How much does it cost if boat sinks

Toyelectroman

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Dec 20, 2016
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Was going over my boat insurance and I currently have fuel and oil spill clean up as a add on for my policy. When i asked my insurance agent about it he said it would cover any fines i would receive from the epa if my boat sunk. Made me wonder if the worst case scenario happened and my boat sunk, how much would it cost to salvage it? I would guess it is not allowed to just leave a boat under the water.
 

harringtondav

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Fortunately I've never had to find out. But I'm certain that w/in US controlled waters a sunk boat must be removed. I don't know about off shore, or how far. And I'm guessing the salvage value will barely cover the cost of the recovery outfit.

But your post and others have me digging out my policy to see what calamities are covered. I know I'm good for liability and comprehensive damages, but there are other hazards.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
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It used to be $1800 per day. however that was 15 years ago.

same fine if your vehicle goes thru the ice while ice fishing

I believe there is a cap at $45,268 per event.
 

Tassie 1

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Made me wonder if the worst case scenario happened and my boat sunk, how much would it cost to salvage it? I would guess it is not allowed to just leave a boat under the water.

l think there's more than a few boats still sitting on the bottom everywhere...

too difficult/ costly to salvage if there is no insurance...

one near here ( few hundred yds ) old wooden hull converted cray boat owned by an interstate resident, only came down in summer type of thing,

sank on a mooring, no- one local knew who owned it,
was under water for a couple of months before the local boat rego mob put out a navigation hazard warning out,

they had some difficulty finding the current owner as it wasn't registered in his name,

was under water for months after that as the owner wasn't all that keen on paying for it to be refloated ( was worth buggerall prior to sinking )

eventually he paid 5k au for it to be raised and gave it away to the bloke across the road from me,

he put it in the local men's shed where it was repaired by old retired fishermen over time,

it's back in the water, still floats and is waiting for a suitable diesel donk,

still looks like a sunken vessel though
 

tpenfield

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Was going over my boat insurance and I currently have fuel and oil spill clean up as a add on for my policy. When i asked my insurance agent about it he said it would cover any fines i would receive from the epa if my boat sunk. Made me wonder if the worst case scenario happened and my boat sunk, how much would it cost to salvage it? I would guess it is not allowed to just leave a boat under the water.

It would cost a whole lot more than the insurance coverage. Keep it, if that is what you are asking, and make sure your limits are reasonable.
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
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Nov 20, 2001
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Salvage cost for the vessel would be the least of your worries.

Fuel spill containment and it’s consequential damages to environment could cost you a pretty penny.

I have $75k in spill coverage
 

gm280

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Jun 26, 2011
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If you could SCUBA dive, you could remove any and all references to you and don't tell anybody about it. Cost....nothing but some SCUBA equipment and time... :facepalm:

I guess the real cost would be more about how big the boat is/was, where it sunk and how much it is worth to you. Off shore, who knows...
 

racerone

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You know about rules / regulations / environmental guide lines.-------Walmart can pour oil waste over acres of good land and call it a parking lot.----You spill a few quarts from your bilge and they stomp on you.
 

JimS123

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All my current marine policies are written with a rider for "Fuel and other spill liability" for $939,800. My old policy with a different company and a different boat carried the same amount.

I recall asking my agent a few years ago, why such an odd number, and his reply was that it was the minimum required by law. I didn't ask if it was state or fed law.

I don't know if that was bad info or not, but it looks like I'm pretty well covered.....LOL.

As an aside, I just read my policy and salvage coverage is ALSO included, up to the agreed value of the boat.
 
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mike_i

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Are you referring to a boat sinking in fresh or saltwater? I'm guessing and only guessing there would be a difference. I'm on the west coast and only fish salt, there are many sunken boats around. They're deep enough that they don't pose a threat to navigation so they stay on the bottom forever. I'm not sure what happens to the fuel and other contaminates.
 

Lowlysubaruguy

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Heres a very short version of how much$
1990 this guy I know purchased a pretty home built wood boat and a month later the transom fell off ok ripped off after hitting an unmarked submerged Gill net about 5 miles above a major power generating damn. One of the largest in the us ok number 7. After the boat sank the sherrif wrote the incident up with a hefty list of people that person had to prove to that he removed any and all aspects of this event including any fuels and oils within a given time period and I think it was 48 hours. Fortunately it was a two stroke the boat didn’t actually sink the fuel tank floated and the outboard and transom was hanging by its controls and steering. The owner of said boat was told by the sherrif that any debris from the event that cause damage to the damn or its its generators etc the costs could be billed to me. Fortunately I had friends with boats we cleaned everything up within a few hours and no problems occurred. I progressed to welded aluminum over the next couple of years. Some marinas require well over a million dollars in insurance for fuel and fire related issues the more fuel your boat can hold the more insurance you have to provide.

A boat with 150 to 200 gallons of fuel could be a large enough of a spill that you could be hung with a hefty fee for the cleanup. We had a barge carrying oil hit the local sand bar and within a couple hours they had several emergency response ships on sight in case it reptured or tipped on its side the likes of which were not cheap 30 plus crew members on overtime not to mention the cost of the ships and containment measures. Everything was fine they raised the water level and floated it to safe water. The barge was within proper channels but the river had changed.
 

Old Ironmaker

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It is interesting to know that some Insurance company will cover a fine. Did I read that right? I would think that the costs for recovery would be inline with the location the boat went down, the difficulty of recovery i.e. time spent recovering and the amount of the contamination of water by hydrocarbons. Around here more snow machines sink than do boats by a large margin. The Ministry of the Environment gives a minimum time for recovery for boats and sleds. Putting divers under the ice costs big time. The torrent of the upper as well as lower Niagara River eats boats for lunch. That's going to cost big time compared to a smallish O/B boat that sunk in some calm back bay.
 

Faztbullet

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One of the marinas I service had a 45ft Hatteras sink this summer, $22K in fines and harbor clean up fees.... 18K to raise it. One of the engines was being serviced and caused it to fill and sink.
 

harringtondav

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Looks like we're mostly talking about insurance. So a blanket liability policy can be a buy, and the way to go in my mind. $1M in coverage is only a couple hundred bucks/yr, assuming your primary homeowners ins. has $500K min in liability coverage. Also not too pricey.

We got ours 20 yrs ago when my wife's family's lake place was letting anyone who knew someone, or was related to someone use the boat. One way or the other, the lawyers would sniff us out. The second $1M, total of $2M was only another $100/yr. Which we did once we got our own water place. It doesn't take much to find your a*s in the breeze. So it's a good idea to buy enough insurance to cover your "a*s"ets, plus the cost of ridiculous PI settlements.
 

DouglasW

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Keep in mind that most inboard boat fuel spills will evaporate, including common Diesel. The real potential damage is done by the engine oil and gear lube, which is a much smaller amount.
 

Old Ironmaker

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Looks like we're mostly talking about insurance. So a blanket liability policy can be a buy, and the way to go in my mind. $1M in coverage is only a couple hundred bucks/yr, assuming your primary homeowners ins. has $500K min in liability coverage. Also not too pricey.

We got ours 20 yrs ago when my wife's family's lake place was letting anyone who knew someone, or was related to someone use the boat. One way or the other, the lawyers would sniff us out. The second $1M, total of $2M was only another $100/yr. Which we did once we got our own water place. It doesn't take much to find your a*s in the breeze. So it's a good idea to buy enough insurance to cover your "a*s"ets, plus the cost of ridiculous PI settlements.

At 1st glance I said to myself 500K liability isn't enough in this litigious society we live in, now including Canada. But I remembered what my Lawyer said to me when I was thinking about doubling our homeowners policy to 2 mil. Someone can sue for 20 million but they will only get whatever your liability coverage is and the Lawyers know it. They will string an injured party along promising them the World until their billing rate balloons. The courts here won't throw a family out on the street because they have to sell their home because of a judgement. Here in Ontario the courts can not garnish any pensions of an individual be it a defined plan or our Gov. pensions. I should lower liability not raise it. But like it was pointed out most of the $$ in a homeowners policy is for total loss. Ours is double in cost here then the home I rented out in the city because we have loss due to flood or water damage. We live on the lakeshore of Erie. There have been storms where Zebra mussels have been on the vehicles in the driveway, about 200 feet from the shoreline. I once found our patio table 15 feet up a Spruce tree 50 feet from where it was, the big ? was how did it get there as the tree is around the corner of the deck? It had to fly over the roof and into that tree, wowza. It was Friday the 13th. I know that because a local fishing village Port Dover On. has a bike rally every Fri the 13th and a number of accidents occurred with bikers riding in that wind, crazy kids. When winds hit around 60 MPH last week I thought we were going to Oz. But I've seen worse winds here. Waterspouts are a common occurrence especially in Oct. and Nov. the windiest months.

For all you big boat guys, big boat, big budgets. Many of the big boats at our local marina will only sink at their slips. Some never leave the dock all season. They use them as lake homes. I know one local that lives close to us has a nice 40 some odd footer, it doesn't have an engine!! This isn't a shoddy marina either. They have put a few million in or more I'm told the last few years. I would bet not many there are insured at all. We are very lax when it comes to Marine insurance here in Canada. All other vehicles from snow machines, 50 CC bikes or big rigs all must have liability insurance as a minimum coverage or you wont get your plate stickers, 60 foot boats, nada insurance required.
 
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Old Ironmaker

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Keep in mind that most inboard boat fuel spills will evaporate, including common Diesel. The real potential damage is done by the engine oil and gear lube, which is a much smaller amount.

That I have never heard about gasoline and diesel fuel.
 

Toyelectroman

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Dec 20, 2016
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Guess I should be good, i forgot that i also have my umbrella policy that kicks in after the boat insurance. Hope i never need to use it
 
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