Qualifications for a 118 footer !

[Reverend Ludd]

Just the usual Mobo ticket

I'm sure I've seen that boat in Poole

 

[taz]

What qualifications do you think the skipper of this yacht has?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3v2VhCdrII&NR=1

I think the more appropriate question would be "How many do you think he'd had?"

 

[Reverend Ludd]

I will call the large yacht section of the MCA on monday and see if that dept can clarify matters. I will report back, maybe from the Bahamas

Well I called and spoke to the Large Yacht dept who put me on to Mark Towel in the Small Yacht & Pleasure craft dept. He wasn't there but his colleague Alistaire Lewis told me that a pleasure craft is not denoted by it's size but by it's use. Therefore if a private individual buys a yacht and sails it himself and nobody on board is paying to be there ie non commercially then it is a pleasure vessel. There are NO SIZE restrictions to how large a pleasure vessel can be. The only restriction was to have various bits of life saving equipment but NO LICENCE is required. There were potentially issues if you have more that 12 passengers REGULARLY but in practice exemptions would be easily obtained.

He emailed me this link to help

http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-ho...pleasurecraftandsmallships/pleasurevessel.htm

 

[The engineer]

Thanks for your efforts captain Ludd. I am in the camp of having to believe the horses mouth on this one. It is the second time that the MCA have confirmed the situation in my experience now and have made it quite clear.

I have read the link you posted and can only assume the word "should" is the critical one in the following quote:

Vessels of ≥ 24 metres length and ≥ 80 GT should comply with the manning requirements set out in Merchant Shipping Notice 1802 and Marine Guidance Note 156 for deck and engineering requirements respectively. Additionally, from 31st December 2005, those ratings required for the safe manning of the yacht will also need to comply with MGN 270.

This is what I have meant by a grey area, it is open to interpretation and mis-interpretation.

 

[Reverend Ludd]

This is what I have meant by a grey area, it is open to interpretation and mis-interpretation.

It certainly is