Can My Former Partner Claim a Maritime Lien Against the Boat?

I am in the middle of a complicated dispute with a former friend over a boat that we owned as “equal” partners for a few years. The partnership arrangement called for us to split the cost of the purchase and share equally in all expenses, but it wasn’t long before I was paying all of the overhead expenses myself. To make matters worse, he eventually moved aboard the boat without telling me. We eventually went our separate ways and he left me with the boat — but after he left he recorded a Notice of Claim of Lien against the boat to recover his share of the purchase price. I’m sorry to burden you with my soap opera, but I wanted give you a little background before asking a couple of specific questions. So, first question: In one of your previous articles, you mentioned that a dispute over a boat sale transaction will never give rise to a maritime lien. Can you explain the reasoning behind this rule and perhaps point me to a statute or case law to support that conclusion? Second, I ran across a federal statute that provides for the expiration of a claim of lien after...