Liability Management When Friends Dive From Your Recreational Boat?

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I'd be curious as to @Wookie thinks here. He's one person that if he ever strolls into my dive center in Greece, I'm going to implement every suggestion he makes.
 
Insurance is the key here. Even if you get a lawyer to craft you an airtight waiver, the expense of defending an action brought against you is far from trivial.

Get liability insurance for enough money that the insurance company will fight to keep any settlement and/or defense costs well under the max. $1 million would be an absolute minimum and higher coverage would be better and should not be a large increase in premiums.

I'd start with your regular insurer. Be specific about your concerns, so they can quote an appropriate policy.

You do need to be 100% certain that the policy, whether it's a personal umbrella policy or something tailored to your marine activities, will cover boating and diving from the boat. It might be worth paying for an attorney to review the policy to verify you are covered.
 
Waivers are just a piece of paper! I would do what pretty much everyone has said but do understand what bankrupts most people is the fact that when not if you're sued you have to pay for your defense even if it's total BS. Sadly the way of the world today. The good friend on your boat is your pal but the spouse, uncles brothers sisters cousins friend only sees the accident/death as a possible pay day and wants to get paid.
 
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.
 
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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.
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."

IMHO you made the right call.
 
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.

My number is a little higher.
--I can get to a dozen just with co-workers at the fish and dive charter I work for and from the dive shop I sometimes teach for.
--Then there's the owner of the little shop around the corner who has no boat and has bent over backwards to give me great service time and time again (e.g. dropping off filled tanks at my house on his way home when I couldn't get to the store before closing time).
--Another handful I've been out with numerous times on a friend's boat, including the friend himself, who made his (less capable) boat available, never accepted gas money, and only let me provide food, ice, occasional tank fills, and loaner scuba gear. He will find the tables have turned if he ever tries to give me gas money.
--A few connections I've made through this site.
--Former students who transitioned to friends.
--I'm open to more connections with spearos who can help me up my game.

Looking over the list, it's a pretty experienced and low-risk group. Even so, I need to think it through.
 
I bought a boat.

It will be used exclusively for recreational, non-commercial purposes.
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.
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 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.

Looking over the list, it's a pretty experienced and low-risk group. Even so, I need to think it through.
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.
 
I am neither an instructor or boat captain. This really sounds like you should consult an attorney.
I’m an instructor, 100 ton boat captain and own one of the largest insurance agencies in the US.

Op should max limits on your boat policy and get the biggest personal umbrella he can afford. He should not accept any payment for fuel or other expenses until after everyone has exited the boat at the end of the day safely at the dock.

You cannot prevent anyone from getting hurt or suing you. You can prevent it from bankrupting you by doing what I said above.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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