Boat Repair Insurance & Marine Mechanic Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

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Boat repair is rewarding work. You get to pick and choose the clients you work with, the locations where you work from, and control the workloads on your plate. Besides, you get to restore boats to optimum performance.

Unfortunately, just like a boat detailing and boat rental business, a boat repair business can be pretty dangerous. Boat mechanics are at high risk, including falls, lower back trauma, burns, and fires. Further, unforeseen obstacles might crop up, including damage to the vessel, all of which your business will be required to pay for.

That's where boat repair insurance comes in.

Marine repair insurance provides your boat repair business with somewhat of a cushion enabling you to move past any unprecedented events. In the event that there's damage to the boat you are repairing or property rented to you, marine repair business insurance should sufficiently cover the resulting costs.

Suppose harm was to come to your employees. Your marine mechanic insurance should cover medical costs and provide compensation for lost wages. Overall, while it might not be mandated by law to have insurance for a boat repair business, having one means you stay afloat even when unexpected events occur.

Also read:

• Mechanic & Auto Repair Shop Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

Ship Repairers Legal Liability Insurance  

Ship repairers liability insurance is a primary and excess liability insurance solution designed to protect your business from the costs of legal claims brought forth against your business. The coverage indemnifies against liability for damage to third-party property, bodily injury, and legal expenses. 

The ship repairs legal liability policy covers:

• Complaints on completed operations performed on the vessel 

• Bodily injuries caused during ship repairs 

• Named insures for up to 90 days 

• Vendors working with you during the repair 

• Damage to the vessel and property rented to you 

Granted, your business is not legally required to have this legal liability coverage. Still, conducting your boat repair business without it exposes your business to mounting legal fees that risk business discontinuation. 

While the legal liability policy is quite comprehensive, it doesn't cover all exposures of your boat repair business. You are going to require additional coverage. 

Boat Repair General Liability Insurance

Commercial General Liability (CGL) coverage protects your boat cleaning business when you end up being sued for damage to a third party's property or bodily injury caused by one of your employee's actions. Suppose your boat repair business is named in a suit where one of your employees causes a fire at a marina, destroying several boats. Even further, consider a situation where, by accident, one of your equipment causes another bodily harm or even death. In that case, the CGL coverage pays the legal fees to defend you against the claim and is designed to go further and pay any settlement or claims. 

This insurance policy provides more protection for your boat repair business through its optional policies:

• Advertising injury coverage - This optional add-on to general liability insurance sees to it that you can cover administrative costs, attorney fees, settlements, and other legal expenses if your boat repair business is sued for slander, libel, copyright infringement, and other advertising or reputational harm 

• Rented premises liability coverage - Rented premises liability coverage will cover reimbursements to the property owner if a rented commercial space is destroyed or damaged by fire 

• Products and completed operations coverage - Products and completed operations coverage will cover expenses if a boat service you completed for a client caused personal injuries or property damage 

Public Liability Insurance for Boat Repair Business 

Public liability insurance, just like general liability insurance, covers personal injuries and property damage. However, you can’t add advertising injury coverage, rented premises liability coverage, and products and completed operations coverage to its terms. But note that public liability insurance is cheaper than general liability insurance. Opt to get this one if you only want basic protection against third-party claims for your boat repair business. 

Commercial Property Insurance for Boat Repair Business 

Running a boat repair business means that you invest money for an owned, rented, or leased commercial building where employees are trained, boats are admitted, and equipment are kept. Insure your boat repair business’s building with commercial property insurance. With this insurance, you can cover the following perils:

• Building damage - Your boat repair building’s structures - roofing, flooring, signage, siding, etc - will get damaged by theft, vandalism, fire, extreme weather, and other covered perils. In such a situation, commercial property insurance will provide the money you can use to get damaged structures fixed

• Building destruction - Fire and extreme weather will destroy your boat repair building. Commercial property insurance will see to it that your business won’t meets its end by providing the money you can use to cover reconstruction costs 

Commercial property insurance comes with additional coverages for your boat repair business. These additional coverages are:

• Stocks and contents coverage - Stocks and contents coverage will recoup losses if furniture, lighting, and other items not considered as business tools and equipment become damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils. Replacements parts you’re selling to customers are also covered 

• Business equipment and tools coverage - Business equipment and tools coverage will cover losses if your boat repair kit and diagnostics machine become lost or damaged due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils 

Note that commercial property insurance excludes floods, mudslides, and earthquakes. To get coverage, you need to purchase or endorse earthquake insurance, flood insurance, and mudslide insurance. 

Boat Mechanic Garage Keepers Liability Insurance

Some boats will require hefty repairs and need to stay in your boat repair shop for days, weeks, or months. By principle, should such boats get damaged under your custody, the owner can hold you liable and ask for reimbursements. To protect yourself against this peril get garage keepers liability insurance which car wash and auto detailing businesses also get. 

Boat Mechanic Workers’ Compensation Insurance 

A lot of perils are present in a boat repair shop - explosions, getting hit by something, fire breakouts, etc. Due to these, employees will sustain diseases, cuts, burns, and blunt force trauma. This is why you need workers' compensation insurance to operate your boat repair business legally.  If employees or an employee sustains a work-related injury or disease, workers' compensation insurance will kick in to cover the following:

• Medical treatment/procedure - Workers' compensation insurance will cover surgeries, therapies, and other related medical procedures if your employee sustains a work-related injury or disease and demands your business to provide coverage

• Hospitalization - If your employee needs to stay at the hospital for a while to continue healing from a work-related injury or illness, workers' compensation insurance will cover hospital bills 

• Medication - Workers' compensation insurance will provide the money your employee can use to buy medicines. Coverage applies no matter how costly the medicines might be

• Rehabilitation - Some injuries or diseases will need rehabilitative care so that your employee can fully recover. Workers' compensation insurance also caters to this. It will pay therapist fees, rehabilitation equipment, and other associated costs on your business’s behalf

• Lost income compensation - Workers' compensation insurance will cover your employee’s lost wages if he or she can’t go to work due to a work-related injury or disease. Compensation for lost income is a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds or 67% of the average weekly wage 

• Death benefits - When your boat repair business’s employee dies from a work-related injury or disease, workers' compensation insurance provides coverage for funeral expenses and financial aid to dependents 

Commercial Auto Insurance for Boat Repair 

Does your boat repair business use a vehicle to tow boats, get supplies, or fetch employees? If this is the case, get commercial auto insurance. Usually included in tailored mobile marine mechanic insurance,  this provides the following coverages for your business:

• Auto liability coverage - When a boat repair business’s vehicle causes an accident, auto liability coverage in commercial auto insurance can help. It will cover the medical expenses of injured third parties. Reimbursements for properties damaged or destroyed will be provided too. If aggrieved third parties decide to sue, auto liability coverage will also help cover attorney fees, administrative costs, settlements, and other legal expenses 

• Physical damage coverage - Physical damage coverage will cover expenses if your boat repair business’s vehicle becomes damaged. This comes in two forms - collision and comprehensive. Collision physical damage coverage will kick in if your commercial vehicle sustains damage after colliding with an object or another vehicle. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will apply if your commercial vehicle is damaged by fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils

Note that auto liability coverage will not help if your commercial vehicle caused an accident due to involvement in criminal activity. Also, physical damage coverage doesn’t cover the replacement or repair of aftermarket parts. Damage due to rollovers is also excluded. 

Boat Repair Business Interruption Insurance

You might need to stop business operations momentarily. Protect yourself against this peril through business interruption insurance. During the time business operations are at a halt and income isn’t generated, business interruption insurance provides the money you can use to cover employee wages, taxes, mortgages, loans, and other operational costs. Coverage lasts for 30 days but you can extend to 360 days through an endorsement. 

Boat Repair Limited Pollution Liability Endorsement 

There are insurance carriers that will provide a limited pollution coverage endorsement. This policy covers your pollution exposure. The first common issue that the policy will address is clean-up costs. These will be the most costly and will encompass all elements of pollution claims and subsequent remediation expenses. 

Marine Equipment and Tools for Boat Mechanic

Marine equipment and tools coverage provide protection for the equipment and tools you use to dispense your service. If you maintain an inventory of parts, the marine equipment and tools policy should sufficiently cover these in case of theft or damage. Before approaching your insurer of choice, it is vital that you get a professional to provide the exact value of the different equipment and tools. Most often, if you were to go at it on your own, you would likely under quote. 

Suppose you are a mobile boat repair business. In that case, the marine equipment and tools coverage might not comprehensively cover all your business needs. To ensure that you are adequately protected, consider purchasing a business equipment floater policy that should provide coverage for equipment and parts while away from your physical location. 

Boat Repair Insurance Cost  

Boat repair is a high liability business. As such, your insurance premiums are likely going to be relatively high. On average, you will pay $200 per year or $16.66 per month. Insurers will often calculate the cost of your insurance at around 1-5% of your boat repair business. For instance, if your business is valued at $100,000, you might be required to take out a policy of $2,500. This should cover your business property, any equipment in transit, and the boats you will be working on. What's more, you should get some compensation for business interruption that offset any negative impact on your gross profit and logged-in working hours. 

To get more idea about the pricing, here's a table showing the best boat repair insurance companies and their pricing:

To lower your marine mechanic insurance cost, consider looking for discounts, including:

• Bundling multiple policies such as boat repair and auto insurance 

• Ensuring that you have a good claims history

• Completing boat and water safety checks before any repair work 

• Working on boats less than three years old