Do you dive off your own boat and make your guests sign a release form?

[tommymo]

I have just started to dive off of my boat with my brother and some buddies. I am curious to know if anyone who dives off of there own boat make there friends/family sign a release form. If so can anyone guide me into a safe direction.

 

[Peter Guy]

We dive off our boat and no, we do not have any release for us or friends.

 

[rstofer]

Just be absolutely certain that you comply with the Coast Guard requirements that you are not a 'boat for hire'. You guests can not buy fuel, pay any part of the expenses or even (I suspect) provide food/drink for anyone other than themselves. They need to be truly 'guests'. Non-paying guests.

You might ask a boat insurance company (not your own) about your plans and see how they react.

Richard

 

[captain]

Just be absolutely certain that you comply with the Coast Guard requirements that you are not a 'boat for hire'. You guests can not buy fuel, pay any part of the expenses or even (I suspect) provide food/drink for anyone other than themselves. They need to be truly 'guests'. Non-paying guests.

You might ask a boat insurance company (not your own) about your plans and see how they react.

Richard

Not true, the Coast Guard has ruled that equally shared expenses, meaning by boat owner and guest does not constitute for hire. That includes fuel, food, drinks, etc, just as you are not a taxi cab if someone contributes his share of gas money for a dive trip in your car.

No, I do not require friends and famaily to sign a release.

 

[dkktsunami]

I have never asked guests to sign a release and I have never accepted offers of payment however I am beginning to worry about this.

 

[mwm]

This is stright from:

Title 46, Subtitle II, Part A, Chapter 21

(5a) ÅÄonsideration means an economic benefit, inducement, right, or profit including pecuniary payment accruing to an individual, person, or entity, but not including a voluntary sharing of the actual expenses of the voyage, by monetary contribution or donation of fuel, food, beverage, or other supplies.

 

[Nemrod]

I have just started to dive off of my boat with my brother and some buddies. I am curious to know if anyone who dives off of there own boat make there friends/family sign a release form. If so can anyone guide me into a safe direction.

I don't know any safe directions, all directions are frought with danger, some clouds have a silver lining, some have a granite peak.

Yes, we dive from our own boat and no we do not sign release forms.

Here is safety tip, don't allow doctors or lawyers on your boat and you should be fine. One makes everything complcated, the other is just there to figure an angle to make some money from you. And to make it worse, if the lawyer drowns, the doctor will resucitate him so he can sue you.

If I invite someone out on our little boat I usually don't ask for any money. If they volunteer to help with fuel, depending on the expense of the day, I usually decline. However, if they come out a second, third and fourth time then it is more expected. I would not invite someone specifcally to make my trip financially feasible, I would invite them because I enjoy being with them.

Sharing or splitting expenses is perfectly acceptable.

N

 

[rstofer]

This is stright from:

Title 46, Subtitle II, Part A, Chapter 21

(5a) ÅÄonsideration means an economic benefit, inducement, right, or profit including pecuniary payment accruing to an individual, person, or entity, but not including a voluntary sharing of the actual expenses of the voyage, by monetary contribution or donation of fuel, food, beverage, or other supplies.

Good to know!

When I posted not allowing any form of payment, I wasn't really worried about the Coast Guard. I was more concerned about becoming a taxi rather than an automobile for purposes of civil lawsuits. The 'release' topic is clearly oriented toward lawsuits.

I was thinking that if you stayed strictly within the Coast Guard guidelines, you would be fine. Clearly not a 'for hire' situation.

We did have a thread a while back about instructors using their own boats for checkout dives and whether, as the student was paying for the course, that usage constituted 'for hire'. I don't recall the results.

Richard

 

[SkipperJohn]

Do you make the passengers in your car sign a release? Visitors & guests in your backyard pool? How about dinner guests who may trip on the carpet or choke on a bone?
Just make sure you have no obvious negligent defects
and you are properly insured.
If someone gets hurt, there is a possibility you may get sued (I sat on a jury last summer where a woman tripped leaving a 20 year friends house after playing their weekly game of mahjong so she sued this poor woman). Your insurance company should handle it should it happen as long as you aren't negligent.

 

[Lead_carrier]

I have dived off of a friends boat on a number of occasions. He has never asked for money and won't. Doesn't ask me for a release and won't. I would sign one for him without thinking twice but then again I wouldn't sue him for anything short of absolute stupid negligence either. I have bought him a nice dinner for taking me out, repaired equipment for free and other odds and ends. The first time he pulled up to the fill pump with me on board I was insistant about paying. He graciously accepted and told me to stop when it hit $50. I laughed and said it passed that before the fuel tender got the nozzle in good.