Two of the most useful things on a boat policy get confused with each other constantly, and the confusion only surfaces when one of them is needed.
Towing
Towing assistance covers getting a disabled boat back to shore: the engine will not start, you have run out of fuel, you are aground on a falling tide. It is usually a modest annual limit or a per-incident cap, and for most owners it is the cheapest peace of mind on the policy.
Worth knowing: a commercial towing membership and the towing line on your policy are not the same product and do not always stack the way people assume. If you carry both, tell us, because there is often a saving available in dropping the duplication rather than paying for it twice.
Salvage, and wreck removal
Salvage is what happens when the boat is sunk, stranded or in peril and a professional operation is required to recover it. Wreck removal is the legal obligation to remove what is left, which can attach whether or not you want the boat back. Both are priced on the difficulty of the job rather than the value of the vessel, and a salvage bill can exceed what the boat was worth.
That is why the salvage limit matters more than its size on the page suggests, and why a policy that ties salvage to a small percentage of the hull value is a different proposition after a storm than it looks like in February. Ask us what yours carries; it is a one-minute answer and it is not one most owners have ever been given.