BOAT CLUB INJURY CASES. WHY THEY HAPPEN. WHAT TO DO.

There are more than 1 million recreational vessels registered in the State of Florida. (National Marine Manufacturers Ass’n, Florida Fish and Wildlife Service.) It is not a surprise that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWC”) issues a warning before every Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day weekend to be especially cautious on the water during these most heavily travelled boating days. For the most recent boating injury statistics available (2025) the FWC notes registration of 1,027,742 vessels in Florida which produced 694 boating accidents involving 1026 vessels resulting in 439 known injuries. These injuries range from broken bones to head injuries to internal injuries to amputations, and sometimes death. Despite a common perception, alcohol plays a part in only 6% of those cases for 2025.

HERE ARE TWO IMPORTANT BOATING ACCIDENT STATISTICS

• “Rented boats” account for 15% of these cases. https://myfwc.com/media/q3pbm5di/2025-basr-rba.pdf
• 4 out of the top 5 causes of these boating accidents producing injuries are not mechanical or equipment failure, they are operator errors. They are as follows:
  • Operational inattention.
  • No Proper look-out.
  • Operator Inexperience.
  • Machinery Failure.
  • Excessive Speed.

https://myfwc.com/media/q3pbm5di/2025-basr-rba.pdf

BOAT CLUBS AND BOAT RENTAL OUTLETS IN FLORIDA

Boat clubs and boat rentals give people the chance to operate a vessel without actually having to own the vessel, maintain the vessel, store it, insure it, etc. But boat clubs and boat rentals also draw in those with zero boating experience or minimal boating experience. Yes boat clubs and boat rental locations can require a new member to obtain a “Boater Safety Card”, but that is an entirely on-line process which can be completed with fairly minimal effort. Boat clubs do generally have training formats consisting typically of watching videos, taking a written test, discussion with a boat club captain and then a relatively brief ride-along with a captain on a boat. Each boat rental location can have their own protocols as well, but the endeavor is obviously to bring in business, not to turn away business.

Watching videos and riding along with a captain is a different scenario than being out on the water for the first time in a vessel on a good weather Saturday or Sunday in the middle of many other boats. In the open water there are no lanes for traffic. Even in channels with two-way traffic the common fact is many times there are multiple lines of traffic heading in one direction and multiple separate lines of traffic coming from the opposite direction. Classroom videos do not prepare an inexperienced operator for such traffic.

Also, some boat clubs place the new member in relatively high-performance vessels capable of reaching 50 mph. For those members with no prior boating experience or very little experience it can be daunting to safely handle a vessel amongst all the other vessels typically expected on a weekend. And for rental boat locations of course the rental boat education cannot last a long time or the customer can just go to other places to spend their money.

At www.888BoatLaw.com, a 25-year Florida law firm representing injured boaters we see more people are injured by the mistakes of the boat operator of the boat they are in which they are a passenger rather than injured by another boater. This is consistent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife numbers published by FWC and referenced in this article finding that operator errors are 80% of the cause for boating accidents.

WHAT TO DO AFTER A BOATING ACCIDENT.

Act immediately. You need to find an attorney and law firm that handles maritime law cases, or in other words, a law firm that actually knows how to handle boating accident cases in Florida. Do not trust your case to an auto accident attorney or law firm that does not know which law applies to your case. In Florida 95% of the boating injury cases involve use of maritime law, not auto accident law.

It is important to quickly retain a maritime attorney so they can preserve all evidence for your case. This includes: inspection of the vessels by an expert witness, locating all witness names and contact information, obtaining every law enforcement report, and obtaining all data that must be retrieved from the involved vessel(s) to document your case before it is lost or compromised. Physical evidence must be preserved and can be lost if not preserved immediately—such as damage to a dock, channel marker, or to the vessel(s), etc. Insurance companies move quickly when a boating accident occurs. You should not presume that the insurers or law enforcement will preserve the evidence you need to prove your case. Once that critical evidence is lost, it is difficult to re-create what is lost. Protect yourself, reach out to a maritime attorney for your boating accident case to represent you and protect your rights. At www.888BoatLaw.com we have that experience, 25 years of recovering for clients injured by negligent boat operators.

Don’t trust your boat injury incident case to just anyone. Contact the law firm that specializes in this law and is handling boat club and boat rental cases right now throughout all of Florida. (Check what our clients say about us when you Google 888boatlaw.com reviews.)

WE ARE READY RIGHT NOW

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