Sea fog represents a significant risk for safe navigation of sea vessels. Visibility LiDAR systems might offer a striking way to reduce the risks associated with sea fog, but they should be appropriately designed to provide a proper level of detection for reliable forewarning of sea fog. Here we analyze the performances of a visibility LiDAR system with the aim of achieving optimal detection operation. A series of echo signals are simulated under different visibility conditions addressing the influence of the various hardware parameters on the final system performances and defining an optimal visibility LiDAR configuration. Using the optimized parameters, a visibility LiDAR system was realized and tested in a field campaign on Hengsha Island (Shanghai). The experimental findings obtained by the visibility LiDAR are compared with results of a forward scattering visibility meter showing good consistency in homogeneous atmosphere, while even superior performances are observed for inhomogeneous atmospheric conditions. Our experimental results indicate that an optimized visibility LiDAR can provide an early warning for light fog located at a distance of 5 km, i.e. about 3.5 hours in advance to the spreading of the fog to the shore. These findings demonstrate the good performances of the visibility LiDAR developed in the present study in performing visibility measurements and its capability of providing sea-fog warning.