Neil_Y
Well-known member
Following a thread on the ARC where the charging for berths question came up here is the MCA's confirmation of the position.
Essentially you can't charge and shouldn't pay more than shared costs incurred (fuel, food) unless the vessel is coded. The benefit of sailing on a coded yacht is that it will have safety equipment to a commercial standard and it will be manned by qualified skippers. I'm not against hitching on private yachts but they shouldn't be trying to make a profit from it. It's like running your private car as a taxi.
The interesting part is that you can't include mooring, insurance and maintenance costs.
MCA quote
"The Maritime & Coastguard Agency, on behalf of the UK government, has jurisdiction on all UK ships wherever they may be in the world. We call them ships as that is what a boat/yacht is legally known as.
Vessels taking part in the ARC, that are UK ships (defined in Section 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995) will fall under UK Merchant Shipping legislation.
If the vessel is being used as a "pleasure vessel" (defined in regulation 2(1) of SI 1998/2771) then the direct costs associated with the voyage may be shared. Such costs are considered to mean fuel and food costs, but not to include mooring, insurance, maintenance costs as they are not directly incurred as a result of the voyage. If the vessel is not being used as a "pleasure vessel" it is considered to be on a commercial voyage and therefore would be required to comply with the relevant legislation. The easiest means of compliance with some of the legislation for commercial voyages is to be certified under the MCA/UK Small Commercial Vessel Codes of Practice."
Essentially you can't charge and shouldn't pay more than shared costs incurred (fuel, food) unless the vessel is coded. The benefit of sailing on a coded yacht is that it will have safety equipment to a commercial standard and it will be manned by qualified skippers. I'm not against hitching on private yachts but they shouldn't be trying to make a profit from it. It's like running your private car as a taxi.
The interesting part is that you can't include mooring, insurance and maintenance costs.
MCA quote
"The Maritime & Coastguard Agency, on behalf of the UK government, has jurisdiction on all UK ships wherever they may be in the world. We call them ships as that is what a boat/yacht is legally known as.
Vessels taking part in the ARC, that are UK ships (defined in Section 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995) will fall under UK Merchant Shipping legislation.
If the vessel is being used as a "pleasure vessel" (defined in regulation 2(1) of SI 1998/2771) then the direct costs associated with the voyage may be shared. Such costs are considered to mean fuel and food costs, but not to include mooring, insurance, maintenance costs as they are not directly incurred as a result of the voyage. If the vessel is not being used as a "pleasure vessel" it is considered to be on a commercial voyage and therefore would be required to comply with the relevant legislation. The easiest means of compliance with some of the legislation for commercial voyages is to be certified under the MCA/UK Small Commercial Vessel Codes of Practice."
