Boat insurance in Maine

Progressive places Maine among its cheaper states for boat insurance, with an average yearly premium of $307 across 2024 to 2025. Since that figure averages many different boats, what you actually pay will hinge on your boat, its value, and where it stays.

In 2024, Maine had 114,772 registered recreational boats.

Get your price range for your own boat in three quick steps, so you're ready when a marina or lender asks for proof of cover. Start here.

No Maine law says you must insure a boat. But other parties can insist on coverage, as Progressive explains:

• Marinas can ask you to carry liability coverage. Liability pays when your boat damages another person or their things.
• Lenders may require physical damage cover while you still owe money on the boat, which pays to repair or replace the boat itself.

Registration, on the other hand, is required by the state. Every motorboat, whatever its size and including jet skis, has to be registered before use on Maine waters, apart from limited exceptions. Residents register and pay excise tax in their town. Registration and boating safety are run by the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

When a marina or bank gives you a coverage list, get your price range for your boat.

We modeled yearly prices for boats kept in Maine, so treat each figure as an estimate, not a quote.

These are estimates, not quotes. Get your price range for your own boat in three quick steps.

Our model treats Maine as a coastal storm state. Policies along the coast here often include a separate named-storm deductible. Your deductible is the share of a claim you cover out of pocket before insurance picks up the remainder, and the named-storm kind kicks in only if a hurricane or named storm did the damage. Coastal policies often carry a separate deductible for named storms, so check that line in our hurricane plan worksheet before you buy. Get your price range and see what fits your boat.

Yearly ownership costs go beyond insurance.

• Registration: What you pay turns on engine horsepower rather than boat length. For an 11 to 50 hp motor, the fee is $46 if you boat on inland waters, or $21 if you stick to tidal waters.
• Milfoil sticker: Any motorized boat on inland waters has to display a Lake and River Protection sticker. It comes with Maine registration, while out-of-state boats pay $59 for it.
• Excise tax: Each town bills a yearly watercraft excise tax tied to length and, for boats 13 to 23 feet, horsepower. The bill falls 20% after ten years and 40% after 20.

• If you were born on or after January 1, 1999, you must be at least 12 and have passed a boater safety course before operating a motorboat with more than 25 hp.
• That same birth-date group must be at least 16 and have passed the course before riding a jet ski, under a rule that took effect January 1, 2024.
• Kids under 12 cannot operate a motorboat over 10 hp unless someone aged 16 or older is aboard supervising.
• Operating a boat at 0.08 blood alcohol or higher once you are 21, or with any alcohol in your system if you are younger, counts as OUI. Watercraft OUI is a Class D crime. If you have had no OUI conviction in the past six years, the fine is at least $400.