I am working with a partner to market a line of new boats that we are manufacturing in the United States. I recently took delivery of a “demo” boat here in California, and we are using the boat as a platform to introduce...
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.
Rules to follow for every boat transaction
July 17, 2015
My 35-foot motoryacht has been listed for sale for almost a year and I finally have a solid offer. Unfortunately the buyer cannot qualify for conventional financing and he has asked me to loan him the funds for a year, at...
I volunteer my boat every year as a spectator boat for an annual fund raising regatta run by a large charity. I will typically have five or six guests aboard, plus a volunteer from the foundation who acts as a steward for the...
A focus on liveaboard rights
March 30, 2015
I had the surprise of my life a few nights ago when two United States Marshals boarded my boat while it was in its slip and instructed me to leave. They handed me some paperwork and told me that I had 5 minutes to gather my...
I own a foreign-built motor yacht that I would like to use in a charter fishing business, and I have a few questions about some of the legal issues I will face. I understand that federal law currently requires a charter boat...