Q: I am one of a group of volunteer boat operators who donate time to a nonprofit organization that owns several boats. The mission of the organization is to take at-risk kids out on whale watching trips and other excursions,...
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.
Who is responsible for damage caused by boat wakes?
June 3, 2016
Q: I own a waterfront home on the Sacramento River, and my boat and my boathouse and dock have been damaged several times this year by the wakes from passing boats. The boats on the river often pass us at extremely high...
Who’s at fault in a Shipping Lane collision?
April 22, 2016
I was recently a passenger aboard my brother in-law’s motoryacht during a pleasure trip to Catalina when we had a close encounter with a merchant ship. We were in fairly thick fog and we were steering a compass course from...
Shedding some light on the maritime title search process
April 8, 2016
I am buying a boat through a yacht broker and the sea trial and survey will be completed next week. In the interim I asked my broker and the documentation company to start the title search, but I quickly learned that the...
Who is on the hook for slip fees?
March 25, 2016
We rented a slip in a marina on a month to month basis for our old boat. We paid our slip fees on time every month until we sold the boat a few months ago. The new owner took delivery at our old slip. He said that he had a...