What is PWC Uninsured Watercraft Coverage?

What Uninsured Watercraft Coverage May Include

Bodily injury protection may help cover your medical expenses, lost wages, and other injury-related costs when you're hurt by an uninsured PWC operator who is at fault.

Underinsured watercraft protection may apply when the at-fault operator has some liability coverage, but not enough to cover your full losses. Underinsured coverage may help bridge the gap between their policy limits and your actual damages.

Property damage coverage for your watercraft when it's damaged by an uninsured operator may also be available depending on your policy structure — confirm specifics with your agent.

Why Uninsured Coverage Matters for PWC

Unlike auto insurance, which most states require, PWC insurance is voluntary in nearly every state. The result is a recreational waterway environment where many operators carry no coverage.

Consider the exposure: at peak season on a busy lake — Lake Havasu on Spring Break, Lake Mead on Labor Day, a Florida Intracoastal waterway on a summer weekend — hundreds of PWC may be on the water simultaneously. A meaningful percentage of those operators are uninsured. If one of them causes an accident and you're injured, your ability to recover damages depends entirely on whether they have assets to pursue — or whether you have uninsured watercraft coverage.

What Uninsured Watercraft Coverage Typically Does Not Cover

• Accidents where you are at fault
• Hit-and-run incidents may have specific requirements for coverage — confirm with your agent
• Losses already covered by your own medical payments or physical damage coverage