interested?

[deepseakc]

Hey everyone! My name's Kasey, not necessarily new to the nw, definitely new to the club though. I'm in the middle of refinishing a beautiful choey lee motor yacht, I'm trying to see what interest, if any, is out there for a fine dining, dive charter vessel for couples. There are two, spacious, queen size bed cabins with private bathrooms. I am just in the planning stages of this and would love some feed back. The yacht would be available for custom charters(you pay, you decide where we play) or I would be happy to take you to new places that you've never had a chance to check out. Please, be kind in your feed back (criticism expected, but let's be constructive with it).

[Linedog]

I don't think there are enough diving couples to make this a worthwhile venture. I may be wrong but unless you start adding things like a hot tub etc there are just too many land based operations to compete with.

[LCF]

It always comes down to cost. The idea of, for example, doing a three day cruise in the San Juana and diving and getting pampered sounds wonderful, but if it cost $1000, it wouldn't happen. Also, if you are going to run a dive boat, you have to have some knowledge of the sites where you are dropping divers, and some experience with retrieving them. It can be something less than trivial, depending on wind and water conditions.

[BillZ]

I think it's an awesome idea for the general public - A private romantic charter for a few select couples to on a historic motor yacht would be really cool for a special weekend trip. I'm not sure that a luxury liveaboard specific to diving couples has enough of a market to make a run at it - but maybe a combination of both?

Have you taken a look at the US government regulations for chartering overnight passengers? From what I understand the health and safety regulations are brutal because they fall into the same category as cruise ships.

You may want to contact Mike Leaver, the owner of the Nautilus Explorer and Swell. He's been running diving livaboards out of BC for over 20 years and knows what it takes to operate in US and Canadian waters.

[selkie]

You may also have problems if your Choey Lee has a foreign laid keel. They may have changed the laws but it used to be a major problem.

[Linedog]

If memory serves, Choey Lee is a Chinese company that builds knock offs of other boat designs. But a quality boat from the ones I've been on.

[CaptnJack]

You may also have problems if your Choey Lee has a foreign laid keel. They may have changed the laws but it used to be a major problem.

Assuming its less than 6 passengers (its only 2 cabins), the Jones Act won't apply since it will be an uninspected vessel.

I doubt you will find many divers willing to pay what it costs to run a charter, either bareboat of otherwise. Nevermind actually profit. Divers (in all honesty) tend to be cheap ass working folks. The people chartering yachts in the San Juans for 2+k a week are in a different socio-economic strata.

[RenaB]

I agree with Jack. Frankly, if I am going to pay 1-2K a week to be on a boat, it will be in warm waters. However, if you are looking at something a little more reasonable, (ie the same cost to stay on a boat as say a night stay and a few boat dives for two days) then it would be reasonable to me. That's just my opinion. At that price point I am not sure you can make much money running live aboards here. Which is probably why they are so spendy. I thought the Swell was beautiful and I love the water, so the price tag for the weekend would be something I would be willing to do once every so many years. However, I would like to go with my husband on a vacation like that, so the cost becomes prohibitive, and he doesn't dive--so it's really prohibitive. Especially when I can go up stay somewhere that I can shore dive for the days there and jump on a boat for a few dives, and my kids and husband can camp or hike, kayak, etc from land.

[deepseakc]

First off, yes I have looked into the regulations for chartering, and I am aware they are stringent. The boat will be an inspected vessel, I'm in the process of obtaining my six pack. We will be equipped with kayaks, fishing gear, as well as a RIB boat for recovering divers or dropping passengers off at the beach. The trips will be fully customizable to what ever the guests would like to see, do, and eat , price will obviously vary accordingly. If someone wants to pay to go hang off a hook somewhere for a few days, catch some rays and some fish and bbq a few steaks, they aren't going to pay as much as someone that wants to run around the San Jauns, diving at every little tide pool they think looks interesting and eating catered the whole way. I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money on a compressor ,bottles, and all the other gear it would take to charter out dives. The vessel is already going to be built towards a B&B style charter, the trips wouldn't have to be completely focused on blowing bubbles if you have family members that aren't so aquaticly inclined as yourself. The boat has three state rooms, not two, with plenty of space in the living room for a hide a bed. The Jones act covers any regardless of the size of the vessel, if it is being used as a commercial vessel btw.

[CaptnJack]

First off, yes I have looked into the regulations for chartering, and I am aware they are stringent. The boat will be an inspected vessel, I'm in the process of obtaining my six pack. .

This makes no sense. Your license will be good for up to 6 paying passengers. Why bother trying to get your foreign built vessel inspected so she could carry more passengers than you are legally allowed to skipper for?

You won't get a waiver for your Chinese built hull, forget it. Leave it as an uninspected vessel and save yourself thousands if not 10K in aggravation alone.

The Jones act covers any regardless of the size of the vessel, if it is being used as a commercial vessel btw.

No it does not. But hey you don't even have a six pack and you've got it all worked out so full steam ahead chief.

PS, an OUPV license is also prohibited for operating inspected vessels, you will need a Master's license for that.

[kdupreez]

what is your price point for a week in the islands? will it be all inclusive of food And lodging in the boat plus all dives and gas?

[straitscuba]

The Jones act does cover any vessel regardless of size but you can apply to MARAD with a $500 application fee and a bit of research involved to obtain a waiver to the Jones act. Even with a waiver vessels are restricted to 12 or less passengers regardless of inspection. There are also some very strict rules about what you can and cannot do with a vessel operating from a US port with a MARAD waiver.

See here for more info on the waiver:

http://www.marad.dot.gov/ships_shipping ... Waiver.htm

You can also look up other waiver applications to see how they are put together and see what kind of info they look for on the waiver application. Here is an example of the waiver application and documentation for our boat, Salish Sea-KR

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDeta ... -2013-0147

If you wish to carry overnight passengers you will have to be inspected and the OUPV will not be a sufficient license to operate the vessel. The "6-pack" or OUPV is an operator of uninspected passenger vessels meaning just that. You will have to have a 25 ton masters at the minimum. If you wish to operate west of Angeles Point you will also need a near coastal route on your license.

I have been through this process recently and it is very time consuming and costly even if you are not going the inspected route. If you do want to go the inspected route I would suggest getting a copy of the CFR's that relate to your vessel as far as size go and keep a copy in hand as you do work on the boat (specifically the CFR's pertaining to "T" boats CFR part 46 subchapter T). There are a, lot of little things that can hang you up on an inspection. Going the uninspected route can also cause grief if you don't know the details about what is and is not allowed, for rules pertaining to uninspected vessels see 46 CFR subchapter C.

After you get through that then you have insurance to deal with. If you want to take divers expect that most insurance agencies are going to run away as fast as they can. You also must have a divemaster on board for every dive as the dive boat insurance does NOT cover divers in the water.

If you have any questions about the process feel free to PM me and I will give you any advice that I can.

[CaptnJack]

Yeah having an OUPV is the big immediate issue here. You can't operate a documented vessel for hire with that at all.

I don't think having a yacht that big as a bareboat charter is going to work. Divers won't pay the kinds of money needed to make that profitable. And the available dive sites are almost all current dependent, and not places out of town guests or even local but other-wise non-boat owning divers possibly know how to safely dive. Can you imagine someone trying to anchor it at Davidson Rock?

So the available pool of qualified skipper/divers who could bare boat that yacht and actually safely plan a dive at the likely sites is about 6 people - in all of Puget Sound. And most of us already have boats, that's how we accumulated the knowledge and experience necessary to both hire a yacht like that plus plan and execute safe boat dives in our local waters.

I would skip attempting to set it up or market this venture as a dive vessel at all.