Recreational Lines
Recreational Lines
This domain tests coverage placement for the vehicles and craft that sit between the personal auto policy and the homeowners policy: motorcycles, ATVs and UTVs, snowmobiles, golf carts, watercraft, RVs and increasingly e-bikes.
What the PAP does and does not insure
- 'Your covered auto' means a private passenger auto, pickup or van shown in the declarations, plus a qualifying newly acquired auto. Motorcycles and most off-road vehicles are not private passenger autos - no liability, no physical damage.
- Non-owned auto coverage responds for a borrowed vehicle, but not one furnished for regular use.
- Owned watercraft liability is narrow: under the ISO form, sailboats under 26 feet and craft powered by outboard motors of 25 horsepower or less. Everything else needs a boat policy. Physical damage to watercraft is never provided.
- Trailers are covered only if declared or newly acquired, and only the trailer - not the boat, ATV or snowmobile riding on it.
What the homeowners policy does
- Section II excludes motor vehicle liability, with narrow exceptions such as a motorized golf cart used for golfing purposes and some non-road vehicles not required to be registered (state law decides).
- Watercraft liability mirrors the PAP thresholds, so a craft that falls outside both forms is uninsured.
- Coverage C limits watercraft, including trailers and motors, to a $1,500 special limit - trivially small against a real boat.
Placement
- Boatowners policy: hull coverage (agreed value or actual cash value), protection and indemnity liability, medical payments, trailer and tender options, fishing gear.
- Motorcycle, ATV and snowmobile policies: liability, collision, comprehensive, custom parts and passenger liability. Confirm registration requirements and whether a carrier endorsement can attach to the PAP instead.
- Check the personal umbrella's underlying requirement for each craft; many require $300,000 or $500,000 of watercraft liability.
Worked example
A client owns a 24-foot bowrider with a 300-horsepower inboard/outboard and a trailer. The HO excludes inboard and inboard/outdrive liability; the PAP excludes owned watercraft outside the small outboard and sailboat thresholds; neither pays for hull damage. Place a boatowners policy with $75,000 agreed value hull, $300,000 liability, $5,000 medical payments and a trailer endorsement, then confirm the umbrella's required underlying limit for watercraft.
Traps
- Assuming a motor means the auto policy responds.
- Insuring the trailer and forgetting the boat, or the reverse.
- Forgetting the umbrella's underlying-limit condition for the boat or ATV.
- Overlooking use on public roads, where registration and a different policy may be required.