Boat Insurance

Boat insurance protects you against the financial loss you would experience if your boat gets damaged or destroyed. In most cases, a boat represents a sizable investment, and a boat insurance policy protects that investment for you.

When you come in to our office to discuss boat insurance, there are a few things we will ask you:

• Where will you be using the boat? It makes a difference if you are using it inland on a lake, or if it will be in the ocean (or the bay).
  
• How big is the boat? If your boat is a little 6-foot or 8-foot dinghy, you may not want or need a separate policy to cover it (since small boats are sometimes included in your homeowner’s insurance policy). A larger boat would need its own policy.
  
• What is the value? This figure can be based on your purchase price, the book value, or the dollar amount determined by a recent reliable appraisal.
  
• Do you use the boat year-round? If not, where is it stored when it’s not in use? A boat stored indoors at a boat storage facility is safer than a boat sitting in the water at the local marina, so the insurance rates would reflect that different degree of risk.

There are some other, more detailed questions but the above questions cover the basics to determine what kind of boat insurance you will need.

Just owning a boat puts you at a degree of financial risk – even if you never use it. Here are a few of the reasons you need boat insurance:

• Your boat could sink. It’s not a pleasant thought, but this does happen to boats from time to time. Your insurance policy will reimburse you for that loss.
  
• Your boat could be badly damaged by fire, hurricane, vandalism or some other unexpected event. Based on the type of boat insurance policy you have, the insurance company would assess the degree of damage and either pay for the repairs or just pay you the money to replace the boat.

You could be in an accident by colliding with another boat. If that happens, there are several factors to consider when determining the financial ramifications:

• How badly is your boat damaged?
• How badly is the other boat damaged?
• Was any other property damaged during this accident?
• Was anyone on your boat injured?
• Was anyone on the other boat injured?

As you might notice, many of these considerations are the same as what are taken into account in the event of an auto accident. Essentially the same principles apply to both situations.

• Your boat could be stolen. Again, this is not something you would expect to happen, but boat insurance is by nature designed to protect you against the unexpected. You have probably heard stories of an owner who went down to the marina to do some work on his boat or go out sailing for an afternoon, and when he arrived the boat was nowhere to be found. The Coast Guard gets alerted and does a search but comes up with nothing, and the bottom line is that the boat never does get found. These crimes are usually drug-related. In any event, if your boat gets stolen, you need to have coverage that will compensate you for that loss.

If your boat is of substantial value (perhaps falling into the “yacht” category), it’s a good idea to have it appraised every few years to be sure that you are maintaining adequate coverage on it. You may have purchased it for $50,000 ten years ago, but it may be worth over $100,000 now. The original policy value could be largely undervalued. We can help you determine this.

We provide boat insurance in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Port Charlotte, Parrish, Punta Gorda and North Port, FL.