More than 63K Recreational Boats Destroyed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

More than 63,000 recreational boats were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, resulting in a damage estimate of $655 million, according to a national association dedicated to recreational boaters.

Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) said the total number of boats damaged or destroyed by the late August (Harvey) and early September (Irma) hurricanes falls short of the number of boats damaged by Superstorm Sandy but not by much. More than 65,000 boats were damaged or lost by that storm, which hit the northeast U.S. in 2012 and resulted more than an estimated $650 million in recreational boating losses.

Hurricane Irma damaged or destroyed 50,000 vessels with approximately $500 million in recreational boat damage, according to BoatUS. About 13,500 boats were damaged or lost costing $155 million in boat damage as the result of Hurricane Harvey.

“These two storms were as different as night and day,” BoatUS Marine Insurance Program Vice President of Claims Rick Wilson said in the group’s announcement. “The boats that were hit the hardest by Harvey were located on a relatively small slice of Texas coast, while we saw damage to recreational vessels from Irma in every corner of Florida.”

The BoatUS Catastrophe Team recently completed two months of field operations arranging for repairs, salvage or wreck removals for BoatUS Marine Insurance program members and GEICO Marine Insurance customers.