Missouri Boat Insurance Basics

It’s the thick of the summer herein Missouri; the sunburns are running rampant, it feels like you can drink the air, and the murky waters of all the creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes are calling our names. It’s prime time for boating, and all the fun that comes with it. Fishing, cruising, tossing your child around while they desperately cling to the tube dragging far behind the boat—the possibilities are endless!

While owning a boat can be a wonderful (and sometimes necessary) thing, it should still be treated with the same amount of care as owning and operating a car. Boating accidents can be a serious matter; from personal injury or death to damage sustained or caused by the boat, boat owners need to be prepared for boating gone bad. For that reason, boat insurance is essential.

I want to be clear upfront: it is not a law in Missouri that you have to have boat insurance. Knowing that, you may be tempted to save a little money and hassle and opt out. To that, I offer some incredibly sage advice: DON’T!

Accidents can happen no matter how careful we are. They can happen to someone who has been driving a boat since they came out of the womb, and they can happen to someone who only takes the boat out for the occasional weekend in the summer. If you’ve learned one thing from these blogs, it should be that life is unpredictable! It’s in your best interest to insure yourself against those unpredictable incidents that can costa lot of money out of pocket otherwise.

I think that is especially true because the law doesn’t say you have to have insurance; that means that there will be more people out there who are operating uninsured boats. Insurance takes care of you if you’re in a car accident with someone who is uninsured (even if it is more of a nightmare), right? There is such thing as uninsured watercraft coverage to protect against that very thing in the boating world too.

Along with that coverage, there is also property, liability, and medical payments coverage. These are pretty self-explanatory in naming: property coverage helps cover the cost of replacing or repairing your boat, liability helps cover expenses from damage caused to another’s property or person, and medical payments coverage may pay for medical expenses incurred by a boating accident in which you or passengers are injured.

To all the fishermen out there: boat insurance is especially important for you to consider. Fishing boats often have a lot of specialized equipment, tools, or electronics that can be covered by policies in case anything happens to them.

This is all the general information to get you started with boat insurance, but you can talk to your local independent insurance agent at Town & Country Insurance for a more detailed and personalized policy. This policy will be largely dependent on things such as: the type and value of your boat, the age and condition of your boat, and the use (both how often and the purpose).

With boat insurance, you can turn your full attention back to enjoying those (preferably legal) shenanigans out on Missouri waters this summer!

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