Best Boat Insurance

If you know the difference between inboard and outboard motors, it’s likely you’re a boater or may be considering a purchase. Just like your home or car, your boat will also need insurance. Your home insurance may provide limited coverage, but if you’re like most boaters, you’ll want the best boat insurance for your pride and joy.

You should be aware of special considerations and potential coverage gaps, and the company that insures your home or car may not be the best choice for your boat insurance.

Quick Look: The Best Boat Insurance

• Best Overall Boat Insurance: BoatUS
• Best Boat Insurance for Classic Boats: Hagerty
• Best Boat Insurance for Value: Progressive
• Best Boat Insurance for Convenience: State Farm
• Best Boat Insurance for Agent Expertise: Markel
• Best Boat Insurance for Flexible Coverage: Foremost

Best Boat Insurance Providers

Because boat insurance is a specialty type of insurance, you’ll find a few insurers in Benzinga’s roundup that may not be household names, but in the boating industry, some have become nearly legendary.

1. Best Overall Boat Insurance: BoatUS

BoatUS and GEICO have teamed up to bring you boat insurance policies that are serviced by boating experts and backed by the nation’s second-largest auto insurance company. Choose from agreed hull value, actual cash value (ACV) or liability-only coverage with add-ons like dock contract liability, fishing guide coverage and ice and freezing repair.

Become a member to find support to fit your needs. You can choose from membership options that range from Basic at $24 per year to Unlimited Gold Towing for $175 per year.

It also provides coverage for unlimited freshwater and unlimited saltwater towing. Both offer 50% cost coverage for dock-to-dock tows for repairs. Freshwater coverage starts at $85 per year, while saltwater begins at $159 each year.

2. Best Boat Insurance for Classic Boats: Hagerty

Owners of classic cars are probably familiar with Hagerty or may even have a car insured with the specialty insurer. Owners of classic boats have special needs that won’t be well-addressed by some boat insurance policies, particularly those that use actual cash value to determine coverage limits.

Hagerty prides itself on personalized service and works through a network of independent agents who can advise you on your coverage. Members of many well-known boating clubs can expect substantial discounts with Hagerty.

3. Best Boat Insurance for Value: Progressive

If your seafaring adventures keep you within 75 miles of the U.S. or Canadian coastline, Progressive can be a solid choice for boat insurance. Although best known as an auto insurance provider, Progressive has been providing boat insurance for over 35 years, insuring more than 1 million boats through its network of independent agents.

Progressive’s boat insurance offerings center on small to mid-size boats with a limit of 50 feet in length or $350,000 in value. Extra coverage built into your policy includes accident forgiveness, roadside assistance, fuel spill coverage and water sports coverage.

4. Best Boat Insurance for Convenience: State Farm

With over 19,000 contracted agents throughout the U.S., there’s likely a State Farm agent located near your home. State Farm agents work exclusively with State Farm insurance products and the company invests heavily in product training to ensure that agents and representatives know their way around the details of your boat insurance coverage.

If you already have insurance with State Farm, you know that the company provides multipolicy discounts or the opportunity to combine insurance payments and cut down on paperwork. Whether your boat is a kayak, a yacht or something in between, State Farm can help you customize a coverage solution to meet your boat insurance needs.

6. Best Boat Insurance for Agent Expertise: Markel

It’s comforting to work with insurance agents who don’t just sell boat insurance policies but who are active boaters themselves. As agents and boaters, Markel’s insurance agents understand both the risks and the coverage solutions that can help you protect your assets.

Markel provides several policy extras at no additional cost, including personal effects coverage for up to $1,000, emergency towing for up to $500 and diminishing deductibles that reduce your out-of-pocket costs for a claim by 25% after each loss-free year.

7. Best Boat Insurance for Flexible Coverage: Foremost

While many other insurers focus on home and auto insurance, Foremost has built its business by insuring specialty risks that may not be well understood by broad market insurers. Foremost breaks out its boat insurance offering into a good/better/best selection, providing coverage packages to meet the needs of most boaters.

Safety course discounts of up to 20% are available and extras like pet coverage, trip interruption coverage and hurricane haul-out coverage are included at no extra charge with premium packages.

What is Boat Insurance?

Insurance is the transfer of risk from an individual to a pool. In effect, everyone who is insured pays for losses whether that loss is their own or someone else’s. The idea is that only a certain percentage of insured parties will have a loss within a given time frame. This is called frequency.

Over time, insurers also learn the average cost of losses, referred to as severity. Combined with individual rating factors like claims history or accident history, insurers determine a premium to charge for insurance for boat types and uses.

The insured value also plays a role. A 16-foot pontoon boat will have a lower insured value than a 75-foot cabin cruiser, which affects premiums.

If you have a covered claim, your boat insurance comes to the rescue and can cover damage to your boat, damage to the property of others and personal liability for accidents resulting from boating activities.

What Does Boat Insurance Cover?

A boat insurance policy is similar to a car insurance policy in many ways but offers some extras that cover risks specific to boating. Much like a car insurance policy, your boat insurance won’t cover maintenance or wear and tear. Think sudden and accidental when you think about most types of insurance coverage.

These words, or words to the same effect, are likely to be in your boat insurance policy and make it clear that boat insurance is primarily intended to cover accidents or sudden losses.

Collision Coverage

Sometimes boats bump into things. Collision coverage protects your boat and can pay toward the cost of repair or replacement. Be aware that not all policies provide coverage to clean up wreckage or sunken boats. Often, this is an add-on coverage for your policy, called a rider.

Comprehensive Coverage

Boats can be damaged in other ways, and sometimes, boats disappear altogether. Your comprehensive coverage provides protection against theft, vandalism and other risks that can damage your boat.

Property Damage Liability

Because boats sometimes bump into things like other boats or docks, it’s important to have coverage for property damage liability. This coverage covers other people, or more specifically, their things, which can be expensive to repair or replace.

Bodily Injury Liability

Your boat insurance policy provides coverage for injuries you may cause to others and can cover medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering and the cost of your legal defense. Bodily injury liability coverage does not cover your own boating-related injuries. Most marinas require $300,000 up to $1 million in liability coverage.

Additional Coverage

Several additional types of coverage may be available depending on the insurer you choose. Some insurers may offer some of this coverage as part of a standard policy or package, and in other cases, the coverage may be add-ons — or not available at all.

• Medical coverage
• Roadside assistance
• Wreckage removal
• Watersports coverage
• Fuel spill coverage
• Coverage for carry-on items
• Coverage for fittings
• Coverage for fishing equipment
• Trip interruption coverage
• Uninsured boater coverage
• Boat trailer coverage
• Towing coverage

Deductibles

Like your home or auto insurance policy, your boat insurance policy is subject to a deductible. The deductible is the part of a claim that you pay. Your insurer will only cover claims that exceed the deductible and the deductible will be subtracted from the claim payment. A $5,000 covered loss with a $1,000 deductible will pay $4,000. Be sure the deductible you choose is an amount you can cover out of pocket.

Coverage Limits

Your boat insurance policy is subject to coverage limits. The area of your policy where this is most important is liability. Damage to the property of others or bodily injuries caused to others are only covered up to the limits of your policy. Liability above the limits your policy provides can jeopardize your savings, your home or your future earnings. Review this coverage carefully.

Exclusions

Like all insurance policies, your boat insurance policy doesn’t cover some risks. Expect to find wear and tear among the exclusions as well as damage from insects, mold, animals and marine life. Also, expect damage related to maintenance to be excluded from coverage.

Actual Cash Value vs. Agreed Value

Boat policies can provide coverage for physical damage in two primary ways: actual cash value (ACV) or agreed value, the latter of which means that you and the insurer agree to a coverage amount value for your boat.

When you see “actual cash value” on an insurance policy, think of “depreciated value.” The policy adjusts the insured value of your boat based on age or wear and tear. Most auto policies are written this way as well. If you have a total loss, your policy may not provide enough coverage to replace your boat.

Agreed value coverage does what its name suggests: provides enough coverage to repair or replace your boat with the same type and quality up to the agreed value. While this may be preferable to actual cash value coverage, it’s typically more expensive.

There is value in both policies. When you have an ACV policy, you’re saving money on the insurance plan because you may not feel you need the full price of the boat if it is totaled. At the same time, paying a little more for an agreed-upon value policy helps you replace the boat completely in the event of a total loss.

Can I Use My Homeowners Insurance Policy?

Your homeowners insurance policy can provide limited protection for your boat — but often only in certain circumstances, like when your boat is home. Home insurance policies often treat your boat like a television, furniture or any other kind of personal property.

Liability coverage may also be limited and may not provide protection when your boat is on the water or if your boat is over a certain size or above a certain horsepower. Expect similar gaps in coverage on many policies for things like fuel spills or wreckage. If you own anything bigger than a rowboat, consider buying a specialized boat insurance policy to provide dedicated coverage.

How to Chose and What to Look for in a Policy

Ideally, you’ll want to choose an insurer that makes boat insurance a priority. Car and home insurance are much more common and some nationally known insurers treat boat insurance as an afterthought. That doesn’t make the policy useless, but it can mean that it may be difficult to get a straight answer on what the policy covers.

Insurance representative and agents might not know because it isn’t their core business. Specialty insurers who focus on boat insurance or similar products are often a solid option.

You’ll want to choose a well-established company. In most cases, the state will assume the obligations of an insurer that goes under but it’s always preferable to work with the insurer directly if you have a claim.

Some insurers offer standard policy features that would come at an extra cost with other insurers. The extra features can provide greater value. Even seemingly small differences in language, like “actual cash value” compared to “agreed value” can make a huge difference in how your claim is covered and your out-of-pocket expense. Often, the best boat insurance companies offer several extra types of coverage as part of a standard policy.

Find Boat Insurance Today

Choosing the best boat insurance coverage to meet your needs can be more complicated than choosing auto insurance or other types of coverage that are more standardized. Many insurers that provide boat insurance coverage don’t specialize in boat insurance, which can lead to coverage gaps or policies that are not well understood by either the agent or the consumer.

As with many things, price is only one consideration when choosing the best boat insurance. More complete coverage is a priority for many boat owners and may not be available at any price with discount insurers or insurers who do not specialize in boat insurance.

Speak with your agent and don’t be afraid to ask questions. An overlooked coverage detail can potentially cost you thousands.

Frequently Asked Questions