Is this allowed? paying crew.

From the website:

"Recently there has been online speculation in a ybw forum towards my 'non profit making' claim. I'm only to happy to release these figures: Contributions collected from crew toward sailing costs since I started this cost sharing venture is as follows:



2010: £950 2011: £1500 2012: £1550 2013: £1650



To put a little balance into that here's just some of the overall running costs in 2013 alone:



Whitehaven marina fees: £2200, Isle of Man Fees: £160, money spend on repairing, renewing or buying new items for the boat from chandlery £1400, Annual Lift out £350, crane for lifting mast off and on £300, new rigging £1200. Parts for engine service £125. Annual RNLI donation £150. This list still does not include money spent on fuel, visiting marina fees, food or drink purchased for the crew who sailed onboard.



As I mentioned, it's not for the love of money but sailing, it's non profit making and I'll be sailing my boat with or without crew. However, I love meeting new people, I have a real passion for teaching sailing, and I'm happy to give anyone who expresses any interest the opportunity to see, enjoy and experience some of the wonders of sailing on the sea that I'm fortunate enough to see week in and week out. So if you'd like to join me, for a small contribution to the kitty, your welcome."
so what you're really after is other people sharing your boat ownership costs rather the cost sharing of a days sailing?
 
so what you're really after is other people sharing your boat ownership costs rather the cost sharing of a days sailing?

I'm not sure the amount you charge is key.
I think if you offered day sails to the general public at £5 a go, you still need to be coded.

I'm not sure how you define the cost of a day's sailing.
Is it just the diesel you've used that day, or does it include some fraction of the cost of the sails, which have a finite life?
Does it include a fraction of the cost of insurance, as the more you use the boat, the higher the risk of damage?

Plenty of racing crews split a lot of these costs, even if one of them nominally owns the boat.
 
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Web site still active including the spurious "Non-profit" statements.

When I looked earlier he had changed his website and said he was checking out the legality of what he was doing. FWIW I'm sure that he was not deliberately ignoring the rules and genuinely thought that what he was doing was OK.
 
When I looked earlier he had changed his website and said he was checking out the legality of what he was doing. FWIW I'm sure that he was not deliberately ignoring the rules and genuinely thought that what he was doing was OK.

Yes he has suspended all "Availability" dates seeking clarification, but the information page is unchanged, including

Your contribution is also a frictional share toward the things that wear and tear with each sail of the boat such as sails, uv strip, spay hood, safety equipment, rigging, engine and outboard maintenance.

Not sure if that is a typo for fractional or fictional.
 
Good stuff that man. I doubt anyone here has any issue with him covering his costs (although perhaps the scale of those costs needs some thinking about...) but I'm sure we'd hate to see a fellow yottie fall foul of the law if it all went wrong, or be forced down a route of pointless increased bureaucracy, certification and expense when we just want to invite our mates down for a weekend's sailing and split food, beer and diesel with them.
 
Good stuff that man. I doubt anyone here has any issue with him covering his costs (although perhaps the scale of those costs needs some thinking about...) but I'm sure we'd hate to see a fellow yottie fall foul of the law if it all went wrong, or be forced down a route of pointless increased bureaucracy, certification and expense when we just want to invite our mates down for a weekend's sailing and split food, beer and diesel with them.

The point is that they are your mates, you don't go touting for the general public to sail with you.
 
Morally the whole question is based around the concept that if you pay for a service then you are entitled to think that the service is to a commercial standard.
Certainly he should at most only expect a donation at the end of the outing. Not take cash in advance. Certainly he should go to pains to point out that this concept (operation) is non commercial in every aspect including the proven standard of his boat and his skills.

As a matter of interest I use my boat for sail training. My yacht club takes cash in advance for the sailing. I get paid around 15 squid per hour for my efforts plus 5 squid per hour contribution towards keeping the boat. I take 3 or 4 people out for 3 hrs a few times each year.(perhaps 20 hrs per annum total) (they pay about 80 squid each for 3 hrs instruction 12 hrs practical on water plus book log book and certifficate at the end. There are a range of levels of courses but we mostly do crew and helm. This operation is under the auspices of Yachting Australia and is accepted by the local government authority (equivalent of MCA) as an exception to the requirement for coding and commercial skipper. For the privelidge of doing so, the boat gets inspected each year I get reaccredited every 2 years ( after a very rigorous qualification training and testing) and I pay for a specific insurance policy to cover the participants.
Certainly not a money making excercise it is lucky I enjoy it so much. olewill
 
+1
I do hope the mob are now satisfied...

If there was no potential for harm then ignorance leading to flouting of bureaucratic red tape would cause all but the little Hitlers no concern. Unfortunately, taking people whose only qualification is desire (and £50 a day) to sea is fraught with potential problems and the regulations laid down, while pernickety in some detail, are there to ensure a minimum level of material and skill. This is not to say that the Solway Sailing guy's boat is not superbly equipped (the pictures are impressive) or that he is lacking any seamanship ability but coding and a Certificate of Competence are demanded to protect the numpties against floating death traps and Captain Calamities.
That the forum shows concern that he is putting himself into what could be a very expensive conflict with the law is natural and commendable; that there is concern over his passengers, equally so; and that if it was kosher, why hadn't we thought of it first? All the man has to do is code his boat and get a commercially endorsed C of C, small beer in terms of the overall cost of ownership of a boat, and I and I hope the rest of the forum would wish him luck.
 
I hope the YBW keyboard warriors are very proud of themselves! They've already hounded the young girl off the forum, effectively lost the battle with Dylan, and now hounded a fellow yachtsman out of his pocket money making scheme. How DARE he try and make some money out of his hobby. You've clearly saved thousands of lives there through health and safety regulations!!

Disagreement is fine, but some of you guys, I wouldn't want you anywhere near me if was ever in trouble. You'd rather stand and pass judgement than actually help me!
 
and now hounded a fellow yachtsman out of his pocket money making scheme.

It would have been a huge money losing scheme for him there had ever been a problem, and if a death, a liberty losing scheme as well. Marine incident related fines are often pretty big. The MCA have also had people prosecuted for manslaughter when there has been a death.
 
Who ever said they didn't want him to keep doing what he is doing?

Keep going by all means, just approach it in a way where you are not leaving yourself open to prosecution if the doodoo hits the fan, or step it up to a proper commercial operation at modest coding/qualification expense and charge people more money...
 
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