And what if fuel leaked and contaminated the marsh? Now the EPA & State are involved and costs would be HUGE... What if you had hit a 200K boat, or multiple boats, what if you had destroyed someones $60,000 pier/dock? Boating without at least liability insurance is simply foolish, required or not.If it should happen I have to salvage the boat, it's not going to cost anyone anything, except for me my boat.. If it should happen, then I simply cut it up and haul it away piece by piece.. I don't seen how this is unfair or at the expense of others - It's not.
I wasn't required to get insurance, and I didn't.. but if I had tried, I probably would have had a very difficult time finding an agent willing to insure a 45 year old boat.
Or so I highly suspect.
Here is a prime example of how it can hurt..
About six years ago a customer of mine had his boat hit in a mooring field, by a boat that broke free, to the tune of $13,000 in damages. The guy who's boat hit him had no insurance and he also had an non-compliant and uninspected mooring (requirement) that did not meeting local mooring laws.
The customer of mine who was hit was on the line for his hull deductible, which cost him $2500.00. His insurer then went after the owner who hit him for their incurred costs.The owner also took him to small claims court for the $2500.00. I know the owner was awarded his $2500.00 but I don't know the outcome of the insurer going after the guy for their money. That same boat did damage to a total of five boats that day and I would assume other owners also took the guy to court for damages.
A wonky mooring system and no insurance is ripe for potentially incurring huge costs to you. Costs which can be avoided by simply buying a liability only policy.