What are the Risks When Renting Your Boat without Insurance?
When renting out your boat, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. You may own one boat. You likely own many. Either way keeping your boat “fleet” well maintained takes up considerable time.
Come the summer season, when customers start arriving, your boats have to be in top condition in order to survive another four to six months of flat out use.
And let’s face it, anything can happen. An inexperienced customer could hit a neighbouring boat while trying to dock. An enthusiastic father against better judgement let his son hold the helm and son promptly steers the boat into another boat.
Those accidents are potentially harmless but some are disastrous. Other serious risks come in the form of fire, theft and uncontrollable weather events like storms, hurricanes and earthquakes.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the world’s climates are in flux and freak weather events are a constant risk.
The boat owner without insurance is under constant threat from these types of risks. For starters up to six thousands accidents occur every year on Canadian waterways. It is the boat owner’s responsibility to ensure the insurance is in place to cover any damage caused by these accidents.
At minimum you need to be sure that your business has liability insurance that includes boat rentals. Many business owners carry only liability insurance on their boats and OPT out of property coverage. You should be sure you understand and review which coverage you and have which you do not have, especially if renting boats is a key part of your business operations.
To get you started on the right track, download our free boat safety checklist now!