[Capt. Debbie]

It's more of liability issue. Assume a boat towing a boat on water.

It's legal to tow them unless you are doing for profit. Someone giving you gas $ for the time towed is not commercial towing and does not need a USCG towing endorsement or commercial boat.

A good Samaritan towing you- is an oral agreement between you and the Good Sam but not a contract. A contractual obligation is an agreement but the other must be given consideration ( compensation) for it to be a contract. Like paying for Boat US or Sea Tow.. So it gets to Torts area of law.

Torts or wrongs have two areas - Intentional torts and Negligent. So assuming the other guy does NOT intentionally smash you up(aka intentional Tort of conversion). It gets back to the level of care that is assumed exercised in that instance. Not gross negligence.

LEVEL OF CARE-
Given its not an expert tower, as long as he or she exercise reasonable care - you as a good Samaritan tower the expertise level is NOT real high. But it is not "anything goes" either.

Also you have a duty to mitigate losses. This means if the Good Sam is a nutcase and you know staying with them will cause further damage- YOU must end it. Else insurance will not cover you letting the other guy run up the damage costs even more. Further damage is something like: they struck something and are on a sandbar and you drag them off the sand bar without patching the KNOWN hole to sink in much deeper water.

PM me if you have any other questions?