Help with my novel

[Sandwife]

Hello, my name's Kate and I'm a novelist writing about a seaside community. One of my characters takes tourists on little half-hour trips round the bay, and in the scene I'm writing at the moment he's talking to a non-sailing friend of his about the possibility of him training up to take passengers out too, so they can share the load when the next tourist season comes.

I'm no sailor, and though I did have a good chat with a guy in Fowey this summer about how to run pleaure trips for tourists, I didn't ask anything like enough questions, I now realise. So I'm really hoping someone here can give me some info. I don't know where else to look!

What I want to know is:

- Is the window you look out of to steer called a windscreen?

- Would a 27 foot boat have headlights? Or other lights you’d switch on at night, and if so where would they be positioned? Are the front ones and the rear ones different colours, like a car’s?

- Can you be prosecuted for drink-driving a boat?

- How do you start a boat’s engine; is it with an ignition key? What other controls do you need, apart from the steering wheel? (And is it called a steering wheel?)

- What might you find in the boat’s instrument panel?

- If a man wanted to take tourists out on his boat for trips round the bay, what qualifications/paperwork would he need to complete? I mean, things like insurance, and is there a certificate the boat would need to show it was sea-worthy? And do you have to pass a kind of driving test if you’re going to take passengers? (This last set of questions is really important.)

I’d be very grateful if you could give me any help with these. I so want my novel to be accurate, and it’s infuriating when writers get basic details wrong. Sorry for my appalling level of ignorance, but I live in Shropshire and there's no more land-locked county.

 

[Sandwife]

I should add, my website's www.katelong.co.uk/ , if you want to see the sort of stuff I write.

Many thanks.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

[ QUOTE ]
- Is the window you look out of to steer called a windscreen?

[/ QUOTE ]yes

[ QUOTE ]
- Would a 27 foot boat have headlights? Or other lights you’d switch on at night, and if so where would they be positioned? Are the front ones and the rear ones different colours, like a car’s?

[/ QUOTE ]No, not headlights, referred to as navigations lights, but not for seeing the way, rather for being seen.... you adjust your eyes to seeing in the dark.... front ones... strictly they are side ones that go all the way to the front red on one side (port) and green on the other (starboard), and then a white light at the back... a boat using its engine (or only having an engine - ie powerboat) also has a white light in addition shining forward.... and very large boats, beyond what you are talking about here, will have additional lights as well....

[ QUOTE ]
- Can you be prosecuted for drink-driving a boat?

[/ QUOTE ]Yes and no.... not in theory on the open sea, but most harbours and ports have by-laws that include the need for sobriety!... also larger vessels do have a requirements to be sober

[ QUOTE ]
- How do you start a boat’s engine; is it with an ignition key? What other controls do you need, apart from the steering wheel? (And is it called a steering wheel?)

[/ QUOTE ]Yes you use a key, but then often a lever or pull-stop to stop the engine.... apart from the wheel, which is often referred to as the helm, you also have engine controls for speed (think of it as a hand operated accelerator) and larger power boats will have what is known as a bow thruster, which is a little propellor in the front of the boat that helps you to move the front sideways more easily....

[ QUOTE ]
- What might you find in the boat’s instrument panel?

[/ QUOTE ]A depth guage, a rev counter, wind speed, boat speed (measures in knots - nautical miles per hour) and in most boats nowadays, a chartplotter, which is an electronic map of the area... plus usually a GPS, similar to sort used for in car navigation... a larger boat of a tourist size may also have a radar... and finally, communications equipment, almost exclusively a VHF radio

[ QUOTE ]
- If a man wanted to take tourists out on his boat for trips round the bay, what qualifications/paperwork would he need to complete? I mean, things like insurance, and is there a certificate the boat would need to show it was sea-worthy? And do you have to pass a kind of driving test if you’re going to take passengers? (This last set of questions is really important.)

[/ QUOTE ]Yes.... you would need a Yachmaster with commercial endorsement, which is quite a challenge to acheive... you would also need a VHF operators license (quite easy to obtain), and in the case of a larger tourist boat you may also need some additional commercial qualifications from the DOT.... the boat would need to be 'coded', which is an inspection to ensure the boat meets specific requirements, and is quite rigourous in terms of safety equipment requirements

[/ QUOTE ]

Hope that helps as a starter!

 

[Sandwife]

Fantastic!

"Yes.... you would need a Yachmaster with commercial endorsement, which is quite a challenge to acheive... you would also need a VHF operators license (quite easy to obtain), and in the case of a larger tourist boat you may also need some additional commercial qualifications from the DOT.... the boat would need to be 'coded', which is an inspection to ensure the boat meets specific requirements, and is quite rigourous in terms of safety equipment requirements"

- Can you give me more info about this, please? I'm worried that my plot line - the guy wanting his non-sailing friend to train up in six months - just isn't feasible. Even if they're not the kind of men who always go exactly by the book (for example I don't think he declares all his takings, and I think he might be paying his mate cash in hand at least some of the time).

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

An interesting subject line..... there is quite a bit of debate raging at the moment about what are referred to as 'fast track yachtmasters' basically a 16 week course that takes you from beginner to fully qualified.... if you google the term you'll find more info than you can shake a stick at....

Most experienced boat owners are however well aware of the fact that it is the very experience they have that brings their safety about, not a vast quantity of theoretical knowledge.... many take 10 or more years of regular boating before they feel 'ready' to take the exam.... which is usually between 8 and 12 hours long....

of course, like any qualification, some are very good, and some less so after obtaining it...

One of the requirements for yachtmaster is a logged amount of mileage at sea, including overnight passages and trips of a reasonable length.... look at the Royal Yachting Association site for more details....

Finally, the big thing that worries people about becoming qualified quickly is the limited range of weather conditions that will have been experienced.... often how you react is based upon having been there and done it before, often under the tutelage of an older wiser hand.....

its a very contentious subject!

 

[Steve_Bentley]

Welcome!
In addition to MagnaCarter's excellent replies you may find the following forum discussion on getting a similar licence useful. In fact if you do a search on the forum there's a minefield of useful info on here! Might I suggest you get a picture of the particular vessel you had in mind somewhere off the internet as there's a world of difference between a small RIB for hired fishing trips and something for looking at the whales! many commercial boats have a circular spinny thing in the screen to fling off any rain, but I can't remember what it's called...
web page

 

[Sandwife]

I've just had a look at Yachtmaster courses and they seem to cost about £6000+, so that won't work for my plot.

Would you definitely need one of those qualifications to take people round a bay in a 27-foot boat with an engine and a small cabin at the front? (I'm really hampered because I don't know any of the terminology, sorry).

 

[Sandwife]

This is the kind of boat I imagined (and went out in last summer as a passenger) - scroll to the bottom.

http://www.polmarine.com/location.htm

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

No... follow the link on Steve's post above... for smaller boats there are lesser qualifications.... such the RYA powerboat certificates... with commercial endorsements available...

The £6k training costs are if you go to a school..... the exam requires no courses to have been attended, and is an 'on the boat' test of your competence.... many do absolutely no formal training before taking it... but that does require some experience..... and is often where my comments about 10yrs comes in....

 

[Sandwife]

Thank you both. I hadn't spotted Steve's post but I'll follow the advice. I've already started re-writing my dodgily inaccurate on the strength of your tips, Magna!

 

[Sandwife]

Wow! Just had a look at the licence thread and I can see the job's a LOT trickier than I thought. That's so helpful, because I know now I'll have to re-route my plot which is a pain but stacks better than writing something that doesn't make logical sense.

Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by danfoley

 

[Sandwife]

Something else I'm not clear on; when you start the engine, do you then 'put the boat into gear' to move off? How do you make the boat move once you've switched on the ignition? And how do you control the speed?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

yes.... it has a engine control lever that is pushed forward to go into forward gear, and backwards to go into reverse... the further it is pushed the more throttle you get, so the faster you go...

 

[Steve_Bentley]

Hmm, your ferryboat boat only has boring old windscreen wipers! Anyway, another link (for a much more upmarket vessel) which includes a piccy of the controls and likely to be similar to your ferryboat:
32ft charter fishing boat piccys

The levers top right with black & red balls are probably for 1) for engine speed, 2) forward/neutral/reverse.

One of the smaller black round dials will tell you that the battery is being charged, another would tell you how much fuel is in the tank. The larger black dial is the rev counter.
The red button just left of the wheel is to kill the engine and the starter key is below (this is an american boat so prob petrol (?), your ferryboat will be diesel).
You'll have a battery switch to between 2 batteries (one normally to start engine, the other for lights etc). Getting this wrong and draining the batteries could cause some drama...
Black panel bottom right seems to be various switches for lights etc (far simpler on a ferryboat). You'll also have a fuse panel somewhere.

Er, this is probably far more detail than you need isn't it? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Sandwife]

No, it's absolutely superb. Do you want a credit in the novel when it comes out? If you do, PM me.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Hee Hee Steve.... Fame at last eh!

 

[Steve_Bentley]

Ah, thanks for putting me out of my misery!

 

[Swagman]

Without giving away advance content why not post the sections you finally write where you refer to the boating episodes on the site?
I've absolutely no doubt you'd find hundered who would be happy to critique the content for both sailing terminology and accuracy / feasibility......
Good luck
JOHN

 

[ShipsWoofy]

In addition to magnas post, think automatic car with only one gear.

p.s. I think you are getting a little bit of a bum steer with regards obtaining a yachtmaster ticket, this is just one way to qualify to take passengers.

Another is to obtain a boatmans licence, this is from the local authority department of trade and industry. It allows the skipper (never ever captain in the uk) to take up to 12 people out in the boat.

I do not have the figures, but it will include being so far offshore and will also include coding the boat as above. The idea of the boatmans was to stop people having to pay out £6k and complete 10,000 miles to drive the little ferries at seaside resorts. It is often for trawler skippers who take fishing parties out at weekends to boost their wages, they have no personal need for a yachtmasters certificate.

The boatmans licence is very much simpler to get as it is more directional toward the short haul charter boats like angling boats and ferries.

There is a chap on the forum who calls himself boatman, I think he actually used to be one of the examiners who issued the licence and could be a wealth of information that might just save your re-write.

Where is it going to based, if you are able to tell us?