SOME THOUGHTS ON CHARTER BOAT DESIGN

One of the greatest challenges facing the designers of modern yachts today is fuel consumption in this world of $3.00 x gallon marine diesel. While this may not be an issue for the very wealthy owner(s) it is certainly an issue for the charterer who may not be as wealthy, and certainly does care about his fuel bill since he pays for the fuel, and the food and beverage provisioning separately. So this would have a bearing on the hull design and designers may wish to consider a "bulbous nose" type bow design which is certainly more efficient and any other tricks of the trade that save fuel without compromising speed.

Some of our major concerns today involve the sleeping accommodations on charter yachts. Families today come in many different flavors and we are constantly wrestling with rigid accommodation arrangements that assume that everyone is either a married couple or will be relegated to sleeping in bunk beds. Ergo, try and make the accommodations as flexible as possible, i.e. King or Queen sized beds that can be changed seamlessly into two beds without compromising on the "luxury". Todays extended families with half-brothers and half-sisters who need their space, etc etc. demand good solutions from yacht designers.

Generally speaking charter customers come in two major flavors: By far the largest group is symbolized by the rich patriarch who is taking his family of sons, daughters, in-laws, and grand-children on a one or two week cruise in the Caribbean or the Med on a "rotation" basis. Next comes the groups of fun-loving middle-aged adults that escape and leave the children behind. Business charters are less common - it takes guts to take people you don't know very well on any kind of cruise. A boat, even a 150' footer can be a very small space to be with people that annoy you.

Rate per week will be between $50,000 and $100,000 plus expenses. Expenses include fuel, food and beverage, dockage, entry taxes, customs charges, etc. Gratuity of 10% to 15% of the base rate is customary.

Maintenance on a large yacht is usually and ultimately the responsibilty of the Captain who, in turn farms it out to various contractors and subcontractors, i.e. a/c guys, engine specialists, electronics companies, etc. In some cases, the owner of the boat will place his yacht in the care of a management company or clearing house that will hire the captain and crew, take charge of the maintenance, and offer the boat for charter. Sometimes there is a marine engineer on board, especially at the very high end. But it is the Captain who is, as I mentioned earlier, is ultimately responsible for making sure that the boat is running well and safely and that the paying passengers will experience the greatest vacation of their lives.

A working charter yacht will winter in the Caribbean and summer in the Med or New England. Some boats spend all year in the Florida/Bahamas area or they will winter in the Bahamas and summer in the Med or the Caribbean. Sometimes they will travel to Europe under their own steam but, most likely, they will ship the yacht over on a yacht transport commemrcial freighter. In this way they will keep working Summer and Winter. The Owner usually reserves a few weeks during the year which he makes known to the captain, hopefully in advance.

CHARTER BOAT FLAGS AND REGISTRATION

I was recently approached for my views on charter boat flagging and foreign vs. domestic choice of flag for charter boats. The registration and flag that any charter boat adopts is usually a function of three factors: cost incl. taxes, safety regulations and restrictions, if any, in the location where the yacht will be primarily chartering. Yes, there is an annual registration fee for charter-yachts and most boats tend to avoid registering in the United States because of the high cost and because the boat will now be subject to USCG standards which are expensive to maintain. This is not to say that they are the best regulations and many countries have more stringent regulations than we do but also many countries have fewer and less complicated regulations - like almost none. Fashionable places where large charter-yachts tend to register these days include the Cayman Islands (because many of the larger yachts are actually owned by Cayman Island Corporations, the British Virgin Islands and St. Vincent.

In order to improve passenger safety, there is a movement under way to establish a uniform standard of safety regulations that port officials in different countries can use to apply to visiting charter-yachts regardless of the flag that they fly. This is encouraging and should be supported. The European SOLAS standards are most likely to apply for this project.

Some further thoughts on US flagged vessels: All vessels that charter in US waters especially those US Built and registered in the US, are subject to the Jones Act of 1916. I don't want to get into the complexities of the Jones Act - suffice to say that it was put in place to protect US shipping interests in the age of the robber barons. In today's world the Jones Act does much to discourage boat owners from registering their vessels in this country and also drives non-US flagged vessels to preferentially pick-up passengers outside the US, say in the Bahamas, or the BVI.

Homeland seurity has been doggedly adding additional restrictions and pre-advise for customs arrivals and movment of paying passengers; all of this is good however what is really needed is a total revision or a "start-from-scratch" project to replace the Jones Act. Don't hold your breath.