The Montauk Catamaran Company Chronicles, 12/03/14: Regulations

David Ryan

David Ryan is a boat builder and USCG licensed master captain. He is the owner of Sailing Montauk and skipper of Montauk''s charter sailing catamaran MON TIKI You can follow him on Twitter @CaptDavidRyan

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20 Responses

  1. Slade the Leveller says:

    I’m really enjoying these posts, Mr. Ryan.

    As a former employee of a sailing operation I can surely attest to the necessity of working closely with the CG. Our company had a boat that could easily carry 40, but was uninspected. The owner flew under the radar for several years, but the inevitable boarding occurred, and we got busted down to 12, which was a huge revenue hit for us. As you say, the costs of doing things right are the cost of doing business.Report

    • 12 is the limit for bareboat charters. An inspected boat can be chartered “as is” to a group, and that group can hire a captain and crew, but the total passenger count including crew on an uninspected bareboat charter is 12.

      A key provision is that the crew cannot be specified by the owner. If the crew is specified by the owner, SPV regulations attach. As you can imagine there’s a lot of hanky-panky that goes on around this provision and what “specified by the owner” means. What it really comes down to is what you’re insurance carrier will underwrite, and that really only comes up when there’s a mishap. I’ll get further into this in future posts.Report

      • Slade the Leveller in reply to David Ryan says:

        Yep, that’s how it worked with our charter company. You got to pick whichever captain you wanted off our list, and he picked the crew. All of our captains were CG licensed.Report

      • David Ryan in reply to David Ryan says:

        Yes, not the first time I’ve heard of this sort of operation, and according the the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993 it’s illegal, but it’s not a high priority for USCG enforcement either.Report

  2. Mad Rocket Scientist says:

    I always enjoyed working with the Pond Patrol back when I was wearing a Dixie Cup, and later with the CG Aux. When it comes to regulatory enforcement, they always struck me as honestly concerned about safety and not just out to make life difficult for people, taking the time to explain why things are the way they are.

    Not sure if your Naval Architect is doing this, but if you want a CFD analysis of the Pahi 63 & have some CAD of the hull, I can do some fun simulations for you.Report

    • When we were having our first inspection one of the things we got wrong was we didn’t have our lifejackets labeled. So there we were, about 1/2 before that picture above was taken, all sitting on deck, marking each of Mon Tiki’s 57 lifejackets (49 passengers + 2 crew + 10% child’s size jackets) with “Mon Tiki” in broad-tipped permanent marker.

      “Well I suppose this makes sense. If there was a catastrophic accident, you’d want some vessel markings in the debris field,” as I said this in my mind I had that shot from an old Hollywood movie were the torpedoed ship’s life ring comes bobbing into frame.

      “Well yes, I suppose,” replied our inspector, “but mostly it’s because back in the day when we’d do these inspections we’d notice the same lifejackets showing up on different boats on different inspection days.”Report

    • Mad Rocket Scientist in reply to Mad Rocket Scientist says:

      @david-ryan

      If the idea of some CFD interests you, you can get my email from Mr. Kelly or Mr. Truman. I like doing Marine simulations, they’re fun. And you don’t just get boring numbers, but slick animations of 6-degree of freedom motion, complete with the water surface visible. Last Marine sim I did was a seakeeping sim of a floating drilling platform in heavy seas. Got some fun animations out of that.Report

  3. Burt Likko says:

    When Mon Tiki Largo is completed, you’ll own and have command of more than one vessel. More than one vessel under the same flag is a “fleet,” as I understand nautical terminology. We’ll have to promote you to Commodore David Ryan then!Report

  4. Patrick says:

    Okay, so you’ve upsized from a Tie Fighter (Intemperance) to a Imperial Shuttle (Mon Tiki) and now you’re in Star Destroyer territory (Largo).

    So we all know where this is headed…Report