practice so I can't add much on that score to what berryst said.
What you are experiencing in my opinion is a hurdle/delay tactic from the insurance company hoping to either discourage you or delay payment or attempt to get you to compromise on the claim to avoid having to hire legal assistance. It is the old "plausible deniability" defense. If you accuse them of bad faith in a legal proceeding, they just point to the surveyor and say "Well we are just following what the expert we hired told us." I would make a small wager that they will pay before a lawsuit is filed if pushed by a competent lawyer or you personally if you are dogged, as I agree this is BS. You just have to demonstrate to them that you will not go away. I would say that the sooner you get them to court, and they start to expend money on lawyers, the quicker they will be to settle. Delay at this point is an end to itself to the insurance company.
In reading your policy I would look to see if you have any business interruption coverage or other means to include time lost during repairs, etc. to add to your claim. I think going to the Marine Surveyor's organizations and the Division of Insurance are good ideas. You may also call the consumer protection people at the state attorney general's office. Not that it is likely that any of the bureaucrats will do anything, but if this becomes a pattern and practice for Travelers, it could get them looked at. Do your part so others may benefit.
Ultimately, I would tell you that if you can't get it resolved, that you may want to consider filing a lawsuit alleging bad faith and seeking punitive damages in the most remote place you can find (does Hoonah have a civil court?) and request a jury trial. In discovery ask them for copies of the file of every boat claim they have ever denied for this reason and every other document you might think could cause them expense to compile and may have some relevant information in it, take a deposition of the adjuster and request he bring copies of every claim he has adjusted for an insurance company and every survey, file lots of motions on whatever topic you can justify and request hearings on every one. I would guess that if you can get a jury trial in some remote court, especially where a lot of the prospective jurors know something about boats, you will have a very sympathetic jury. You could do this yourself and put the insurance company to some serious expense (in effect turning the tables on them). You do however risk the possibility of the court awarding the insurance company a significant sum in attorney fees under Civil Rule 82 if you do not prevail for whatever reason. However, I would recommend you hire a lawyer and have him write an indignant letter to the insurance company explaining why the claim denial is BS and telling them that this is what he is going to do on your behalf if they do not pony up. In Alaska there is what is called Civil Rule 68 (a procedure grossly underutilized by most lawyers) which allows you to make an offer of judgment in a case after it is filed. This offer would allow you to shift a significant part of the cost of your lawyer to the insurance company if you recover more at trial than the amount for which you have offered to settle. This can put added pressure on the insurance company to settle.
An attorney, although not cheap, can save you a lot of time and trouble in cases such as this. It just depends on how much is at issue if you can justify the cost. You can just hire the lawyer to write a letter for you. It doesn't obligate you to have them handle the litigation for you if it is required.
Like berryst said, this is not intended as comprehensive legal advice, but a gut reaction to limited information. We lawyers are obligated to make sure that we do not make anyone believe that we are providing legal advice they can actually rely upon or undertaking representation when discussing matters such as this. In other words, don't expect to be able to sue me for malpractice when my approach blows up in your face unless you are actually paying for my services, lol. I wish I could give you the name of a good lawyer in your area for this, but the last time I did any work in SE Alaska was in the early 90s.
What you are experiencing in my opinion is a hurdle/delay tactic from the insurance company hoping to either discourage you or delay payment or attempt to get you to compromise on the claim to avoid having to hire legal assistance. It is the old "plausible deniability" defense. If you accuse them of bad faith in a legal proceeding, they just point to the surveyor and say "Well we are just following what the expert we hired told us." I would make a small wager that they will pay before a lawsuit is filed if pushed by a competent lawyer or you personally if you are dogged, as I agree this is BS. You just have to demonstrate to them that you will not go away. I would say that the sooner you get them to court, and they start to expend money on lawyers, the quicker they will be to settle. Delay at this point is an end to itself to the insurance company.
In reading your policy I would look to see if you have any business interruption coverage or other means to include time lost during repairs, etc. to add to your claim. I think going to the Marine Surveyor's organizations and the Division of Insurance are good ideas. You may also call the consumer protection people at the state attorney general's office. Not that it is likely that any of the bureaucrats will do anything, but if this becomes a pattern and practice for Travelers, it could get them looked at. Do your part so others may benefit.
Ultimately, I would tell you that if you can't get it resolved, that you may want to consider filing a lawsuit alleging bad faith and seeking punitive damages in the most remote place you can find (does Hoonah have a civil court?) and request a jury trial. In discovery ask them for copies of the file of every boat claim they have ever denied for this reason and every other document you might think could cause them expense to compile and may have some relevant information in it, take a deposition of the adjuster and request he bring copies of every claim he has adjusted for an insurance company and every survey, file lots of motions on whatever topic you can justify and request hearings on every one. I would guess that if you can get a jury trial in some remote court, especially where a lot of the prospective jurors know something about boats, you will have a very sympathetic jury. You could do this yourself and put the insurance company to some serious expense (in effect turning the tables on them). You do however risk the possibility of the court awarding the insurance company a significant sum in attorney fees under Civil Rule 82 if you do not prevail for whatever reason. However, I would recommend you hire a lawyer and have him write an indignant letter to the insurance company explaining why the claim denial is BS and telling them that this is what he is going to do on your behalf if they do not pony up. In Alaska there is what is called Civil Rule 68 (a procedure grossly underutilized by most lawyers) which allows you to make an offer of judgment in a case after it is filed. This offer would allow you to shift a significant part of the cost of your lawyer to the insurance company if you recover more at trial than the amount for which you have offered to settle. This can put added pressure on the insurance company to settle.
An attorney, although not cheap, can save you a lot of time and trouble in cases such as this. It just depends on how much is at issue if you can justify the cost. You can just hire the lawyer to write a letter for you. It doesn't obligate you to have them handle the litigation for you if it is required.
Like berryst said, this is not intended as comprehensive legal advice, but a gut reaction to limited information. We lawyers are obligated to make sure that we do not make anyone believe that we are providing legal advice they can actually rely upon or undertaking representation when discussing matters such as this. In other words, don't expect to be able to sue me for malpractice when my approach blows up in your face unless you are actually paying for my services, lol. I wish I could give you the name of a good lawyer in your area for this, but the last time I did any work in SE Alaska was in the early 90s.