can I borrow your boat....please?

MASH said:
Who are they? What power do "they" have to do anything (what, exactly?) about it? The only authority I can think of that might be interested is the tax man.

As long as you don't have an accident or an insurance claim I can't see who would be the least bit interested even though in theory I agree it might be deemed a charter.

Even the insurer won't know unless you tell them, cos no one else will.
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Of course you can disregard the law; lots of people disregard lots of bits of legislation and get away with it lots of the time. However the consequences of disregarding this particular law are huge. Firstly you won't be insured, and secondly if there were to be any kind of incident you stand to lose everything. I'm not a particularly risk averse kind of person, but this particular risk is not one I would want to take.
 
viago said:
so what is the situation when a person is paid by the owner to take the boat to a chosen destination?
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You are paying the person for their professional competence to safely deliver your boat for you. They aren't paying to use your boat! They assess the risk and need to take care of any crew they employ with due diligence or whatever the phrase is...
 
As hirer, consider the most aweful outcome. The gas system has a leak the boat bursts into flames he gets burnt and the hirer/borrower wants to sue you. If he can claim that he was obliged in any way to pay you for the use of the boat, and prove, it then he might have a better claim to sue you for providing a faulty boat. When because he was to pay or had paid he had a right to expect a good boat. Not only has he got a better chance to sue you but as soon as he can prove payment was made or expected the MCA will come looking for you. Not a likely scenario but possible. You have go to get him to offer cash after the loan and you have to refuse to agree to payment. Until it is all safely completed.
good luck olewill
 
I shared someone else's boat for a year when I started sailing. We agreed to share running costs in return for shared use of the boat. I don't know whether that breached any tax or chartering laws (suspect it probably didn't) but it worked well for us - the owner couldn't use the boat as much as he wanted to and it enabled him to justify keeping it. But there has to be a level of trust between the parties - (a) that the non-owner will take reasonable care of the boat and (b) that both parties agree that they have no liability for each other.

The idea that the law does or should prevent friends sharing something is ridiculous (and if any laws do try to prevent it, then it is our civil duty to defy them).
 
snipping<<The idea that the law does or should prevent friends sharing something is ridiculous (and if any laws do try to prevent it, then it is our civil duty to defy them).>>snipped

+1

(with a slight caveat that someone must be responsible for any third party liabilities)
 
So does that mean if a production company comes to me and says they want to use the boat in a show, purely as a set. i.e not moving anywhere and pay for the privelige, I'd need to get her up to scratch as a charter vessel?

Where does the MCA's purview end?

Does that mean that a person who says rents out to someone to liveaboard in a saltwater marina needs an MCA certificate too?

Is the also the case one you hit inland waterways? There are a lot of boats on the canals that seem to be rented but I doubt they have coding of any kind beyond BSS.
 
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