The owner is liable to an injured guest under ordinary civil law, to a paying passenger under the contract of passage, and to a seafarer under the maritime work accident regime. He can limit his liability towards guests and passengers, never towards the crew, and no statute requires liability insurance for pleasure craft.
A friend invited for the day slips on the wet deck during an anchoring manoeuvre and breaks a wrist. A stewardess is injured closing a hatch in a rough sea. A charter guest falls from the swim platform at anchor and spends three weeks in hospital. In all three cases, the owner discovers at the same time the pain of the accident and a series of questions he had never asked himself: is he liable, on what basis, up to what amount, will his insurance pay, and what about the crew?
The law answers differently depending on whether the injured person was a guest, a paying passenger or a seafarer, and on whether the owner sails the boat himself or has it sailed. It gives the owner a protection unknown to the law on land, limitation of liability, but refuses it in the most frequent case, that of the crew. Here is the map of liabilities on board, and what must be settled before casting off.
The guest: ordinary law, with no indulgence for hospitality
The special regime of the passenger carrier’s liability does not apply to gratuitous carriage, as article L. 5421-8 of the Transport Code expressly states. A guest who comes on board a private yacht free of charge is therefore governed by ordinary civil liability under the Civil Code, and the courts have long refused to treat hospitality as a mitigating circumstance.
Two bases coexist. The first is fault, under article 1240 of the Civil Code: a manoeuvre undertaken in bad weather without asking the guests to go back into the cockpit, an unannounced gybe that sends the boom into someone’s head, an unsuitable speed in the anchorage, a lack of safety instructions. The second is liability for things under article 1242, paragraph 1, which makes the keeper of a thing liable for the damage it causes, with no need for fault. The boat, its gear, the winch, the hatch and the swim ladder are things, the owner is their keeper, and the Cour de cassation, sitting as a mixed chamber, held as early as 1968 that a person carried gratuitously may rely on this liability against the keeper of the vehicle (Cass. ch. mixte, 20 December 1968, nos. 67-14.041 and 64-10.985). What was decided for cars applies to sailing yachts.
The owner can only escape liability by proving an external cause: force majeure, or fault of the victim with the characteristics of force majeure for full exoneration, and ordinary fault of the victim for apportionment. A guest who insists on staying on the foredeck during anchoring, who dives without checking the depth or who comes on board drunk commits a fault that reduces his compensation. On the other hand, the idea that by coming on board he accepted the risks of navigation no longer holds: the Cour de cassation has held that the victim of damage caused by a thing cannot be met with acceptance of risks, except in sporting competitions (Cass. 2e civ., 4 November 2010, no. 09-65.947). A regatta is a competition; a cruise among friends is not.
A guest who lends a hand with the sailing raises a further question. As long as he acts on the orders of the owner or the skipper, he remains an ordinary victim if he is injured, and the owner is liable for the damage he causes to others, as principal or as keeper. This is one of the rare cases where the maritime regime adds to the owner’s protection: limitation of liability, discussed below, remains available to him towards guests.
The paying passenger: the contract of passage regime
Where the injured person paid to come on board a yacht operated commercially, the contract of passage regime of articles L. 5421-1 et seq. of the Transport Code is the reference. Under this contract, the operator undertakes to carry a traveller by sea, who undertakes to pay the fare. The carrier must make and keep the ship seaworthy, properly manned, equipped and supplied, and exercise all due diligence to ensure the safety of passengers (article L. 5421-2).
Liability for personal injury follows a distinction that yacht owners almost always overlook. For an ordinary accident, occurring during the voyage or during embarkation and disembarkation, the carrier is liable only if it is shown that it breached its duties of seaworthiness and diligence or that a fault was committed by it or its employees (article L. 5421-3): the burden of proof is on the victim. For death or injury caused by shipwreck, collision, stranding, explosion, fire or any major casualty, liability is presumed, and the carrier escapes it only by proving that the accident is attributable neither to its fault nor to that of its employees (article L. 5421-4).
Compensation for passengers’ personal injury is capped by reference to article 7 of the 1976 London Convention on limitation of liability (article L. 5421-5), namely 175,000 Special Drawing Rights multiplied by the number of passengers the ship is authorised to carry, except in case of inexcusable fault of the carrier or its employee. The claim is time-barred after two years (article L. 5421-6), and the regime excludes any other basis of claim (article L. 5421-7). It also applies to free carriage performed by a maritime transport business (article L. 5421-8, second paragraph), which covers a charter offered to a prospect or a friend of the operator.
The main charter contracts on the market also allocate liability between the owner, the management company and the charterer, and they must be read before the accident, because they often provide that the charterer is liable for the persons it has invited on board and must have its own insurance.
The crew: the maritime work accident and inexcusable fault
A crew member injured in the service of the ship is in a separate position, because he is an employee and his accident is a work accident. Under the French flag, he falls under the seafarers’ scheme managed by the ENIM, which covers care and benefits under its own rules, and the Transport Code imposes immediate obligations on the employer: a seafarer injured in the service of the ship or falling ill while on board is cared for at the employer’s expense, and in case of death the funeral costs and repatriation of the body are borne by the employer (article L. 5542-21). The seafarer must report the injury to the master no later than when leaving the watch during which it occurred.
For a long time, the seafarers’ scheme excluded the additional compensation for the employer’s inexcusable fault known in the general scheme. The Conseil constitutionnel put an end to that with an interpretative reservation: the provisions of the Social Security Code relating to seafarers cannot be interpreted as depriving a seafarer who suffers a work accident attributable to the employer’s inexcusable fault of the possibility of claiming additional compensation before the social security courts, under the conditions of the general scheme (Cons. const., 6 May 2011, no. 2011-127 QPC). An owner who runs a yacht with a reduced crew, defective safety equipment or instructions he knows to be dangerous is therefore exposed to that claim.
Under a foreign flag, the social security regime depends on the flag and on the seafarer’s residence, as explained in our article on yacht crew, and foreign yachts mainly providing services in French waters must guarantee their crew a scheme of an EU State covering work accidents (article L. 5563-1 of the Transport Code) and report any accident on board to the departmental director of territories and the sea of the first French port reached (article L. 5563-2). For ships subject to the Maritime Labour Convention, the shipowner must also show financial security covering its obligations in case of death or long-term disability of a seafarer.
Limitation of liability: real protection, but not for the crew
Maritime law allows the owner of a ship, as well as the operator, the charterer, the master and their employees, to limit their liability for damage occurring on board or in direct connection with the navigation or use of the ship (articles L. 5121-2 and L. 5121-3 of the Transport Code). The text makes no distinction by size or use of the ship: a twelve-metre sailing boat benefits from it as much as a container ship, and an owner who is himself at the helm can rely on it for faults committed in performing the master’s duties.
The limits are those of the London Convention of 19 November 1976, as amended, and article L. 5121-5 provides a special rule for small ships: for those of 300 tonnage or less, the limits are half those set by article 6 of the Convention for ships of 2,000 tonnage or less. Since the amendments that came into force on 8 June 2015, those limits are 3.02 million Special Drawing Rights for loss of life or personal injury and 1.51 million for other claims, so an ordinary pleasure yacht limits its personal injury liability to 1.51 million SDR, a little under two million euros at the current rate. Limitation is implemented by constituting a fund (article L. 5121-6), which is not an admission of liability (article L. 5121-8) and allows arrests to be lifted (article L. 5121-9). The liability insurer can rely on it to the same extent as the insured (article L. 5121-3, last paragraph).
Limitation has two limits. The first is qualified fault: it is refused to a person if it is proved that the loss resulted from that person’s personal act or omission, committed with intent to cause it or recklessly and with knowledge that such loss would probably result (article L. 5121-3, third paragraph). Sailing under the influence of alcohol with guests on board, going out in a storm warning, leaving children without lifejackets on the foredeck in a rough sea are conduct a court may characterise in that way. The second is the list of claims to which limitation cannot be opposed: among them, claims of the master and other crew members arising from their service on board, and those of any other person employed on board under a contract of employment (article L. 5121-4, 2° and 3°). The owner is therefore liable without a cap towards his crew, whereas he is liable with a cap towards his guests. That is exactly the opposite of what most owners imagine.
Insurance: what the law does not require, and what prudence demands
No text requires the owner of a pleasure boat for personal use to take out liability insurance, unlike the position for cars. Marina regulations require it in practice as a condition for allocating a berth, and some coastal States require it in their waters, but a French yacht can lawfully sail uninsured, and that is the first point to check when an accident happens on someone else’s boat.
A yacht policy covers the civil liability of the owner and, depending on its terms, of the persons authorised to sail the boat, towards third parties, which includes guests. It usually excludes commercial use, injury to salaried crew, which falls under work accidents, and casualties outside the covered navigation area. The victim has a direct action against the liable party’s insurer (article L. 124-3 of the Insurance Code), and the insurer must apply to the victim the same limits as the insured, not lower ones.
Large yachts are covered by hull insurance and by protection and indemnity cover with a P&I club, which covers liability towards passengers, crew and third parties, with its own reporting requirements and payment rules. In all cases, the accident must be reported to the insurer within the time limit of the policy, most often five working days, and the owner must not admit liability or settle with the victim without the insurer’s consent, on pain of losing cover.
The criminal side, and the first hours
A personal injury accident on board may lead to prosecution for unintentional injury or manslaughter, under articles 221-6, 222-19 and 222-20 of the Criminal Code, where clumsiness, carelessness or breach of a safety obligation caused it. The Transport Code adds offences specific to navigation, including sailing under the influence of alcohol or after using drugs. The investigation by the maritime gendarmerie or the maritime affairs services opens within hours, and that is when the version of events is fixed.
The owner therefore has every interest, from the moment of the accident, in giving assistance and alerting the CROSS coastguard centre, recording the circumstances in the logbook with the time, position, weather and persons present, keeping the physical evidence, collecting witnesses’ details, reporting the claim to the insurer and, for a commercially operated ship, drawing up the master’s report. He also has every interest in writing nothing to the victim that looks like an admission of liability, because the next day’s sympathy becomes the admission read out at the hearing.
What the firm does
We assist owners, management companies and insurers from the moment of the accident, to organise the reporting, the preservation of evidence and dealings with the investigation, and then to conduct the civil and criminal defence, including constituting a limitation fund where the stakes justify it. We advise victims, guests, passengers or seafarers, on identifying the liable party and its insurer, choosing the legal basis and assessing the loss. Before any accident, we review policies and charter contracts so that cover matches the real use of the boat, which is the only way to avoid reading the policy for the first time in hospital.
Where the victim is not a guest but a passenger carried for a fare, the regime changes: see the page liability of passenger carriers and cruise lines; for a crew member on a merchant ship, the page seafarer employment disputes.
For a complete picture, our practical guide Operating a yacht in France: charter, crew, berth, accidents, what rules and what risks? brings together the ten building blocks of a lawful operation, from commercial status to crew contracts, berth and insurance; it can be downloaded free of charge. To have your own situation reviewed, contact the firm.
Further reading: Autonomous ships and the IMO MASS Code: maritime liability in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Am I liable if a guest is injured on my boat?
Yes, under ordinary law, since the passenger carrier regime does not apply to gratuitous carriage (article L. 5421-8 of the Transport Code). You are liable for your fault (article 1240 of the Civil Code) and, without fault, for damage caused by the boat and its equipment of which you are the keeper (article 1242, paragraph 1), the Cour de cassation allowing this basis for a person carried free of charge (Cass. ch. mixte, 20 December 1968).
Can my guest be told that he accepted the risks of sailing?
No, except in sporting competitions. The Cour de cassation holds that the victim of damage caused by a thing cannot be met with acceptance of risks (Cass. 2e civ., 4 November 2010, no. 09-65.947). Only fault by the victim reduces or excludes compensation.
What liability towards a charter guest injured on board?
That of a passenger carrier: liability for proven fault for an ordinary accident (article L. 5421-3 of the Transport Code), presumed liability for injury caused by shipwreck, collision, stranding, explosion, fire or major casualty (article L. 5421-4), capped at 175,000 Special Drawing Rights per authorised passenger except for inexcusable fault (article L. 5421-5), and time-barred after two years (article L. 5421-6).
Is an injured crew member covered by the owner’s civil liability?
His accident is a maritime work accident, covered by the scheme to which he belongs, the employer bearing the cost of care and repatriation (article L. 5542-21 of the Transport Code). In case of inexcusable fault of the employer, the seafarer may claim additional compensation before the social security courts (Cons. const., 6 May 2011, no. 2011-127 QPC).
Can the owner of a pleasure yacht limit his liability?
Yes, like any shipowner, for damage occurring on board or connected with navigation (articles L. 5121-2 and L. 5121-3 of the Transport Code). For a ship of 300 tonnage or less, the limits are half those of the amended 1976 Convention for ships of 2,000 tonnage, namely 1.51 million Special Drawing Rights for personal injury (article L. 5121-5).
Does limitation also apply towards the crew?
No. Limitation cannot be opposed to claims of the master and crew members arising from their service on board, or to those of any person employed on board under a contract of employment (article L. 5121-4, 2° and 3°, of the Transport Code). It is also refused in case of intentional or reckless conduct by the owner (article L. 5121-3).
Is liability insurance compulsory for a pleasure boat?
No text requires it for a pleasure boat for personal use in France. In practice it is required by marina regulations and by some foreign States, and it is essential: without it the owner is liable alone, and the victim has no direct action against an insurer (article L. 124-3 of the Insurance Code).
What should be done in the hours after an accident on board?
Give assistance and alert the CROSS, record the circumstances in the logbook, keep the physical evidence, note the witnesses, report the claim to the insurer within the policy period, draw up the master’s report for a commercially operated ship, and avoid any admission of liability or settlement without the insurer’s consent.
Hervé Guyader, avocat at the Paris Bar, doctor of law.
After an accident, the firm can be reached through its contact form.
On the same subject, the status of the vessel: illegal charter and its consequences; the crew: contract, social protection and dismissal; incidents at sea: assistance and towage at sea.