Boat Insurance Advice

[markj]

I have a 230 and a couple lake lice (jet skis). I haven't shopped for boat insurance in almost 20 years. I'm sure I'm not well covered and I'm probably paying too much. Which company do you guys recommend these days and why? Thanks!

[Nautiquehunter]

Geico [Boat US] OR Progressive

[Rusty Barras]

Geico here

[MN Ryan]

I'm with State Farm simply because they already have my homeowners and auto policies. I shopped a little, and SF was a bit cheaper, too (likely because of bundling).

[bturner]

Was with Progressive then BoatUS (Geico) undercut them by (if I recall correctly) about $100 a year. That said they were about that much more to insure my Wave Runner when I had it so I kept that with Progressive.

[Neptune442]

SkiSafe for me. Very happy with the rates/coverages...ended up being cheaper than bundling with my home/auto. Thankfully haven't had to file any claims yet though...

[NautiqueJeff]

SkiSafe is the only way to go. Way too many bad stories about GEICO, and I used to work for them. Yuck.

[Scooter G]

United Marine.
I was with Progressive for years, they can't even come close to UM on pricing, and you can build your own coverage levels. Perk, they cover your pets (how sad), lol.
I had a $17,000 claim a while back, I sent them pictures, they sent me checks, promptly.
(Not affiliated, just my 2 cents)

Ditto Jeff on GEICO!

[Ckowals1]

skisafe for me - has been great for the past 3 yrs

[bturner]

I'll have to see how the BoatUS (Geico) thing goes. I've only had one claim and that was with BoatUS but that was years ago when they were using I believe Progressive as their underwriter. Back then they were absolutely great. The wife backed into the boat while it was in the driveway and hit it in the bow about a foot in front of the windshield. Cracked the deck and hull at the rub rail and of course did a job on the rub rail as well. I was told to take it to the shop of my choice and have the shop send them the estimate. I took it to the shop the MC and Nautique dealers were sending boats for repair which was know for great work but they were not cheap by any means. They paid the shop what they wanted and even paid an adjustment later when the shop found out there was more damage. Never had a problem with them, they never contested the estimate or the charges. Hope this is the case going forward but also hope I never have to find out.

Having worked in a body shop for a couple years when I was going to college I have tons of insurance stories, Most of those I remember were the bad ones. One thing I do recall was most any company could be a PITA. Some were generally better than others but most times it really depended on who you were dealing with. We had hack adjustors we knew were going to low ball us every time and others that actually knew what they were doing that were fair as well as easy to work with. Get a bad adjustor and you're in for bumpy ride regardless of the company. I remember the shop manager telling one particular adjustor from Allstate to tow a car out of the shop and we never accepted work from Allstate again. Was the problem with Allstate or the adjustor? Don't know but I can tell you I've never priced insurance from them in the 40 years since then. I can say the same thing about Firestone tires but that's a completely different story best told over beers.....

[shag]

Ski safe is treating ok after probably 30 years of boat ownership, many of that with ski safe and some others in between. Last 8 years I have been back with Ski safe.
In late 2021 I had a direct lighting strike on my property which hit right near the waters edge and right where my electrical service goes to my dock (blew a 2-3 foot hole in the ground, exploded boards off the deck next to it. Then traveled out to boathouse and blew my outlets on the dock and the surge traveled through my NOCO maintainer, through the batteries and took out most electronics in my 2008 230. Audio, ECU, gauges, some wiring, Underwater lights , Zero off, Gateway (not made anymore) and a few other things. Over 15k damage. Ski safe paid and is working with me on a couple small addendums - but they reduced the claim by 1/3rd because boat is over 10 years old. I was able to prove some things were newer (I just put a couple new gauges in the year before and a few other things) so they added a bit for that - but still was out some $$$$. Over all I am satisfied. Didn't realize they reduce by 1/3 for age... Sucks especially when some parts aren't even made anymore.

[bturner]

Yeah most companies started doing that somewhere about 10 years ago. Found out about that jewel after a friend had a hard strike on a stump that bent everything underwater and cracked the hull. They depreciated everything, prop, prop shaft prop nut, you name it. When I went shopping this last time I paid extra for a non depreciation policy. I think it was something like $50 more. It is worth it? I guess if I hit something bad but who knows.

[shag]

Yeah most companies started doing that somewhere about 10 years ago. Found out about that jewel after a friend had a hard strike on a stump that bent everything underwater and cracked the hull. They depreciated everything, prop, prop shaft prop nut, you name it. When I went shopping this last time I paid extra for a non depreciation policy. I think it was something like $50 more. It is worth it? I guess if I hit something bad but who knows.

Yeah I did not know they did that. Probably was somewhere in the policy or some change that I didn't see, but oh well. And I would've paid the extra for non depreciation as well... Surprised they didn't sell me on that actually...

[bturner]

It's pretty much BS. How does a bronze prop that hasn't been damaged depreciate 30%, or a prop nut, prop shaft or anything thing like that? My counter to them would be... then fine, find me all those items in the same condition mine was in and use those to repair my boat. Of course that's never going to happen. To me this is just a scam where they're actually selling you something that on the surface appears to be one thing then providing 30% less when you file the claim. What would be more fair IMO (if we had government watchdogs that worked for the consumer) would be to mandate the insurance industry to present straight up policies that provide full, proper coverage. If they want to offer a cheaper policy that provides 30% coverage that fine but they should be very, very clear about what they're really selling you.

[JBush1016]

Twin Rivers Marine Insurance. Best in the business been using them for 20 years.