What's in Your Boat? Lifejackets, Sunscreen, Insurance

What the Law Requires on Ontario Waterways

Under Transport Canada regulations, all vessels must carry specific safety equipment — personal flotation devices or lifejackets for each person aboard, a buoyant heaving line, a sound signal, a watertight flashlight, and a bailer. For motorized vessels, additional requirements apply based on vessel length and type.

Ontario does not legally require boat insurance the way it requires auto insurance. But "legal minimum" and "adequate protection" are very different standards. An uninsured boat that sinks, injures someone, or is stolen leaves the owner fully exposed to costs that can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars.

What Boat Insurance Actually Covers

A dedicated watercraft policy typically includes:

• Hull and machinery — physical damage to the boat itself, motor, and factory-installed equipment. Covers collision, sinking, fire, theft, vandalism, and storm damage.
• Trailer coverage — the trailer the boat travels on. Often available as a scheduled item or included in the watercraft policy.
• Personal property aboard — fishing equipment, water sports gear, electronics, and personal effects. Subject to limits and often excluding items that should be scheduled separately.
• Watercraft liability — your legal responsibility for bodily injury or property damage caused to others while operating your watercraft. If your boat injures a swimmer, damages a dock, or collides with another vessel, liability coverage responds.
• Medical payments — medical expenses for you and your passengers injured while aboard, regardless of fault.

Coverage Limits and the Navigational Territory Question

Watercraft policies specify navigational territory — the geographic area within which coverage applies. Most Ontario recreational policies cover the Great Lakes, Ontario inland waterways, and similar Canadian freshwater routes. Policies that cover US border waters require explicit language.

For Durham Region boaters who take their vessels to Lake Simcoe, Rice Lake, the Trent-Severn Waterway, or Lake Ontario — typical Ontario navigational territory is generally fine. Boaters who cross into New York waters on Lake Ontario or travel to US-side of the Great Lakes need to confirm their policy covers the intended territory.

Liability limits are equally important. A $1 million liability limit sounds substantial until you consider what a serious injury claim involving a water skiing accident or a collision at speed can generate. Some McCAM clients with larger or faster vessels opt for higher liability limits through their watercraft policy or through an umbrella policy that covers their full recreational portfolio.

The Storage Season Gap

Many Ontario boaters winterize and store their boats for 6–7 months of the year. During this period, physical damage risks don't disappear — fire in the storage facility, theft of the motor or electronics, storm damage to a covered storage structure. A year-round policy that provides appropriate coverage during storage season is preferable to one that only covers the active boating period.

If your boat is stored at the cottage, confirm with your McCAM advisor how coverage coordinates between the watercraft policy and the cottage property policy. Boats docked at the cottage waterfront may have specific coverage treatment depending on how both policies are written.

Review Before Launch

The best time to review your watercraft insurance is before the season starts — not after something happens on the water. Confirm that your vessel value is current (boat values have fluctuated significantly), review your liability limits, check your navigational territory, and make sure your policy matches how and where you actually use the boat.

The watercraft policy McCAM placed for you three seasons ago may have been right then. Whether it's right now is worth a conversation before your first launch of the season.