Travelers Boat Insurance in Arkansas: What Quantum Boat 2.0 Covers, and What You Have to Add

Tournament fees are in the base policy

Northwest Arkansas is tournament country. Beaver Lake runs bass tournaments most of the year, and entry fees are non-refundable — which is fine until the covered loss that keeps you off the water happens the week of the event.

Quantum Boat 2.0 reimburses non-refundable tournament entry fees after a covered loss, in the base form, not as an add-on. If you fish tournaments and your current policy is with someone else, that's a specific question worth asking them.

Marina as additional insured — for your slip

If you keep a slip or store your boat at a Beaver Lake marina, you've likely been asked for a certificate naming the marina as an additional insured. Marinas require it of slip holders and storage clients routinely.

The base policy gives you the option to add them. That turns a paperwork scramble into a phone call — and it's the kind of thing that only shows up as a problem when the marina won't hand over the slip.

The 100-mile line on trip interruption

Trip Interruption pays meals and lodging after a trailer breakdown — but only more than 100 miles from your primary residence, at up to $150 per day and $600 per breakdown.

That threshold is worth measuring against the water you actually fish. From Bentonville, some of the lakes people run to fall inside 100 miles and some fall outside. The lake that's just far enough is the one this coverage was written for.

If you run a pontoon

Pontoon Special Coverage (BY-429) is aimed squarely at pontoon and tri-toon hulls — which is most of what's tied up on Beaver Lake on a July Saturday.

It removes the exclusion for vermin and marine life, which sounds exotic until you've had something nesting in a pontoon that sat for a season. It also adds rental reimbursement for a similar watercraft, so a claim doesn't cost you the summer.

Ice and freezing is conditional

Ice and Freezing Coverage (BY-414) is an endorsement, and it comes with a condition: the boat has to be professionally winterized each year.

Arkansas winters are mild enough that plenty of people skip winterizing, and mild enough that the hard freeze which does arrive catches them. If you buy this coverage, the winterizing isn't optional — it's the thing that makes the coverage work.

Fifteen days on a new boat

Newly Acquired Boat coverage runs automatically up to the full purchase price for 15 days from the purchase date.

Fifteen days is generous and it is also finite. Boat shows and spring dealer weekends produce a lot of purchases that get insured on day 19. Call us from the dealership — it takes a few minutes.

Arkansas requires boat liability — and most people don't know it

Under Ark. Code Ann. § 27-101-207, it's unlawful to operate — or allow the operation of — a motorboat over 50 horsepower or any personal watercraft without liability insurance. The policy must provide at least $50,000 of liability coverage per occurrence.

Proof has to be carried on board and available for inspection, and your registration application has to be accompanied by proof of the policy. If you're in an accident and can't produce proof, the statute creates a rebuttable presumption that the vessel was uninsured — and being uninsured in an accident is a Class A misdemeanor.

The catch: you can't actually buy the state minimum

Here's the part nobody writes down. Arkansas sets the floor at $50,000 — but most carriers won't write boat liability below $100,000. The statutory minimum exists in the code and essentially not in the market.

So the practical starting point for an Arkansas boat policy is double what the law asks for, and it isn't a decision you get to make. It's where the market begins.

Two things follow. If someone quotes you "state minimum" boat liability, ask what the actual limit is — the phrase doesn't mean much here. And since $100,000 is the entry point rather than a choice, the only real question left is whether to go above it. Out on the water with a boat full of somebody else's kids, that one deserves a minute.

Uninsured boater, now in the base form

Uninsured/Underinsured Boater is a new base coverage in Quantum Boat 2.0. It covers you or a guest aboard who's hurt by an uninsured or underinsured boater.

Arkansas requires liability only above 50 horsepower. Below that line — and on any boat whose owner simply didn't comply — there may be nothing to collect from. The statute's own penalty structure exists because people do skip it. Uninsured boater coverage is what answers for that, the same way uninsured motorist does on your auto policy.

Thirty days to register, fifteen days of automatic coverage

Arkansas gives you 30 days from the date of purchase to register a boat — notably tighter than the 60-day window Act 41 of 2023 allows for a vehicle.

Quantum Boat 2.0's Newly Acquired Boat coverage runs automatically for 15 days from the purchase date. Those two clocks are different lengths, and the insurance one runs out first. Call us from the dealership.

Sale of catch — for the part-time guide

A boat policy is written for private pleasure use. Sell fish and you've breached that warranty, which can void a loss entirely.

Sale of Catch covers you if you catch and sell fish no more than 90 days per policy term year, with annual gross receipts under $10,000. If you guide occasionally or sell a little of what you catch, that's the provision that keeps a claim from being denied on a technicality.

A marine claims team, not a general adjuster

Travelers states that Quantum Boat 2.0 policies come with a team dedicated to marine claims rather than the general auto and property queue.

That distinction is worth more than it sounds. A hull is not a car. Grounding, submersion, salvage, drive system internals — these are their own discipline, and an adjuster who handled a fender bender that morning isn't equipped for them.

1.800.252.4633 — Travelers Personal Insurance claims, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

On-water assistance

The base policy covers Towing While Afloat for emergency service on the water. Premier On-Water Towing and Assistance (BY-406) upgrades it — assistance dispatched, where available, by an Authorized Service Provider.

Towing sounds minor until you're the boat that won't start, well out from the ramp, with the light going.

What our agency does

Report anything urgent on the water directly. But if the question is what your policy actually settles on — ACV or agreed value, which drive system endorsement you have, whether the deductible applies — call us first at (479) 286-1066.

Those questions have very different answers depending on what's on your declarations page, and the worst time to find out is after the loss.

Financial strength

A.M. Best affirmed a Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior) with a stable outlook for the main subsidiaries of The Travelers Companies — collectively the Travelers Group — on August 8, 2025. A++ is the highest rating on A.M. Best's scale.

The rating applies to the main pool subsidiaries rather than every Travelers affiliate; individual affiliates are rated separately. Ratings change — the current rating is always at ambest.com.