In Reply to: Re: Personal boats and liability posted by Kendall Raine on March 07, 2007 at 15:47:08:

When I started to sail, it was impressed upon me that under no circumstance should I accept any form of compensation as I could be considered providing a vessel for hire, so I always furnished everything. Maybe the regulations have changed, but there's always the issue of precedence.

Regardless of this, your main concern would be 'what if someone were hurt while on my boat or diving from my boat?' Sadly, you could be sued even by a close friend or relative. Questions would arise like 'did he have oxygen available?' A non-divng jury might be led to think you should have had this available if you were diving. Even if you were found to have no liability, you'd have considerable legal expenses.

So, a suggestion is to carry a good umbrella policy and make sure it doesn't exclude diving or boating. That way at least your insurer would have to do the court battle.