Is he mad??

[Ravi]

What worries me most is that he is a very inexperienced sailor who has had lots of 'accidents' already! He thinks he is going to be doing this for 'fun' and 'something to do' whilst living on the boat for the summer

Your worry is understandable. I don't even know the guy and I feel alarmed at the possible (and likely) outcome.

Akyaka's advice about a quiet word to the local authorities seems sensible. After all, you wouldn't let a someone get into a car with a bunch of strangers when he was drunk and uninsured to drive. A tricky situation for you since I am sure that you don't want to get your friend into trouble but it sounds like that might be the only way to stop him from undertaking this reckless enterprise.

 

[nimbusgb]

Show him 'Midnight Express' and tell him what he is doing is illegal. After that he's on his own!

 

[chinita]

I know somebody doing exactly the same thing. Except that his boat is a lot older and tattier. God knows where he gets his punters from.

No qualifications, no coding, no insurance. If the marina found out they would charge him double (commercial) rates and insist on insurance. Add to that they would link to Maritime police, tax agency and VAT people.

I am not going to dob him in, although I do wonder what would happen if one of his clients crushed a couple of fingers twixt sheet and winch (or much worse) and whether I would feel, in some part, responsible.

 

[Sybarite]

We did this in Malta in 1969. Coding? qualifications? isn't life complicated now. Some friends with a small hotel and 2 Chris Craft had a deal with the Sheraton and passed the surplus over to us for days out to the blue lagoon. After the local trip boats started taking an interest we decided to stop doing it, but we did miss the £20 per day we were getting.

5 years later we had a deal with the port captain in Grimaud who used to send us day charterers in exchange for a few beers. We were moored just in front of the police post by the church (photo is my avatar) and never had any problems with authority.

Another time we had one of the French customs officers on board for a drink in Antibes who said we were quite legal doing that as long as we only took foreigners, but he was wrong as a friend found out later when raided by the specialists who really knew. They were lucky to be given 24hrs to leave the country.

This is why the French customs check boat papers in France. They want to find people running charter operations in French waters where the locals have to pay tax to do the same.