Four Winns insurance,
through NBOA.

What makes Four Winns different. Four brothers, four winds.

Founded in 1962 by the four Knuth brothers in Cadillac, Michigan — the name is a play on the four winds and four founders — Four Winns has spent six decades building mid-premium fiberglass runabouts aimed squarely at Great Lakes and freshwater buyers. The current lineup sits inside Beneteau Group's Rec Boat Holdings.

The corporate history is longer than the product history: OMC, Genmar, and Rec Boat Holdings have all owned the brand, and production was paused in 2023 before Beneteau Group restructured the line. That ownership arc matters for insurance and parts continuity — something underwriters and owners both ask about. The boats themselves have stayed consistent: bowriders, cuddy cabins, and sport yachts built around Volvo Penta sterndrive power, now including the wakesurf-capable Forward Drive.

Fiberglass runabouts, Volvo power.

Four Winns builds hand-laid fiberglass hulls with composite stringer systems, most running Volvo Penta sterndrive packages — including the Forward Drive, a forward-facing-propeller sterndrive that generates a surfable wake without a dedicated wake tower or ballast system. That drive is the most insurance-relevant piece of hardware in the lineup: it's the reason a Horizon owner can call their insurer about a wakesurf claim on what looks like a standard runabout.

• Hand-laid fiberglass hulls with composite (non-wood) stringers across the modern lineup — reduces rot-related hull claims on boats stored wet
• Volvo Penta sterndrive standard, with Forward Drive (FWD) available on H, TS, and Freedom models for wakesurf capability
• Freedom series runs outboard dual-console — the outboard line is newer and has different claim patterns than the sterndrive majority of the catalog
• Sterndrive corrosion is the standard freshwater-vs-saltwater consideration — bellows, gimbal bearings, and trim rams dominate the mechanical claim picture

Great Lakes runabout buyers, mid-market premium.

Four Winns owners skew freshwater — Great Lakes, inland lakes, river systems — and they're typically in the mid-premium runabout tier: above a Bayliner or Four Winns' own entry-level aluminum competitors, below a Cobalt or Chris-Craft. The buyer profile is experienced recreational — families with kids old enough to tube and wakesurf, second or third boats, trailered between seasons. That profile produces a relatively clean claim file: seasonal use, winterized storage, and trailer-related incidents (launch damage, road debris) more common than open-water total losses.

The insurance angle. Forward Drive changes the conversation.

Three things about Four Winns specifically shape how we place coverage: the Forward Drive variants are wakesurf-capable without looking like wake boats (which matters for towed-sports liability), the 2023 production pause created parts-continuity questions that underwriters sometimes ask about, and the sterndrive-heavy lineup has predictable mechanical claim patterns that well-written policies should anticipate.

• Forward Drive and towed-sports liability — a Horizon or TS with FWD can pull a surfer without a tower. Standard runabout liability typically covers towed sports, but verify the policy language; some carriers write towed-sports exclusions that were drafted before FWD existed.
• Parts continuity post-2023 — Four Winns paused production in 2023 under Rec Boat Holdings/Beneteau Group before the line was restructured. Parts availability is currently stable through Beneteau's dealer network, but agreed-value coverage is worth prioritizing on 2020–2023 hulls where replacement sourcing could get slower.
• Sterndrive-specific mechanical coverage — bellows failures, gimbal bearings, and outdrive corrosion are the dominant non-collision claims. Mechanical breakdown coverage on the drive package is worth evaluating; it's a different line item than hull coverage.
• Freshwater vs. saltwater rating — most Four Winns hulls are freshwater-primary. Moving a boat to coastal/brackish use mid-policy triggers a rating change; flag it at bind to avoid a coverage dispute on a corrosion claim later.
• Typical carriers — we place Four Winns most often with Progressive and BoatUS. Each handles the Forward Drive/towed-sports question slightly differently; NBOA shops the panel and picks the fit.

This is where an expert at NBOA can step in. As an independent marine insurance brokerage, NBOA quotes Four Winns owners across multiple carriers and matches the policy to how the boat is built, where it runs, and how you actually use it.

Four Winns models we quote.

Beyond the top brands.

NBOA places insurance on 1,100+ boat manufacturers across our catalog — from aluminum skiffs to mega-yachts. If your boat isn't listed here, it's almost certainly one we still write.