Estimate your annual premium by boat type, value, state, and where you sail
Estimates built from typical published industry averages. Actual quotes depend on operator experience, boating safety courses, storage, and insurer.
Typical annual premiums at each type's common insured value: inland navigation, standard-state rates, $500 deductible, $300,000 liability, 3–5 month lay-up. Your quote will vary.
| Boat Type | Typical Length | Typical Value | Avg Annual Premium | % of Value | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bass / fishing boat | 17–21 ft | $30,000 | $317 | 1.1% | $250 – $600 |
| Pontoon | 20–26 ft | $35,000 | $354 | 1.0% | $300 – $650 |
| Bowrider / runabout | 18–24 ft | $40,000 | $386 | 1.0% | $300 – $800 |
| Sailboat | 22–32 ft | $50,000 | $515 | 1.0% | $400 – $1,200 |
| Cabin cruiser | 28–40 ft | $120,000 | $902 | 0.8% | $900 – $2,500+ |
| Jet ski / PWC | 10–12 ft | $12,000 | $244 | 2.0% | $200 – $350 |
| Canoe / kayak (unpowered) | under 16 ft | $2,500 | $101 | 4.0% | $75 – $150 |
The 1% to 2% rule holds across most powered boats, small craft pay a minimum premium that dwarfs their value, and jet skis carry theft and injury rates that double their percentage. Big cruisers get a volume discount on the percentage but still cost the most in dollars.
A boat policy bundles physical damage coverage for the hull and equipment, liability for what you do to other people and their property, medical payments, and uninsured boater protection. This calculator estimates the combined premium from your boat type's baseline, then adjusts for value, state, water, deductible, liability limit, and how much of the year the boat is actually wet.
Each type has a baseline premium at its typical value: $345 for bass boats, $385 pontoons, $420 bowriders, $560 sailboats, $980 cabin cruisers, $265 PWCs, $110 small craft. Value scales it with 0.6 + 0.4 × (your value ÷ typical value). State comes next: Gulf hurricane states ×1.25, other coastal states ×1.12, Great Lakes and inland heartland ×0.95, the rest ×1.00. Navigation area ranges from 1.00 inland to 1.40 offshore. A $250 deductible costs 10% more than $500, $1,000 saves 10%. Raising liability from $300k to $500k adds 6%. A 3–5 month lay-up takes 8% off, 6+ months takes 15%.
Insure for what it would cost to replace the boat with a similar one, and strongly consider agreed-value coverage so depreciation doesn't gut a future claim. Pick the biggest water you actually sail, offshore and coastal ratings cost more because salvage and exposure scale with open water. If the boat sits on a trailer or in dry stack all winter, claim the lay-up credit; it's the single most commonly missed discount.
A $38,000 bowrider on Lake Michigan: Michigan's Great Lakes rate (0.95), large-bay navigation (1.10), $500 deductible, $300,000 liability, five-month winter lay-up (0.92). The math: $420 × (0.6 + 0.4 × 38,000/40,000 = 0.98) = $411.60. ×0.95 = $391.02. ×1.10 = $430.12. ×0.92 = $395.71. Call it $396 a year, $32.98 a month, essentially 1% of the boat's value.
Now a 26-foot sailboat worth $60,000, kept year-round in coastal Florida with a $1,000 deductible and $500,000 liability: $560 × (0.6 + 0.4 × 60,000/50,000 = 1.08) = $604.80. ×1.25 (hurricane state) = $756. ×1.18 (coastal) = $892.08. ×0.90 (deductible) = $802.87. ×1.06 (liability) = $851.04. So $851 a year, $70.92 a month, more than double the Michigan boat per dollar of hull.
Most small-boat policies land near 1% to 2% of the boat's insured value a year. That's about $300 to $500 for an 18 to 24 foot runabout, $250 to $600 for a bass boat or pontoon, $400 to $1,200 for a mid-size sailboat, $200 to $350 for a jet ski, and $900 to $2,500+ for a cabin cruiser. A 26-foot sailboat insured for $60,000 and sailed year-round in Florida runs about $851.
Most states don't mandate it for private boats, but Utah and a few others require liability on motorboats. In practice you'll be required to carry it anyway if the boat is financed (the lender wants physical damage coverage) or if you keep it at a marina (most require liability proof, often $300,000 or $500,000, for a slip or dry stack).
A little, sometimes. Many homeowners policies cover small boats, often under 26 feet and low horsepower, for a token hull amount like $1,000 to $1,500, and theft is usually capped hard. Personal watercraft and larger boats are excluded outright, and liability follows only if you buy an endorsement. Anything worth more than a few thousand dollars needs its own policy.
Four core pieces: physical damage to the hull, motor, and permanently attached gear; liability for injuries and damage you cause to others; medical payments for you and your passengers; and uninsured boater coverage, which matters more than people expect on crowded waterways. Check salvage and wreck removal too, sinking a boat is cheap, raising it is not, and not every policy includes full salvage costs.
Agreed value pays the number on the policy regardless of market depreciation, maybe 10% to 20% more in premium. Actual cash value pays what the boat was worth used on the day of the loss, so a five-year-old rig might settle at half its replacement cost. For anything you'd want to replace with a similar boat, agreed value is usually worth the premium.
Hurricanes. Gulf and Southeast coastal states run about 25% above the national baseline, and policies there often carry a separate named-storm deductible set as a percentage of insured value rather than a flat dollar amount. Year-round boating seasons also mean more exposure months. The offset: Floridians can cut 15% or so with a hurricane plan, and haul-out credits for moving the boat before a named storm.