What does boat insurance cover?
Boat insurance typically covers damage to your own vessel, theft, storm losses like hurricanes, and harm you do to other people or their property. The exact protection depends on which sections you pick, and some extras, such as towing, can come with a set limit.
The main parts of boat coverage
Boat policies can combine several types of protection, so check which ones your policy includes. Progressive sets out the key parts:
- Liability: protection for damage you cause to other people. It covers docks, pilings, and other boats, along with injuries to your passengers and fellow boaters.
- Comprehensive: protection for your own boat when the loss is not a crash, like fire, theft, vandalism, explosion, lightning, hurricanes, and falling objects.
- Collision: pays out when you strike another boat or any object, including one hidden below the surface.
- Uninsured or underinsured boater: covers injuries to you and your passengers if the other boater carries no insurance or not enough.
- Medical payments: covers medical costs for you and your passengers following a covered accident, regardless of fault.
Theft, belongings and trailers
If someone steals or vandalizes your boat, the comprehensive part of a policy is usually what pays, so it's worth checking you have it before you need it.
Some insurers include your belongings too. Chubb, for example, automatically covers personal effects and fishing gear for the owner and guests, so ask whether yours does.
If you use a trailer, check whether your policy covers it. Markel's boat trailer coverage can reach as much as $7,500.
How do agreed value and actual cash value differ?
These are the two methods a policy uses to work out your payout. The key difference is depreciation: the loss in a boat's value as it gets older.
The Insurance Information Institute says an actual cash value policy pays what replacement would cost, minus depreciation. An agreed value policy, sometimes called agreed amount, pays the figure you and the insurer settled on when the boat is a total loss.
| Actual cash value | Agreed value | |
|---|---|---|
| Boat is a total loss | The cost to replace it, minus depreciation | The amount you and the insurer agreed on |
| Only part damaged | Depreciation comes off the payout | Payout with nothing taken off for age |
Hurricanes and storms
Hurricane damage is usually covered by the comprehensive part of a policy. Progressive lists hurricanes and lightning there. It's worth reading your own policy to see how your insurer handles storms.
Preparing early helps too. A U.S. Coast Guard hurricane checklist suggests deciding when your storm plan starts, for example 48 or 72 hours before a hurricane arrives, and checking your lease or storage agreement.
Towing and help after an accident
Towing coverage varies by policy. Allstate's emergency services coverage pays back as much as $100 for a tow, mechanical work done where you broke down, and bringing you fuel, oil or a battery.
If your boat sinks or leaks fuel, cleanup can be costly. Progressive includes wreckage removal and fuel spill coverage in every boat policy, so ask whether yours does too.
Common questions
What does boat insurance leave out?
The Insurance Information Institute names insects, mold, animals, normal wear and tear, zebra mussels, and defective machinery as common exclusions. Global Marine Insurance adds marine life, slow deterioration, osmosis and blistering of the hull, ice and freezing, and manufacturer defects.
Does boat insurance cover the motor?
Wear and tear on the motor, known as mechanical breakdown, is normally not covered. BoatUS sells mechanical breakdown coverage as an optional extra for outboard lower units and sterndrive upper and lower units.
Will my home insurance cover my boat?
Only to a limited degree. Allstate says a home policy only protects small boats, roughly under 25 horsepower, and excludes jet skis. They generally cap boat coverage near $1,000, or 10% of what the home is insured for, and liability is usually not included.
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