Chartering your RIB

[Jono Garton]

Originally posted by scm
John Mendizes (not sure of the spelling)
RYA Powerboat Trainer

Jon Mendez

Head of RYA Powerboating & Motor Cruising

Really nice guy and fighting the PB side of the RYA.

[Paul Glatzel]

There is only one level of Powerboat Trainers. They train all levels of Instructors

Paul

[Jono Garton]

Thought that had changed from this year? Also a pre test now before trainers course/exam? I could be wrong

[Andy Gee]

One point that most have missed is that if you take on any passengers, whether they pay cash, fuel costs or any reinbursements that this may be deemed as a commercial operation.
Like all things as long as nobody get hurts or you dont have any problems then why bother with codeing.......because if the worst happens and you do have an accident or some gets hurt then your insurance company will walk away from you and offer no help at all. We operate charter boats, both hard boats and previously ribs and have seen the changes from Local authority licencing when you went up infront of your councillors to get a "Boat Hirers Licence" through to the current day of Codeing.
Previously our insurance costs were much the same as a normal pleasure boat and all you had to do was notify your insurers that you intented to charter and they would include this clause in your policy. Now the costs is about 3 times that of normal policies with the conditions like "warranted vessel complies with MCA Code of Practise for intended operating area", "Qualified skipper incharge at all times", "Risk Assesments in place", "Operation Manual" etc etc etc.
Me personally, I quite like the life style that I have at the moment and would not like to lose everything because of an incident and subsequent prosecution and claims.
Andy

[Paul Glatzel]

Totally agree with Andy, as to the Trainers point Jono makes the change this year has been to implement precourse assessments for anyone recommended to attend the Trainers course. If you pass this then would be accepted onto the course.

Paul

[scm]

From the MCA Website:

In February 2003, the draft Small Passenger Boat Code for Inland Waterways was published for public consultation.

The Code promotes best practice for the safety of vessels (other than pleasure vessels) which carry no more than 12 passengers and which do not go to sea, and will be published jointly by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Association of Inland Navigation Authorities.

That will do for the Solent then and a good thing too.

Regards
Stuart

[David Hickman]

I agree that MCA Coding is the way to go. So long as the rib has been built to a good standard, I have not really come across many problems with getting a rib coded.
Excellent idea the pre assessment day for PB Trainers. I attended one local to me at the end of last year and it was interesting to see that another person who was on the pre assessment day was an PB Advanced Instructor who had not ever done a day skipper theory and hence struggled with the navigation test paper which was given to us.
So the pre assessment days certainly do their job of ensuring that only those who have sufficient knowledge and powerboat handling skills get onto the actual course when we can learn the art of teaching instructors rather than 4 days of "back to basics".

[Andy T]

It seams to be a popular thread regarding Chartering. Paul, Im pleased to see that someone else has attempted to sort out all the varying rules and regs that the different Local Aurthorities have set out. Also that you have notice our web site specialising in RIB hire, If I could however just update this info as the URL is www.spareribs.info and the costs of advertising and using SpareRIBs' resources are now totally restructured and below £50 a year.

Within this site we have spent alot of time tring to put an overview at least to how Coding your Charter RIB in the UK is done, paying particular attention to the operating areas. Should anyone have the time we would be only too pleased to recieve constructive critsisum. This is a slightly less greyer area than it used to be, however, as alot is open to interpretation everyone seams to be under a slightly different understanding.

Looking forward to your coments.

Andy
andy@rib-hire.com

[Rogue Wave]

For those of you thinking about this I have to say that Andy is one of the good guys and a pleasure to deal with!