Self insuring is fine for taking on the risk of losing your boat. But what about the damage you cause to someone else's boat, like the rafted boats that broke loose and smashed AlaskeSeaduction's boat? And what about the mess you make when you sink your boat on some rocks and dump fuel all over the place like the tug n BC. Or what about the salvage and cleanup costs when you drag anchor and wash up in someone's front yard. We had this last example nearly happen his past fall. A guy has (had) a **** box of an old wood fishing trawler anchored in front of my house for the past year, in violation of the local anchoring and mooring laws. Big surprise, in a fall gale he dragged and grounded just down the shore. Fortunately the wind blew him that way or he would have been in my front yard. The guy had no insurance and no money, so we (the tax payers in town) got to pay the bill to drag this fu:$&k brains boat up on the beach and load it into dumpsters one excavator bucket at a time.
Bottom like, insurance is usually the only way to keep people from foisting their irresponsibility off on the rest of us. I have no interest in cleaning up any mess you leave behind. That's your job. But most uninsured peopl just walk away from it. A lot of places (as in the whole country) require liability insurance for boaters, and I'm in favor of that. Feel free to take on the risk of losing your boat, but don't stick me with your mess when you trash the place, or other people's property.
If one is worried about others, just get liability, it's relatively cheap. And if one can take the risk of liability on themselves, so be it. There's nothing wrong with that. For a liability claim, the plaintiff has to prove negligence. I could argue, just don't be stupid, however, if you mess up someone else or their property because of your stupidity, you should pay.
Insurance is just a risk/benefit decision. When you buy a policy, you're betting that you may use it, otherwise you wouldn't buy it. Most people over insure. There are MANY people that have done well without insurance for years without ANY incident at all.
And all of the above claims you mention above are nickel dime things that I'd for sure, self insure, except for a fuel spill. Once you get the EPA involved, the price gets ridiculous.
Overall, there is VERY little risk in boating, especially if one is a reasonably safe operator and takes good care of their vessel.
As for derelict boats, that's a problem, just as are derelict cars, houses and other junk. Yes, they should take care of their junk and not burden others for their stupidity. Don't know the answer. I take the same stand about forced Obama care. I don't like government handouts for ANYONE, boats, cars, houses, kids or health. We all need to pay our own way.