Insurance For Pro Angler

Hi all,
After a quick search, I found nothing about insurance on the PA. I was just curious to know what, if anything, folks were doing about protecting their investment against theft/accidental damage etc. I have a $2,500.00 deductible on my home owners policy which does me no good because, once satisfied, is basically the same as purchasing a new one.

Any input would be most appreciated...

GR8 Laker

Couple thoughts. Check boat US, they insure boats and may have some help for you. Other thing is call your home owners ins., they may have a rider you can add a particular item to the ins like that you would do with jewelry.

Thanks, Saltfisherman!

I'll look into both.

GR8 Laker

Keep in mind the purpose of insurance is to cover losses you are financially unable to cover on your own. For some, it might be $2,500. For someone else, it might be $5,000. If you are unable to recover from a loss of $2,500, then get the insurance. However, if you can absorb that loss there are better things you could do with the premium payments you would be spending.

For me, the PA is covered under the personal property of my home owners policy. If I lost the PA in a catastrophic disaster, house fire for example, the deductible remains the same and you recover all but that deductible.

So, insurance for a loss that you could afford to walk away from is a poor use of funds. Investing that premium, or just putting it in a separate savings account would be a much better way to protect yourself from the loss.

One final thing; if you registered your kayak as a boat with CF #'s. (because you use an electric trolling motor for example.) then your boat is not covered under personal property of the homeowners policy and would need it's own policy. This is like your car; if it's registrable with the DMV, it needs it's own policy.

Here's the link to boat us site, check out the watersports subsection.
http://www.boatus.com/insurance/AddonCoverages.asp

The policy if they offer it for kayaks is going to be similar to a boat ins policy, where you can pay based on an agreed value.

I'm also going to do a quick call to them. I have to see if it's a rider above the boat ins I have. I'm also going to ask about equipment on board: FF, rods and tackle.

Please let us know! I would like coverage for all mods and all my gear, w/trailer. And give us an idea of the cost.

_________________
Steve Valerga Jr.
DV U.S.Army Airborne
1988-92

2012 Pro Angler
Take a kid fishing!

I'm getting mine thru State Farm ........ it's for the PA all the accessories and liability and medical ....... they cover it as any other boat

Quick update, I spoke to Boat US. They do not insure kayaks, but the woman did say to speak to your homeowners ins co.. They may have a rider to cover it.
Tom

Great info, guys, thanks much.

Thanks also, saltfisherman, for the update regarding Boat US. I'll check with my insurance co. about having a rider attached to my homeowners policy and report back with pricing for anyone else who might be interested.

Sorry for tossing this in a bit late but I also have $1,500.00 into my custom trailer... would this be auto related or under the homeowners policy as well? I'm guessing they will be bundled together under the rider. I'm hoping they'll have something that will cover me for +-6 months per year as ice fishing from the PA wouldn't be very practical, not to mention, rough on the mirage drive!

Cheers,

GR8 Laker

OK... here's what I've got,

A rider on my homeowners policy will cost $69.00 annually. This covers $3,000.00 on the PA and $2,000.00 on my trailer. Theft, accidental and catastrophic... covered! Not bad, eh? If I were to go with "actual value", it would be $61.00 but I'm thinking about adding a fish finder w/ GPS this year, something I've wanted for my Lake Superior voyages.
This is for Michigan. I'm sure this figure varies from state to state.

There we have it! I hope this info is helpful to others.

Be well,
GR8 Laker

That's a cheap cost for ins., I'll be doing the same too. Thank you for your follow up.
Tom

Thanks for the feedback.

I would like to know the name of the rider and your insurance company.

_________________
2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

When we moved to California, one of our neighbors became our State Farm insurance guy for decades.

He told us in California, even in the early 1970's, we could sued for looking at weirdos er hippies in the wrong way.

We bought SF's umbrella insurance policy to protect us in those cases like beyond the normal insurance for vehicles/boats/homeowners.

This is not replacement insurance, it is to protect us in frivoulous law suits.

In most cases with Kayaks without power, we would be the victims. However, what if a high powered boat driven by a low brain power swerved to miss our yaks and us, and crashed into other yakers/boaters or boats and the high speed idiot had the right a way?

We might need the umbrella policy.

Our umbrella policy costs us a little over $300/year or less than $30/month. It even covers my wife as an office RN.

Yakers might want to check with their insurance rep re umbrella coverage.

_________________
2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

I too have an umbrella policy up to $1M coverage. It's liability only. I got it after some drunk woman hit and killed a motor cycle rider, then fled the scene on a damaged wheel, throwing sparks and starting 21 fires over 6 miles of foothill wild oak forest. One of those fires destroyed my home and about everything I own including pets. If she had that policy, I would have been better off. After first hand witnessing the disaster a stupid decision can make for the 10 minutes it took her to realize she needed to stop, I decided to cover my butt in case one day I made a dumb decision. Panic causes some strange behaviors. BTW, the woman was an off duty sheriff.
My insurance is also around $300 a year in addition to my home/auto policies. It also covers me in any vehicle I operate including my work truck or any boat or kayak too. Even my dirt bikes.
No one plans to be the instigator of a major problem but it does happen. It's a cheap way to make sure you won't loose your home and all you own in a lawsuit. This woman who caused my fire has a criminal court ordered restitution to me of over $800,000. I doubt I'll see a penny of it since her attorney fees tapped out her assets before she went to prison on the gross vehicular manslaughter charge and the arson of an occupied dwelling charge. Her auto insurance liability was the minimum for California; $50,000. Her total damage tallied to over $2.6M so I didn't see much of that either. If she had the foresight to have an umbrella policy, it sure would have helped.

Amen! on umbrella policies - a must these days, unfortunately.

Bob