It's true that your not required to tow, but you should always go to a distress signal and see what is up. Whether to tow or not is a matter of assessing the situation. For me I never refuse a tow if I'm capable of the tow. I won't tow a boat a lot larger than mine. I will call for help if I can't and they want. I will not tow for miles, if their dock or ramp is within a couple miles I'll take them there, if not the closes marina or ramp. If they are Butt heads, then they may get left, but I'll take a lot of crap. One simple rule, be willing to tow, because if you haven't needed a tow yet someday you will. It's a pretty sad feeling to need help and watch boat after boat just cruise by and ignore you.

An observation I've made is: The prettier and fancier the boat the less likely they are to stop and help you. It's usually fishermen, mom and pop or commercial people. The high life weekenders will let you burn. I actually had a boat on fire once and a boat load of party boaters drove right by me with their"I" phones recording. I gave them the finger and put out the fire on the motor with my extinguisher, then a mom, pop and kids pulled up and towed me in.