By: David Weil Question: I participated in a discussion on social media a couple weeks ago about the recent grounding of a sailboat on Catalina Island, and the question of salvage came up. There was...
David Weil has been the proud author of the “Ask a Maritime Attorney” column in The Southern California Log Newspaper and Sea Magazine since 2006, with over 300 installments of the column. We have provided links in this section to those articles, covering a wide range of topics of interest to the California maritime and boating communities.
Ask An Attorney: Can a New Lender Demand Payment After My Boat Loan Was Marked “Satisfied”?
October 23, 2026
Question: I purchased a boat with a loan from an established marine lender. My signed loan agreement was called a “Security Agreement, Note and Disclosure Statement.” The boat was documented with the Coast Guard,...
Question: I am a boat mechanic and I am trying to collect the unpaid balance owed to me from a large job that I completed last year. I recorded a lien against the boat with the Coast Guard and I was...
Ask A Maritime Attorney: Can you help explain the different rules that apply to U.S. territorial waters?
October 9, 2026
Question: I have been researching the concept of “U.S. Territorial Waters” and I must say I am completely confused. We don’t need to go into why I need this information (it’s complicated), but the bottom line is...
Question: I am in the middle of a dispute with my insurance company. They denied coverage after my boat caught fire during a recent harbor cruise. They blamed the fire on a worn impeller on an engine raw-water pump, but...