
Warm weather is here, and the boats, jet skis, and paddleboards are coming out of storage. Whether you’re taking the family out on the lake, towing the kids on a tube, or finally launching that jet ski you bought over the winter, summer on the water is one of the best parts of the year.
It pays to spend a few minutes making sure you’re protected before you go, because the water is also where things go wrong. The most recent data from the U.S. Coast Guard counted 3,887 boating accidents in 2024 that led to 556 deaths, 2,170 injuries, and $88 million in property damage. The real number is probably higher, since smaller accidents often go unreported.
Your home insurance barely covers your boat. It might help with a small boat or a paddleboard while it’s sitting in your garage, but only up to a small dollar amount. The moment you put it in the water, you’re mostly on your own. If you own anything bigger than a kayak, and especially if you own a jet ski, you’ll need a separate boat policy to be truly protected.
Insure.com explains how homeowners and boat insurance work together to protect boats, jet skis, and other gear on the water.
Are boats covered by homeowners insurance?
Homeowners insurance does cover boats and watercraft, but only small or nonmotorized ones, only while they’re on your property, and only up to about $1,000 to $1,500. Once you get into bigger boats, faster boats, most jet skis, or anything that goes wrong out on the water, you’re generally not covered.
“Homeowners covers watercraft to some extent for fire, theft and those types of things,” says Erica Ostrander, vice president of markets and franchise success at We Insure.
Liability is the bigger blind spot. Typically, you won’t have liability coverage for your watercraft through your home insurance, or if you do, it will be limited and won’t cover larger boats. So if someone gets hurt on your boat or you bang up another vessel, you could be stuck paying for it yourself — the kind of bill a real boat policy would have handled.
What boats does a homeowners policy typically cover?
A homeowners policy typically covers smaller boats and nonmotorized watercraft as personal property, meaning they’re protected the same way your furniture or bike would be. The usual qualifiers are:
- Boats up to 25 feet in length
- Watercraft with outboard motors up to 25 horsepower or inboard motors up to 50 horsepower
- Paddleboards
- Kayaks
- Canoes
- Other nonmotorized watercraft, like rowboats and small sailboats
Even when your watercraft makes the list, the protection is thin. Coverage is usually capped at an amount that may not come close to replacing a paddleboard or a small sailboat. And while you’re protected against fire and theft, the on-wate