Certified pleasure boat requirement for a Explorer Yacht of 145'

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Ken57

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Hello all. Can anyone let me know what UK certification would be required for me to operate my own 145' Explorer (Motor) Yacht for pleasure off shore and in european waters?
There would be 4 crew my wife, myself and two friends.
Thanks in advance.
Ken
 
This is likely well over 200 ton so you’d need 500ton licence. There would also be minimum crewing certification on the boat with qualifications needed for the crew. 1st officer, Mate, deckhand, engineer etc. Perhaps minimum 6 crew but depends on the boat and its certification. As a general comment 4 really is absolutely too few crew for 145 feet, assuming you wish to keep it clean and shiny- you may be planning an ultra rugged/rough boat that isn’t washed down after each trip - I don’t know.
 
Ken57 said:
…
There would be 4 crew my wife, myself and two friends.
…
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“4 crew”…

Do you mean that the crew will consist of you, your wife and two friends, in total? In which case I don’t think this is viable. You need paid professional full time crew who as JFM says must be professionally qualified. You’ll also need to consider the ‘hotel’ side of your operation, ie victualling, catering, laundry etc.
 
The other thing to keep in mind is that in addition to what the law requires, your insurers will have their requirements too. And it’s not feasible to be uninsured even if you don’t care about the financial consequences/risk of losing the boat, because in general you can’t get into ports without insurance.
 
Ken57 said:
my own 145' Explorer (Motor) Yacht
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At risk of being accused to be unfriendly with newbies as I've just been in another thread - and I apologize in advance if my question comes across as such, BUT...
Am I right in understanding that you already own a 44 meters explorer and you are unaware of what her certification requirements are? :oops:
 
MapisM said:
At risk of being accused to be unfriendly with newbies as I've just been in another thread - and I apologize in advance if my question comes across as such, BUT...
Am I right in understanding that you already own a 44 meters explorer and you are unaware of what her certification requirements are? :oops:
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Are they a newbie if they joined over ten years ago?
 
I joined the forum 10 years ago out of curiosity. I don't own a boat yet and l have just come into an inheritance and so have started to look around. Yes l did look at how to gain a masters licence but saw that it really was only required if you were intending to charter the yacht and that different requirements must be met if the boat was only for an owner operator and not charter. So
I was thinking on having 4 to 5 paid crew. I read that you would need to have sat a recognised course in how to operate a motor yacht, pass a medical exam, obtain a safety certificate and also have sat a navigation course. So as things stand l am trying to obtain knowledge on the subject regarding a owner operated motor yacht for pleasure purposes only not for charter. I can see that the requirements differ between a boat up to 200GT and for a boat up to 500GT. I was hoping for any advice on the subject. Sorry if the initial ask was misleading. Also to be clear l would follow any safety requirement and adhere to what is required by the insurance industry. So gents/ladies any advice is most welcome.
 
Depending on what flag you intend on flying and how you intend on registering the boat (private, commercial) you might get away with a Yachtmaster. But JFM mentions the most pertinent point, the insurance company will have stipulations too. We had a Yachtmaster Offshore captain on a 40m, 368gt yacht a few years ago, Cayman flag, but loads of experience, one of the old school who refused to do MCA qualifications. Private registered, commercial registration is entirely different.

4 is not nearly enough on this size boat, all 4 will be flat out at all times.
 
Ken57 said:
So gents/ladies any advice is most welcome.
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How did you settle on 145 feet as a suitable size as your first boat? I think my advice would be for all four of you to go on holiday and charter something, perhaps do an ICC if you haven't already done so at the same time and then do some more charters.
 
Our prospective shipowner may have experience in lesser vessels and at taking responsibility as the master but as usual with theses post we won’t know till post 45.
 
Wansworth said:
Our prospective shipowner may have experience in lesser vessels and at taking responsibility as the master but as usual with theses post we won’t know till post 45.
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Good point. However if we allowed lack of factual knowledge to put people off stating their strongly held opinions, the internet would be a very quiet place.
 
Grubble said:
Good point. However if we allowed lack of factual knowledge to put people off stating their strongly held opinions, the internet would be a very quiet place.
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Yes in the interest of forum activity we could invent would be yachtpersons asking questions now and then just to keep us in practice 😏
 
Ken57 said:
I joined the forum 10 years ago out of curiosity. I don't own a boat yet and l have just come into an inheritance and so have started to look around. Yes l did look at how to gain a masters licence but saw that it really was only required if you were intending to charter the yacht and that different requirements must be met if the boat was only for an owner operator and not charter. So
I was thinking on having 4 to 5 paid crew. I read that you would need to have sat a recognised course in how to operate a motor yacht, pass a medical exam, obtain a safety certificate and also have sat a navigation course. So as things stand l am trying to obtain knowledge on the subject regarding a owner operated motor yacht for pleasure purposes only not for charter. I can see that the requirements differ between a boat up to 200GT and for a boat up to 500GT. I was hoping for any advice on the subject. Sorry if the initial ask was misleading. Also to be clear l would follow any safety requirement and adhere to what is required by the insurance industry. So gents/ladies any advice is most welcome.
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Ah ok, that's helpful.
Perhaps consider the categories. The following is all non-charter use:

1. Under 24m LLL (and where relevant under 24m LH too): this category allows you simple exams to drive and relatively little regulation. Far and away the simplest category. Note that measuring the 24m is complex and it is not LOA; it translates basically to 96/98 feet ~29m LOA. This is the category I stick to, for a simple life. Plenty of owner drivers in this category but still they are in the minority once you get to 24m LOA - perhaps 10% of boats (just a guess).

2. >24m but Under 200gt. Remember gt (gross tons) is nothing to do with weight - it's a measure of enclosed volume. This category is subject to more regulation but it is do-able if you're dedicated. However it translates to about 105 feet LOA of normal motor yacht, which isn't much bigger than 96/98 feet, so you might ask what's the point? There are a few owner drivers in this category, but very rare.

3. 200-500gt. This is where your 145 ft sits. Very big step up in legal requirements for captain and crew, plus insurance requirements, class rules, and so on. Very big step up in captain skill requirements when in tricky circumstances too. As stated above you need plenty of crew and there are close to zero owner-drivers in this category.

4. 500-3000gt - you need to make a long career of it to run a boat this big and it's exclusively professional crew territory where the owners are passengers
 
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