You have a boat. You use it for recreational purposes. If you used it for business purposes, like a fisherman or tour guide, you would make certain that your boat was insured to the hilt. Because your boat is not "business property," you might be inclined to skip having insurance. However, boat insurance should not be an afterthought. Here is why.
Your Boat Can Be Damaged Just at the Docks
Like a car in a parking lot, boats that are docked can be damaged by other boats and the people who are driving them. You think that insurance is for boats that are out and about on the water and crash into each other or hit objects in the water. Yet, you do not even have to be on your boat for your boat to be damaged. Imagine how you would feel when you next arrived at the docks to find that someone "hit and run" your boat! If you do not have insurance, you have to pay for the repairs out of pocket; plus you cannot go boating until the repairs are made.
Boats Can Float Away and Become Damaged on Their Own
It is weird when this happens, but boat ropes can become loose, and boats will drift all on their own. When it happens, the boats can end up anywhere (e.g., crushed in a dam, forty miles downstream, over a waterfall and on the rocks, etc.). If you go boating once a week or less, you would have no idea that your boat is gone and/or damaged until long after the fact. The boating insurance would replace and/or repair you boat once you discover it.
Boat Theft
A lot of people think that boat insurance is all about damage; damage to your boat, damaging other people's boats with your boat, damaging property with your boat, etc. However, your boat can be stolen. If you have a particularly nice boat, theft is most definitely a probability.
If your boat was stolen, boat insurance pays for a new boat. If your boat was stolen, and the thief wrecks your boat or wrecks other boats on the water, boat insurance covers that. If the thief injures other people who are in the water while stealing your boat, boat insurance covers that, too. In fact, if you think of your boat as a "car on the water;" anything car insurance covers on cars on land is what boat insurance covers on boats in the water.
Contact an agency like Veronica's Auto Insurance to learn more.
Share14 June 2018
I bought my first car after I graduated from college. I was just about to become a teacher and needed a car to get me to and from work! I chose an auto insurance company my boyfriend used and stayed with them for many years. I always felt like I was paying too much for insurance, but I thought that was normal. One day a fellow teacher was talking about her auto insurance rate, and it was a fraction of what I paid! She told me that most companies offer discounts for teachers, and I soon learned that my company did not give me one. I switched to another company and now pay a lot less. I learned a lot about insurance during this time, so I decided to start a blog to share what I have learned to help anyone who needs the help!
