Here's one for all you sea-lawyers out there - any help would be greatly appreciated.
My brother and I launched his inflatable (westmarine w/a 3.3 hp merc) off the knapp st beach in brooklyn on 5/19/02 at 7:30 am and broke down almost immediately. We beached the boat across the channel by Kingsboro college and I tried to snag some bunker (unsuccessfully) while he worked on the engine. Soon after that a security guard told us we were on private property and were tresspassing (tide was way out and I was in the surf, standing/casting about 20 yards from the rocks). I told him that we had not tresspassed on any college land and that we were both well below the mean high tide line, which I thought was public property. He proceeded to call for back up. He also told me that as long as we were in the boat in the water we were ok; I then asked him whether it would be ok for me to stand in the surf, in a few inches of water, since that was being "in the water." About that time his back up arrived and he decided that we had talked enough. We got back in the boat and rowed/paddled back to knapp st. The whole situation ended peacefully. Obviously, security had the upper hand here, since I wasn't going to press the issue and spend my sunday afternoon in jail, hire a lawyer and take the case to the supreme court. The question is, though, who is right? If I'm below the mean high tide line and have not tresspassed any property to get there, can I be kicked off a beach? Any input would be helpful.
My brother and I launched his inflatable (westmarine w/a 3.3 hp merc) off the knapp st beach in brooklyn on 5/19/02 at 7:30 am and broke down almost immediately. We beached the boat across the channel by Kingsboro college and I tried to snag some bunker (unsuccessfully) while he worked on the engine. Soon after that a security guard told us we were on private property and were tresspassing (tide was way out and I was in the surf, standing/casting about 20 yards from the rocks). I told him that we had not tresspassed on any college land and that we were both well below the mean high tide line, which I thought was public property. He proceeded to call for back up. He also told me that as long as we were in the boat in the water we were ok; I then asked him whether it would be ok for me to stand in the surf, in a few inches of water, since that was being "in the water." About that time his back up arrived and he decided that we had talked enough. We got back in the boat and rowed/paddled back to knapp st. The whole situation ended peacefully. Obviously, security had the upper hand here, since I wasn't going to press the issue and spend my sunday afternoon in jail, hire a lawyer and take the case to the supreme court. The question is, though, who is right? If I'm below the mean high tide line and have not tresspassed any property to get there, can I be kicked off a beach? Any input would be helpful.