Boat insurance from Blake Sims, your local GEICO agent.
Sardis, Pickwick, Ross Barnett, Greers Ferry, the rivers, and the Gulf. Wherever you put in, the boat and the people on it deserve real coverage.
What boat insurance actually covers:
Your homeowners policy gives a boat very little. A boat policy is built for the water.
- Hull & MachineryCore coverage
The boat itself: hull, motor, and permanently attached equipment. Collision, storms, fire, sinking, and theft. - LiabilityCore coverage
Injury or damage you cause on the water: another boat, a dock, a swimmer. The coverage that protects everything you own on land. - Medical PaymentsRecommended
Medical bills for people hurt on your boat, paid regardless of fault. Skiing and tubing count. - Uninsured BoaterRecommended
None of the three states requires boat insurance, so plenty of boats around you carry none. This fills that gap after a collision. - Trailer & TransitOptional
Coverage for the trailer and for the boat while it's being towed. Those are the riskiest miles many boats ever travel. - Personal EffectsOptional
Fishing gear, electronics, water toys. Optional coverage for what's aboard but not bolted down.
Boating the Mid-South, by the numbers:
What the law requires here is very little. What the water can do is another story.
- Not required · Insurance by law. Neither Tennessee, Mississippi, nor Arkansas requires insurance for recreational boats. Marinas and lenders usually do, and liability risk exists either way. Source: state boating agencies of TN, MS, and AR.
- Excluded · Your homeowners policy. Home policies typically cap boat coverage at small limits and exclude most watercraft liability. A boat needs its own policy. Industry standard.
- Lay-up · Seasonal savings. If the boat sits out for part of the year, lay-up periods can lower the premium without dropping storm and theft protection. Industry practice.
- Gulf · Hurricane season. Named-storm plans matter on the coast: where the boat sits, how it's secured, what the policy expects of you. Sort it out in spring, not September. Industry practice.