Legal reqts charts?

[ChrisE]

Ships Cat asked on the R2R which maritime law stated the need for up to date paper charts rather than plotters, PC charts, etc. I looked around and found a reference to the SOLAS V regs but not anything else. I'm sure that someone here will know where this comes from.
Thanks in advance.

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[Ships_Cat]

In particular for pleasure vessels?

I believe SOLAS V was enacted in UK by the Merchant Shipping (Safety of Navigation) Regulations 2002 which requires vessels to carry charts and a backup to those - both the main and the backup are allowed to be ECDIS so paper charts do not have to be carried on the vessels covered by that part of the regulations.

However, my understanding is that the Regulations exempt pleasure vessels (I think it may actually refer to vessels less than 150 tonnes and some others) from the SOLAS V chart carriage requirements ie there is no specific requirements for them to carry backup charts, nor that the charts carried cannot be electronic.

So, what is it that many refer to on these forums when they say that legally paper charts have to be carried as backups on pleasure vessels?

John



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[Talbot]

You have to be clear on what is allowed as an ECDIS as well. IIRC, this requires a system that has been kept up-to-date with chart corrections. If this regulation is followed strictly, it precludes all chart plotters on the market to leisure sailors. However, it does not stipulate what scale the paper chart has to be so IMHO a large planning chart of the english channel should be suficient to operate in the whole of that region with a "not authorised plotter".

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[Ships_Cat]

Yes, and SOLAS V sets out the requirements for an ECDIS and as you say, leisure systems do not comply.

But the enactment of SOLAS V in UK exempts normal pleasure vessels from the chart carriage requirements of SOLAS V - so what legislation is it that makes pleasure vessels have to carry paper charts as backup to an ECS as is often claimed?

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.

 

[Talbot]

Cant answer that, but would always carry a paper chart covering the general area, and not necessarily bang up-to-date, but good for initial planning, and sufficient for a get you home if lightening strikes!

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[BrendanS]

There is no requirement for pleasure vessels under 150GT to carry charts.

See paragraph 2 of the following
http://www.ukho.gov.uk/attachments/2004/annual_nms/ANM18 2004.pdf

Pretty stupid not to do so though!

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[ChrisE]

Thanks, thats what hoping to find.

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[Ships_Cat]

Yes, and when you cross reference the exclusions further down in that linked document for such vessels from the requirements of SOLAS V to IMO SOLAS V itself, that is indeed what it says.

Is there anything else in other legislation?

(As an aside, I don't think there is any legislation that requires charts to be carried on pleasure vessels in NZ either. But as said, would be foolish not to carry what was appropriate, if any, to one's vessel and voyage).

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I thought SOLAS was international, so therefore you kiwi's have to play by the same rules as us.

Am I wrong?

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[Ships_Cat]

No, not necessarily.

Vessels have to abide by the laws of their flag state if they are flagged (ie on its register of ships) and of the state that they are domiciled in if not flagged (and theoretically a vessel cannot voyage internationally from its domiciled state to another if it is not flagged).

It is up to each state to determine if and what of the IMO SOLAS conventions it adopts. Generally SOLAS vessels are ships engaged in international voyages and excludes pleasure boats but as I understand it SOLAS Chapter 5 was written to include all vessels but with states able to decide to what extent vessels under 150 tonnes and certain others had to comply (also excludes warships and a few others as I recall - but I think most states navies volunatarily comply with their maritime law). So, again as I understand it, only SOLAS 5 may have an effect on pleasure vessels.

There is another IMO international convention and that is MARPOL which covers protection of the marine environment from oil, rubbish etc. which is generally applied by states in some modified form to pleasure vessels, and also obviously COLREGS which are generally applied to all vessels commercial and pleasure, even in home waters with little change from one country to another. Maybe others which affect pleasure vessels but can't think of them at moment.

For UK none of SOLAS 5 is applicable to pleasure vessels except for a few things (from memory passage plan, radar reflector, carry a table of life saving signals) which are all, I believe, set out in the pamphlet covering SOLAS 5 and pleasure vessels put out by the MCA. SOLAS 5 is brought into UK legislation by regulation - The Merchant Shipping (Safety of Navigation) Regulations 2002.

In NZ there is not (to the best of my knowledge) any legislation drawing SOLAS 5 into being any requirement for pleasure vessels. Generally, NZ does not bring maritime requirements into being through regulation, but does it through a set of Maritime Rules. This is a set of rules that covers construction, operation, navigation, etc of vessels but almost all of that excludes pleasure vessels too (as the regulations in the UK do to, to the best of my understanding).

None of SOLAS 5 is specifically drawn by name into those rules (unlike the UK where it is named) and to the best of my knowledge (and I am pretty confident on this) there is no legislated requirement for pleasure vessels here to do any of the SOLAS 5 things including those that UK pleasure vessels have to ie passage plan, radar reflector and carrying a table of life saving signals.

We do have some things of our own though - for example, maximum speed close to other vessels, shore or swimmers, have to carry (but not wear) PFD's (which I think is not required in UK but stand to be corrected on that) and which apply to both commercial and recreational vessels.

The carraige of charts is covered by SOLAS 5 but that part does not get drawn into the UK legislation for pleasure vessels by the abovementioned regulation as far as I am aware, and nor is there anything in NZ which requires pleasure vessels to carry charts (sensible really becasue we don't want to carry them in our dinghies nor for a simple trip to the fuel dock or something). However, I suspect that in the case of an accident where a chart would have made a difference the skipper would be found to be careless and so responsible.

So for non pleasure vessels that voyage internationally most states have similar requirements based on SOLAS especially for things which state boundaries have little meaning eg radiocomminications, security, dangerous cargoes, etc. In some instances it may be that the ship volunarily complies if its own nation has not drawn the international requirement into its legislation - for example, for the security arrangements introduced in July this year, a ship will have difficulties trading if it does not comply and a pleasure vessel will have to comply with the same security requirements if it enters a nation where they are applied..

Whoops, another book /forums/images/icons/blush.gif - all pretty much off the top of my head so may be a little loose in interpretation, but is pretty much how it is.

Regards oh now M in Law less one /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

John



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