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In this particular case (had you proceeded with the waiver) it might have even been used as evidence against you. "You knew he was such a risk that you had him sign a waiver and took him out anyway."I had a regular dive buddy who would dive from my boat one weekend, then from another friend's boat the next. He disappeared while diving from the other boat.
Forward a few years, and Merry and I bought a very nice boat together. We ended up with a regular weekend buddy. He was very nice, gracious, and popular in the local dive community. He also ran out of air multiple times from our boat. We had a waiver drawn up, but decided to stop taking him and any others out instead. We have a few friends we would like to take diving, but our last buddy has soured us on that.
There are less than a dozen people whom I'd allow to dive off my boat. I'd be very catious and as @B1997 said, consult an attorney.
Cool. What did you get? IIRC, you are local to me. I have my own boat, so not necessarily looking to get rides on yours, but buddy trips might not be a bad idea.I bought a boat.
It will be used exclusively for recreational, non-commercial purposes.
It might be worth just discussing this with a lawyer. Shouldn't have to be that way, but if something were to happen, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that the victim's insurance could look at those additional certifications and establish a higher duty of care than they might for me.Because I have a master's license, I want to be able to demonstrate that the passengers are aboard as friends, not customers, even if they choose to contribute toward the costs of the voyage.
Because I am a dive instructor, I want to be able to demonstrate that these friends are certified divers diving without my supervision to whom I don't have a special duty of care, even if they happen to be former dive students of mine.
It's all really going to depend on the people ultimately, though in the event of a serious incident, their insurance would likely be what you would need to worry about. You definitely lower your risk if you are keeping this with your group of friends. I shudder when I see FB posts where people are looking for additional random divers/fishers to share costs. It's legal to split costs, but there is so much that can go wrong when you have people that don't know what to do on a boat.Looking over the list, it's a pretty experienced and low-risk group. Even so, I need to think it through.
I’m an instructor, 100 ton boat captain and own one of the largest insurance agencies in the US.I am neither an instructor or boat captain. This really sounds like you should consult an attorney.