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More than 63,000 recreational boats were damaged or destroyed asa result of both Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, with a combined dollardamage estimate for the boats of $655 million, according to theBoat Owners Association ofthe United States (BoatUS).

Sandy remains single largest boat loss event

BoatUS said that this was “strikingly close” to 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, which remains the singlelargest industry loss with more than 65,000 boats damaged and morethan $650 million in estimated losses.

Related: Hurricane Irma's top 5 propertylosses

BoatUS said that Hurricane Irma damaged or destroyed 50,000vessels with approximately $500 million in recreational boatdamage; about 13,500 boats were damaged or lost costing $155million in boat damage as the result of Hurricane Harvey.

“These two storms were as different as night and day,” said RickWilson, vice president of claims of BoatUS’s marineinsurance program. “The boats that were hit the hardest byHarvey were located on a relatively small slice of Texas coast,while we saw damage to recreational vessels from Irma in everycorner of Florida.”

'Could have been worse'

The BoatUS catastrophe team recently completed two months of fieldoperations arranging for repairs, salvage, or wreck removals forBoatUS marine insurance program members and GEICO marine insurance customers.

“While Hurricane Irma’s losses are significant, it could havebeen much worse,” added Wilson. “Irma ultimately traveled upFlorida’s west coast and not the east, which was initiallyforecast. And while locations in the right front quadrant of thestorm such as Big Pine Key and Marathon were hit hard with aCategory 4 storm, Irma lost strength as it approached the mainlandand swept up Florida. As the storm passed east of Tampa Bay, watersreceded and came back gradually, also lessening surge damage.”

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Victoria Prussen Spears, Esq., ([email protected]) is associate directorof FC&S Legal, editor of the InsuranceCoverage Law Report, and senior vice presidentat Meyerowitz Communications Inc.