Personal watercraft can be a lot of fun, but if you aren’t prepared, mishaps with these vehicles can lead to expensive consequences. Before you take your boat out, you want to make sure that you have the proper protection that will save you money in the long run. An insurance policy for your watercraft can help you be ready for unexpected events that might happen while you’re out on the water. If you’re searching for PWC insurance near me and are curious what the specific benefits are, we’ve provided a helpful list!

Looking For PWC Insurance Near Me? 8 Reasons to Insure Your Personal Watercraft

1. It Is Often a Requirement

Depending on the laws in your local area, it might be a requirement that you have 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’re in compliance with all the laws regarding boating in your jurisdiction.

In some cases, it may be necessary to provide proof of insurance in order to secure a spot for your boat at a marina. While there are homeowner’s insurance policies that 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 you’re 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 out 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 in an affordable manner.

3. Protect Your Investment

As described above, acquiring a boat or other watercraft can often be an expensive investment. You want to make sure that the investment you’ve made is well-protected so that you don’t waste the money you spent 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 repairing your vessel back to working order in the event of an accident. Find out exactly 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, emergency equipment, and may include other components of your vehicle.

4. Protect Yourself and Your Passengers

Although going out in your watercraft is a whole lot of fun, it is an activity that comes with some inherent risk. You or your passengers have the possibility of getting 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 both 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 in order to be prepared for any possible situation you’ll run into regarding your vehicle.

Some special coverage options can include coverage for emergency towing costs, which can be absolutely 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 it being 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 stringently protects the delicate ecosystems that exist in the lakes, rivers, and oceans of our country. If you don’t have proper insurance, paying for the costly process of cleaning up the damage to the environment caused by a watercraft will likely fall on you. To avoid these steep fees, make sure that 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 personally to cover.

However, special insurance policies can help protect you in incidents such as this. While a standard policy won’t usually include such coverage, you can take out an additional policy that will protect you in the event of an accident involving an uninsured boater. You may have reservations about paying more for uninsured boater coverage, but 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 just because the winter months have rolled around. There are still damages that can occur even when you aren’t actively using your personal watercraft. You’ll be protected from costs incurred from fires, theft, vandalism, or other incidents when your boat is in storage by keeping your policy year-round.

If you’re interested in PWC insurance near me and want to learn more about your coverage options, it’s important that you 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!