Personal watercraft can be fun, but mishaps with these vehicles can lead to expensive consequences, so insure your personal watercraft. Before taking your boat out, you want to ensure you have the proper protection to save you money in the long run. An insurance policy for your watercraft can help you prepare for unexpected events while you’re on the water. We’ve provided a helpful list if you’re searching for PWC insurance near me and are curious about the benefits!
Looking to insure your personal watercraft? 8 Reasons to Insure Your Watercraft
1. It Is Often a Requirement
Depending on the laws in your local area, you might need insurance for your watercraft before going out on the water. Find insurance for your vehicle, either an agreed value policy or a replacement cost policy, to ensure that you comply with all the laws regarding boating in your jurisdiction.
Sometimes, it may be necessary to provide proof of insurance to secure a spot for your boat at a marina. While homeowner’s insurance policies may offer some coverage for your boat, these policies are not as comprehensive as PWC insurance. Getting a policy specifically for your watercraft gives you all the coverage you need.
2. It Will Help You Secure a Loan
With the expensive price tags that often come with owning a personal watercraft, you may not want to buy a vehicle outright when shopping for a boat or other watercraft. Taking out a loan with a bank that you can gradually repay gives you a more reasonable way to finance your activities on the water.
However, providing a loan for an uninsured vessel is a risk that most banks will not be willing to take. Knowing that you have coverage for unexpected events helps a bank to be more confident that you’ll be able to repay the loan you take out with them. In that way, insurance is a crucial part of financing your watercraft affordably.
3. Protect Your Investment
As described above, acquiring a boat or other watercraft can often be expensive. You want to ensure your investment is well-protected so you don’t waste money on your vehicle. However, if you incur damages on your vessel without an insurance policy covering it, the costs of repairing the watercraft you invested so much in will often fall to you.
Getting proper insurance will help you cover the costs of returning your vessel to work in the event of an accident. Find out precisely what your policy includes to understand the exact nature of your coverage. Generally speaking, your personal watercraft insurance policy will cover damage to your hull, sails, engine, built-in equipment, and emergency equipment and may include other vehicle components.
4. Protect Yourself and Your Passengers
Although going out in your watercraft is fun, it has some inherent risks. You or your passengers can get injured no matter how experienced you are piloting a boat or how many precautions you take. Although the well-being of everyone on board is your first concern, these incidents can also lead to steep medical expenses.
If you are operating an uninsured watercraft, you’ll be liable for covering any of the medical expenses incurred by injuries to you, your passengers, or anyone injured by the operation of your vehicle. However, an insurance policy can cover you and anyone you take on board with you.
5. Be Prepared for Special Cases
While a basic PWC insurance policy covers you for damages to your watercraft or medical expenses caused by injuries during its operation, there are other incidents you may want coverage for. Discuss additional coverage options when shopping for PWC insurance to be prepared for any situation you’ll run into regarding your vehicle.
Some unique coverage options can include coverage for emergency towing costs, which can be crucial if you run out of gas or end up otherwise disabled on the water. Other additional coverage for your insurance plan includes fuel spill coverage policies or policies that cover the costs of salvaging your boat in the worst-case scenario of a total loss from an accident.
6. Responsibility for Environmental Damage
Operating a watercraft involves being a responsible steward of the environment that you pilot your vessel in. Leaking oil and fuel from a damaged watercraft into the water can cause lasting damage to the plants and animals living under the water. You can also cause significant damage to the ecosystem if your boat becomes damaged and sinks, which also comes with an expensive clean-up process.
Federal law protects the delicate ecosystems in our country’s lakes, rivers, and oceans. If you don’t have proper insurance, paying for the costly cleaning of the environmental damage caused by a watercraft will likely fall on you. To avoid these steep fees, ensure you have proper coverage that insures you in the event of environmental damage caused by your vehicle.
7. Coverage for Accidents with Uninsured Boaters
Although you do your best to be safe when out on the water, accidents can happen, including collisions with another boat, you can imagine the difficulties that might arise if you’re involved in an accident with another boater who doesn’t have an insurance policy covering their vessels. In the worst-case scenario, the expenses incurred by damages to both vessels could fall on you to cover.
However, particular insurance policies can help protect you from such incidents. While a standard policy won’t usually include such coverage, you can take out an additional policy to save you in an accident involving an uninsured boater. You may have reservations about paying more for uninsured boater coverage. Still, the costs of a policy are far less than the expenses you’ll incur if you’re in an accident with no insurance coverage.
8. Protect Your Boat in the Off-Season
Even if you aren’t using your boat year-round, that doesn’t mean you should cancel your coverage policy because the winter months have rolled around. Some damages can still occur even when you aren’t actively using your watercraft. Keeping your policy year-round will protect you from costs incurred from fires, theft, vandalism, or other incidents when your boat is in storage.
If you’re interested in PWC insurance near me and want to learn more about your coverage options, you must find a trustworthy and knowledgeable agent to work with. We can provide you with an honest assessment of your choices so that you know the best way forward. Contact us at iInsure today!