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This is a crossover question between traditional tort liability and admiralty. When you are on "navigable waters," admiralty law governs many aspects. I'm not a Proctor in Admiralty, so that area of law isn't my forte, but I've reasearched small bits here and there. Just to give you an example, in one case out of Puerto Rico, admiralty law applied to determine whether a waiver of claims was valid when divers were injured on a boat offshore. I don't recall whether the boat was in "territorial" or "international" waters.
Innkeepers and common carriers have an enhanced duty of care to their guests/passengers. I do not *believe* the operator of a private boat would be considered a common carrier, but that's a question that I could only answer after some research. You at least owe a normal duty of care to your passengers. Keep in mind, though, that it doesn't take much to shift additional burdens your way. For every additional activity you undertake, a new duty attaches. For example, if you start schlepping gear on board, you've assumed a new burden to treat the equipment with a reasonable degree of care--like not dropping a tank on the valve.
Even though I bump heads with him sometimes, Genesis may be a good resource for you. He owns a boat and is pretty obsessive about liability and compliance. I'd have to do some research to give you a better answer to your question, though.
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